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Something I noticed is that religion is a great "forcing function" for a lot of healthy behavior including socialization. If your daily or weekly life involves

Something I noticed is that religion is a great "forcing function" for a lot of healthy behavior including socialization. If your daily or weekly life involves going to a Church, synagogue, it something else- you have a built in structure for being around and interacting with people. It's interesting for me to think about - religion declined as percentage of population in recent decades but I suspect in the long run (1/2 generations) religion provides enough antidote to things that plague secular society (isolation, depression, childlessness) that it might swing the percentages in the other direction.

guerrilla 4y ago
> religion is a great "forcing function" for a lot of healthy behavior And for a lot of unhealthy behavior too.
- xyzelement 4y ago
  Such as? Not some crazy extreme examples, but in the mainstream?
  - guerrilla 4y ago
    Sexual repression, hindrance of science and education, restrictions of liberties, and wars come to mind.
  - watwut 4y ago
    How does purity culture count? Tabooisation of these topics? Strong pressure on conformity?
    - xyzelement 4y ago
      I had a secular upbringing and basically the dream secular life in my 20s and 30s: overeducated, single in NYC, dating a ton, traveling the world, etc. Then I got married and had kids and realized that this "boring mainstream" life is peak experience. In other words, it took me 20 extra years to arrive at a life that someone brought up religious would just consider the default. Like I said, I am sure there are extreme cases and I am not talking about those. Just talking about the base case, religious folks' default life path feels healthier.
      - watwut 4y ago
        Purity culture is something else and way much more then just having a family. It, among other things, may mean marrying at 18 to a partner you dated very shortly and never seen alone. Because anything else is sin. And then you are locked in for life. And that is not nearly the same as marrying when mature and having partner you actually know. It can be special kind of hell.

guerrilla 4y ago

> religion is a great "forcing function" for a lot of healthy behavior And for a lot of unhealthy behavior too.

xyzelement 4y ago
Such as? Not some crazy extreme examples, but in the mainstream?
- guerrilla 4y ago
  Sexual repression, hindrance of science and education, restrictions of liberties, and wars come to mind.
- watwut 4y ago
  How does purity culture count? Tabooisation of these topics? Strong pressure on conformity?
  - xyzelement 4y ago
    I had a secular upbringing and basically the dream secular life in my 20s and 30s: overeducated, single in NYC, dating a ton, traveling the world, etc. Then I got married and had kids and realized that this "boring mainstream" life is peak experience. In other words, it took me 20 extra years to arrive at a life that someone brought up religious would just consider the default. Like I said, I am sure there are extreme cases and I am not talking about those. Just talking about the base case, religious folks' default life path feels healthier.
    - watwut 4y ago
      Purity culture is something else and way much more then just having a family. It, among other things, may mean marrying at 18 to a partner you dated very shortly and never seen alone. Because anything else is sin. And then you are locked in for life. And that is not nearly the same as marrying when mature and having partner you actually know. It can be special kind of hell.