The secret of long life... go to church

The Telegraph ^ | 26/12/2004 | Elizabeth Day

[ijcr]

Wow! They should make this mandatory.

[Peace Is Coming]

Praying on a regular basis helps beat stress.

[Connie Cardullo]

Merry Christmas, ijcr !

Make church attendance mandatory... Have you forgotten what site you're on?

[Ironclad]

At the risk of sounding Grinchy, the statistics in this story could be blown out of the water "85 ways from Sunday," as we say here in Southern CA. There are probably 5,000 things about Church going peoples' lifestyles (like zero percent AIDS incidence, for a minimal and obvious example) that account for the favorable results.

[July 4th]

Well, sure they live longer. Eternal life, anyone?

[AZLiberty]

Or it could be that causality goes the opposite direction: healthy people may be more apt to get out of bed, get into the car, and actually attend church.

[joesnuffy]

church goers should get lower insurance premiums :)

[Connie Cardullo]

Research shows that regular churchgoers live longer than non-believers.

I'm all for voluntary church attendance, but going to church is a ritual. I expect it's also optional in the eyes of God. Who doesn't know of some in their church who seem to go only to be accepted among certain social circles?

The Trojan horse here, at least in how the article is written, is the dichotomy of regular churchgoers and non-believers.

[Blue_Ridge_Mtn_Geek]

Church going can be observed, believing can't (n.b. the Parable of the Wheat and Tares). For those who are inveterate empiricists, only what can be observed "counts" (or can be counted).

One can list a large number of things correlated to longevity that are also correlated to church attendance. Perhaps these are also correlated with belief, but no guarantee.

[shiva]

I know a couple that goes to church every Sunday except Christmas and Easter. They say they leave their seats empty for those who never attend except for Christmas and Easter.

[Connie Cardullo]

One can list a large number of things correlated to longevity that are also correlated to church attendance. Perhaps these are also correlated with belief, but no guarantee.

Yes, I agree. I also understand church-going is objective, whereas other measures of belief are not.

I firmly believe religious beliefs are a great practical benefit to many or even most, depending on their individual experiences.

In reading this, tho, I was reminded of Jung's comments in The Undiscovered Self.

"As experience unfortunately shows, the inner man remains unchanged however much community he has. His environment cannot give him as a gift something which he can win for himself only with effort and suffering. On the contrary, a favourable environment merely strengthens the dangerous tendency to expect everything from outside - even that metamorphosis which external reality cannot provide."

"The individual who is not anchored in God can offer no resistance on his own resources to the physical and moral blandishments of the world. For this he needs evidence of inner, transcendent experience which alone can protect him from the otherwise inevitable submersion in the mass."

[CurlyDave]

A 12-year study tracking mortality rates of more than 550 adults over the age of 65 found that those who attend services at least once a week were 35 per cent more likely to live longer than those who never attended church.

Can anyone explain what this sentence actually means?

It sounds to me like non-churchgoers are 65% more likely to live longer, which is clearly not the case from the rest of the article.

[Ciexyz]

What the article doesn't say: church goers have found the Blessed Hope, Jesus Christ. With hope comes optimism and an increased ability to deal with the hard knocks that come into every life.

Believers are confident that Jesus walks at their side, upholding them. (Think: Footprints.)

[Old Professer]

From the article:

The researchers found that among individuals who reported never attending religious services, the risk of death over the 12-year period was 52 per cent.

By contrast, the risk of death of those who attended church services more than once a week was 17 per cent over the same period.

Thirty five per cent[sic] of the 64 participants who never attended church died before the end of the study.

It is much easier to understand if you first recognize this error in the printing underlined above.

52% of 64 non-believers=35 of the 64 died, not 35% of 64.

Now, take the 17% above from the 52% and you have the 35% in the sentence you questioned.

[Cicero]

The most obvious explanation is that believers find more joy in life and less stress.

I would find it very difficult to live life without faith, especially in these days when the dominant postmodernist attitude is a "cheerful nihilism" which isn't really all that cheerful when you look at it more closely.

Life without purpose, life constantly hiding from the fact of death, would be very angst-making, however much you tried to eat, drink, and be merry.

[ijcr]

And a Fröhliche Weihnacht to you and yours.

Remember when the anti-smoking campaign started...it was all about the smokers health! What kind of callous,heartless and self absorbed person would deny our senior citizens the benefits of extended life in their twilight years!


This topic deserves Congress's attention,after all perhaps qualified Social Security recipients should be sent time cards that need to be stamped at a religious facility once a week, to maintain their standing and payments.


This would benefit the economy greatly...the only down side is that the Episcopalians will lose their monopoly on comedy churches.


Then there would be savings on prescription coverage,health care billing,and improvements in general transportation. Not to mention a reduction in child abuse,
illegal drug use,and social diseases.


It would be a positive influence all round and no more crazier than many bills passed in the last decade.

Shchastlyvoho Novoho Roku

[Boazo]

My goal is to live forever,So far so good!!!

[KeyWest]

Add this to the studies about prayer, which indicated a direct correlation to healing with prayer.

It is interesting that God allows believers to be around longer than those who do not believe. But that is exactly what is said in the Bible.

Faith is not empty.

[Slyfox]

If you ever bump into a website which feature a women's Catholic religious order they show most the nuns obit's as dying in their 80's and 90's.

[Fiddlstix]

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