The most religious Americans show the highest levels of well-being as measured by factors ranging from physical and emotional health to self-evaluations of life to perceptions of work environment, according to a Gallup report released Thursday….
“It’s not like some people score zero and others score 100,” Newport told CNN. “So when we find a difference of four of five points it’s not only statistically significant, it’s also substantively significant.” …
Though the survey didn’t gauge whether religiosity led to higher levels of well being or vice versa, Newport speculated that religiosity was the likely driver.
[From Gallup: Very religious Americans have higher levels of well-being – CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs]
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Possibly related posts (automatically generated):
Can non-Christians, even atheists, experience well-being without God? Does this disprove the validity of Christianity?
The answer to the first is yes. The second is, no. We are all spiritual beings, and so, we are all living in the same spiritual reality and can benefit, up to a point, from that reality on our own – even if our beliefs don’t completely align themselves with the complete picture of reality.
By analogy, a sick person can improve their well-being somewhat, on their own, without completely aligning their beliefs with the reality of current medical science, knowledge and practice. To them, they don’t need any of that stuff. They can get better on their own with herbs, home remedies, etc.
However, ‘better’ or ‘well-being’ is not what Christianity is concerned about. Christianity is concerned with the ultimate cure. Back to the analogy.
The non-believing sick person is doing better on their own. However, what if they require surgery in order to be completely cured? They must take action. They must believe in the physician enough to willingly lie down on the table and submit themselves to his care.
The non-Christian and the atheist can experience well-being on their own with their homemade religiosity, but they cannot experience the cure unless they first humble themselves before The One who can cure.
I cite again Susan Blackmore’s piece on why she no longer believes religion is a virus of the mind. Studies like these convinced her of as much.
The main problem with her piece is that she didn’t reject the position due to fundamental flaws with the view/framework that gave rise to it (which is why I reject it), but due to comparative data. The problem is, by those very same standards she’s using – if the idea of a ‘virus of the mind’ yet remains as something that can be determined – then irreligion would be classified as a virus of the mind.