3 ms·
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
by 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 agoI 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 agoThe 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?