3 ms·

The church things seems pretty difficult if you're unable to believe in god though. Also the army one seems problematic; I know a guy living on mental health di

The church things seems pretty difficult if you're unable to believe in god though. Also the army one seems problematic; I know a guy living on mental health disability from the army and it doesn't look all that rosy to me.

giraffe_lady 3y ago
Nearly half the population is not even theoretically interested in getting a girlfriend either. I don't think legitster is giving out very good advice here.
- hotpotamus 3y ago
  To be charitable, I could summarize them as saying that people are suffering from a lack of meaning in life (I'd put myself among those). The problem is that I don't think there really is any to be found in the end regardless of which institutions you try and engage with.
  - legitster 3y ago
    I mean, strictly on the basis of evidence-based medicine, the case for going to church is stronger than for some drugs that have passed the FDA approval process. https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/49/6/2030/5892419 https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/49/6/2030/5892419 https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/389510/religion-wellbeing-update.aspx https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/389510/relig... On both the basis of mental and physical health, the correlation with church attendance is one of the most robust and well studied. To my knowledge, none of the studied gauged the amount attendees believed or had meaning, but I'm sure it didn't hurt.
    - hotpotamus 3y ago
      The linked study suggests benefits to "individuals who already hold religious beliefs". I don't doubt that a belief that there is some all-powerful entity looking out for you and giving meaning is beneficial psychologically, but not all of us are capable of believing in such a force; I've never seen any evidence for it myself. If I told you that Mormons or Scientologists were the happiest people on average, would you consider joining them?
- plagiarist 3y ago
  That claim makes perfect sense if you replace "church" with something like club, organization, or community. I don't think anyone would disagree that humans participating in social groups are on average happier. I certainly question their sources of information since they did write "church" instead.
  - hotpotamus 3y ago
    Aren't religious people happier in general? Community is important no doubt, but I think there's more going on. I'd love to be religious if it was possible for me; to believe that when I die, I'm not just going to cease to exist and lose everything I ever was; to believe that there is some eternal meaning to anything.

giraffe_lady 3y ago

Nearly half the population is not even theoretically interested in getting a girlfriend either. I don't think legitster is giving out very good advice here.

hotpotamus 3y ago
To be charitable, I could summarize them as saying that people are suffering from a lack of meaning in life (I'd put myself among those). The problem is that I don't think there really is any to be found in the end regardless of which institutions you try and engage with.
- legitster 3y ago
  I mean, strictly on the basis of evidence-based medicine, the case for going to church is stronger than for some drugs that have passed the FDA approval process. https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/49/6/2030/5892419 https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/49/6/2030/5892419 https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/389510/religion-wellbeing-update.aspx https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/389510/relig... On both the basis of mental and physical health, the correlation with church attendance is one of the most robust and well studied. To my knowledge, none of the studied gauged the amount attendees believed or had meaning, but I'm sure it didn't hurt.
  - hotpotamus 3y ago
    The linked study suggests benefits to "individuals who already hold religious beliefs". I don't doubt that a belief that there is some all-powerful entity looking out for you and giving meaning is beneficial psychologically, but not all of us are capable of believing in such a force; I've never seen any evidence for it myself. If I told you that Mormons or Scientologists were the happiest people on average, would you consider joining them?
plagiarist 3y ago
That claim makes perfect sense if you replace "church" with something like club, organization, or community. I don't think anyone would disagree that humans participating in social groups are on average happier. I certainly question their sources of information since they did write "church" instead.
- hotpotamus 3y ago
  Aren't religious people happier in general? Community is important no doubt, but I think there's more going on. I'd love to be religious if it was possible for me; to believe that when I die, I'm not just going to cease to exist and lose everything I ever was; to believe that there is some eternal meaning to anything.