On September 25, 2015 at 10:34, juliejacobson said...
I certainly don't need religion to be a better person (I don't believe in a higher power and I never will), but I do need a community, an excuse to be contemplative, and encouragement to do good deeds.
Wisdom right there.
Julie, when I read this, I remembered something (no, I wasn't saving it up) I recently heard on the Dennis Prager show. Let's propose that the New York Times is NOT a right-wing religious rag. I think we can all agree on that. Well, lookie here:
ONE of the most striking scientific discoveries about religion in recent years is that going to church weekly is good for you. Religious attendance — at least, religiosity — boosts the immune system and decreases blood pressure. It may add as much as two to three years to your life. The reason for this is not entirely clear.
This is from
[Link: nytimes.com], written by an anthropologist in April 2013. And one thing you can say about an anthropologist is that she's probably been exposed to A LOT of teaching that disparages organized religion.
Social support is no doubt part of the story. At the evangelical churches I’ve studied as an anthropologist, people really did seem to look out for one another.
Julie, everyone, you may not have any need for a higher power, but excuse me, more than one person is already a higher power than you alone, and if you're part of an organization where they may help you, where you may experience the wonderful feeling of helping others, or even just where you can get together and bounce ideas off one another, you're exposing yourself to a higher power and probably getting something good out of it.
Note that this is regardless of what the religion is. You can argue about this; you can hairsplit by citing the most wacko religions, but in the end this is true: church*, synagogue, temple, mosque, whatever, is, in general good for your health.
*Except in one middle eastern country I've seen, where you really can't have something named "church," so the food chain Church's Chicken uses the same colors and artwork style, but is called Texas Chicken.
.png)
