Religouse Believers More Depressed than Atheists

reply to post by Grimpachi


I'll try again.

Please pretend that the discussion is about . . .

a fruit salad that made everyone at your party seriously sick and sad.

The OP article insisted that everything--every type of fruit and the whipped cream--in the fruit salad--EACH COMPONENT (EXTRINSICS AND INTRINSICS)--made everyone seriously ill and sad.

I posted multiple research articles that documented, proved that it was

ONLY the oranges (EXTRINSICS) in the fruit salad that made everyone ill and sad.

My idiosyncratic formatting is for emphasis. It works for many. I am NOT a ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL sort of person.

Never claimed to be. Don't try to be . . . that much.

>>>
Even if people's faith in religion makes them feel good right
>>>

Let me just check...

Christian religion assumes that we are born WITH SIN. (Basically, we're already "bad" and "guilty" the moment we pop out the womb...

Christian think of a judging god and they themselves are rather busy finger pointing at all the "evil" people

Christians believe in demons and Satan

Christians sometimes believe that Christ "comes back" but not in a good way, rather to punish and rupture the entire planet

Christians believe in a god who punished humans already multiple times, including one global flood which killed millions of people.

Christians believe that some people (for earthly deeds) go to Hell, and if they are not go to hell they go at least to "purgatory" where they are burned and roasted for some time until they sins are "purged". Sometimes for trivial things like nudity or "inpure thoughts"

SO..WHAT ON EARTH makes them feel "good"? This is a belief which builds on nothing but creating fear and guilt. If Christians were to feel good they wouldn't stand on corners and in internet forums preaching about the "end times" coming where they frantically attempt to spread their own negativity to others.

Sorry, I can not feel the "good" vibe which I would assume any decent belief should have.

>>
Parts of the U.S. with the highest religious rates also have the highest depression rates...
>>

Yeah go figure.... the central point of Christian faith is a man who was killed and nailed to a cross...so no, not really an "uplifting" story...neither do I think that a classic Christian upbringing where children are taught of hell and purgatory is really a good way to fight depression. LOL

reply to post by NoRulesAllowed


Fantastic job of displaying

0.000000000000000000000000000000001% understanding of Christianity.

And . . . that it is A RELATIONSHIP vs a dogma.

Thinking of it as a dogma . . . attracted to the dogma or not . . . is deadly, a dead-end, dysfunctional, futile, absurd.

greencmp
reply to post by Grimpachi

 

Could it be because of the apparent collapse of morality in the world and descent into authoritarian evil domination?

Not particularly religious myself but, I suppose that could explain it.

Quoted because I share the opinion.

reply to post by NoRulesAllowed

Parts of the U.S. with the highest religious rates also have the highest depression rates...

Again . . .

THAT IS AN ABSURDLY USELESS STATEMENT.

. . . because . . .

it does NOT distinguish between EXTRINSIC RELIGIOSITY VS INTRINSIC RELIGIOSITY.

It is meaningless, uninformative, silly, unreality based, grossly imprecise to the point of being terminally noncommunicative; silly--did I say silly--yes--very silly;

sigh.

The researchers concluded "these results do not support the notion that religious and spiritual life views enhance psychological well-being. There was no evidence of religion acting as a buffer to prevent depression after a serious life event."

Not sure I agree with that. To me, it almost seems as though the researchers here are assuming either that it is the religion / spirituality itself which is contributing to depression, or at the least that it is not helping it at all. However, there is the chance that people who are prone to depression or existential crisis are more likely to be religious or spiritual. For all we know, these people might have been more severely depressed if they did not have their beliefs.


There is, of course, such thing as severity of depression. As one dumb, easy example: A person feeling "down" can do something they enjoy, say, watching a movie, or spending some time with a person they care about, and feel a little better than they did before. It is possible that people with a tendency toward depression also have a tendency toward spirituality or religion, which offers them some comfort when they're depressed. Having dealt with it myself, I can tell you that depression is a bit easier to bear when you're able to find some kind of meaning in life. So maybe it makes sense that depressed people are more likely to search for that meaning.

well i heard of many studies that suggest otherwise, and I was never happier in my life then when I was faithfully practicing my faith.

money.usnews.com...

