Philosophy - The advantages of religion

• Alcohol Abuse
  • Highest amongst those with no or little religion [1]
    
  • Approx 89% of Alcoholics had lost interest in religion during their youth [2]
  
  
• Drug Abuse
  • Joseph Califano, then head of Columbia Uni's Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, released results of a 3 year study showing that in 80% of crimes, alcohol and drugs were implicated and then went on to say that religion was key to rehabilitating from drug or alcohol abuse [3,4]
  
  
• Crime
  • Harvard Professor Richard Freeman released a study showing that regular church attendance is the primary factor in preventing African-American urban youth from turning to drugs or crime [5]
  
  
  • Faith based prison programs have also reduced recidivism (repeat offenses) from 20% to 8% [6]
  
  
• Depression and Stress
  • Studies have found that high levels of religious commitment correlate with lower levels of depression and stress [2]
  
  
  • A Gallup survey has respondents with strong religious commitment twice as likely to describe themselves as "very happy" [7]
  
  
• Suicide
  • People who do not attend church are four times more likely to commit suicide than frequent church attenders. Lack of church attendence is the strongest correlation with suicide rates [2]
  
  
• Family Stability
  • Studies have found a strong inverse correlation between church attendance and divorce. One such study found that church attendance is the most important predictor of marital stability [2,8]
  
  
• Marital and Sexual Satisfaction
  • Church attenders are more likely to say they would marry the same spouse again and church attendance predicts marital satisfaction better than any other single variable [2]
  
  
  • The 1994 Sex in America survey found that very religious women enjoy a higher level of sexual satisfaction in their marriage than non-religious women [9]
  
  
• Physical health
  • Church goers have lower blood pressure, less complications in birth, better chances for survival after heart attacks and heart surgey and longer life [2]
  
  

Looking at principles of living and family, the Christian religion also seems to have better results

• Teen remaining virgins don't get STD's, are more likely to be in educated, two parent homes and are less likely to use drugs (Those using drugs were responsible for the very small proportion who got any sort of STD) [10]


• It seems we are also made for marriage. A recent study also shows that singleness is a major factor in early death. Marriage failure and divorce also significantly increase the risk of early death[11]


• Unmarried/cohabitating families are also five times more likely to fall apart, and a responsible for a disproportionately large section of children in affected by their parents seperation


• Even those cohabitating couples who do get married are more likely to divorve than those who don't cohabitate before marriage, as well as having less marital satisfaction and greater incidence of infidelity and domsestic abuse [12]

This is just a small sampling of a huge number of possible statistics. I could spend weeks compiling a huge list, but the result is the same. Christianity seems to work better.

We need to remember however, that ultimately, being a committed Christian does not guarantee any or all of these good outcomes, but statistically, committed Christians appear to be living more in tune with the reality of human nature and the world than the non-religious. I would suggest this is strong evidence that Christianity is a more accurate representation of reality than the secular humanist worldview.

References:

(1) D.B. Larson and W.P Wilson, "Religious Life of Alcoholics," Southern Medical Journal 73, No. 6 (June 1980): 723-27

(2) David B. and Susan S. Larson, The forgotten factor in physical and mental health: what does the research Show? (Rockville, Md.: National Institute for Healthcare Research, 1992),64-78,110

(3) Joseph A. Califano Jr., Behin ars: Substance Abuse and America's Prison Population (New York: The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, 1998),27)

(4) Joseph A. Califano Jr., (Speech given at the National Press Club, Washinton D.C., januart 8,1998)

(5) Richard R. Freeman and Harry J. Holzer, eds., The Black Youth Employment Crisis (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986),353-76

(6) B.R. Johnson, D.B. Larson and T.C. Pitts, "Religious Programs, Institutional Adjustment, and Recidivism among Former Inmates in prison Fellowship Programs," Justice Quarterly 14, no. 1 (March 1997): 145-66

(7) George Gallup r., "Religion in America," Public Perspective (October/November 1995).

(8) Howard M. Bahr and Bruce A. Chadwick, "Religion and Family in Middletown, USA," Journal of Marriage and the Family 47 (May 1985): 407-14

(9) Robert T. Michael, et al., Sex in America: A Definitive Survey (New York: Little, Brown & Co., 1994), 127

(10) Carolyn Tucker Halpern et al., "Implications of Racial and Gender Differences in Patterns of Adolescent Risk Behavior for HIV and other Sexually Transmitted Diseases," Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 36 [November-December 2004]

(11) Carlos Iribarren et al., "Causes and demographic, medical, lifestyle and psychosocial predictors of premature mortality: the CARDIA study," Social Science & Medicine 60 [2005]:

(12) DeMaris, A., & Rao, V. (1992). Premarital cohabitation and subsequent marital stability in the United States: A reassessment. Journal of Marriage & the Family, 54(1), 178–190.
- posted by Alan Grey @ Tuesday, August 02, 2005