Research conducted decades ago on Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists, and the Amish "found stunningly lower mortality rates in these religious groups," Idler says. "Overall, they really are much healthier than the rest of us ... In some of them, the mortality rate is 25 percent, 30 percent, or even 50 percent lower, which is really astonishing."

These groups were chosen, in part, because they keep extensive genealogical records. They also advocate healthful lifestyles that set them apart from other religious groups as well as the broader public. However, later research with broader groups has found that religious observers generally enjoy happiness and mortality benefits.

Spirituality May Help People Live Longer
Discover why some believe that older people who regularly attend religious services appear to have better health.
www.webmd.com...

Other large studies have had similar results. Some smaller studies have also shown that spirituality may be beneficial: People who attend religious services, or who feel they are spiritual, experience lower levels of depression and anxiety; display signs of better health, such as lower blood pressure and fewer strokes; and say they generally feel healthier.

Here are some of the ways that religion can make people happier and healthier.
www.livescience.com...

8 Ways Religion Impacts Your Life
www.livescience.com...

LoneGunMan
reply to post by Grimpachi

 

Its that there is something missing in the average atheist that does not let them feel the divine and that same thing that is missing makes them a little more machine like and a little less human like.

People that feel more of life tend to let the insane world get them depressed.

Machines cannot suffer depression, nor can they sense divinity.

if you take this into consideration possibly they have lost a natural instinct that makes us who we are

The evolutionary origin of religions theorizes about the emergence of religious behavior during the course of human evolution.

Increased brain size
en.wikipedia.org...
In this set of theories, the religious mind is one consequence of a brain that is large enough to formulate religious and philosophical ideas.[6] During human evolution, the hominid brain tripled in size, peaking 500,000 years ago. Much of the brain's expansion took place in the neocortex. This part of the brain is involved in processing higher order cognitive functions that are connected with human religiosity. The neocortex is associated with self-consciousness, language and emotion[citation needed]. According to Dunbar's theory, the relative neocortex size of any species correlates with the level of social complexity of the particular species. The neocortex size correlates with a number of social variables that include social group size and complexity of mating behaviors. In chimpanzees the neocortex occupies 50% of the brain, whereas in modern humans it occupies 80% of the brain.

Robin Dunbar argues that the critical event in the evolution of the neocortex took place at the speciation of archaic homo sapiens about 500,000 years ago. His study indicates that only after the speciation event is the neocortex large enough to process complex social phenomena such as language and religion. The study is based on a regression analysis of neocortex size plotted against a number of social behaviors of living and extinct hominids.[7]

Stephen Jay Gould suggests that religion may have grown out of evolutionary changes which favored larger brains as a means of cementing group coherence among savannah hunters, after that larger brain enabled reflection on the inevitability of personal mortality.

If Modern Humans Are So Smart, Why Are Our Brains Shrinking?
discovermagazine.com...
Could it be because we are not using that part that was designed for spirituality?

The Evolution of the God Gene

For atheists, it is not a particularly welcome thought that religion evolved because it conferred essential benefits on early human societies and their successors. If religion is a lifebelt, it is hard to portray it as useless.
www.nytimes.com...

For believers, it may seem threatening to think that the mind has been shaped to believe in gods, since the actual existence of the divine may then seem less likely.

Christian religions preach fear. Fear of not pleasing god, fear of the end times (Armageddon)Fear of going to hell or not going to heaven. If you are gay that god hates you (in the bible). I know a certain religious group that has a high rate of people on anti-depressant above the norm. I personally know 10 people in one congregation and 5 family members (wife and in laws ).They claim they are the happiest people on earth. There was a chart I saw that rated them higher. If you get a steady diet of fear what do you expect. Being atheist or agnostic there isn't someone pumping you full of fear constantly from the pulpit.