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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
[...] A new nationwide study of obituaries has found that people with religious affiliations lived nearly four years longer than those with no ties to religion.
That four-year boost -- found in an analysis of more than 1,000 obits from around the country -- was calculated after taking into account the sex and marital status of those who died, two factors that have strong effects on lifespan.
[...] "We found that volunteerism and involvement in social organizations only accounted for a little less than one year of the longevity boost that religious affiliation provided," Wallace said. "There's still a lot of the benefit of religious affiliation that this can't explain."
So what else explains how religion helps people live longer? It may be related to the rules and norms of many religions that restrict unhealthy practices such as alcohol and drug use and having sex with many partners, Way said.
In addition, "many religions promote stress-reducing practices that may improve health, such as gratitude, prayer or meditation," he said.
[...] Way said there are limitations to the study, including the fact that it could not control for important factors related to longevity such as race and health behaviors. But a potential strength was that, unlike other studies, religious affiliation was not self-reported, but was reported by the obituary writer.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 5, Touché) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday June 19 2018, @10:52AM (13 children)
So they get less time to enjoy the afterlife?
Perhaps atheists wear their brains out faster because they use them more.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 19 2018, @11:04AM (12 children)
Your brain does seem to be wearing out though. Too much anesthesia?
(Score: 3, Touché) by Gaaark on Tuesday June 19 2018, @11:39AM (8 children)
Whoa...math hard!
If you die at 1 years old, you go into the after life 80 years sooner than someone who dies at 81, so yeah....duh...you get to the after life sooner and enjoy it longer (even if it is infinite, you get there Infinite+80 years sooner).
Not that hard to understand.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 19 2018, @12:50PM (7 children)
No, the 80 years come before the infinitely many years, and therefore they don't make a difference, even if doing ordinal arithmetic (they never make a difference for cardinal arithmetic anyway).
If x is an infinite number, any infinite number, then 80+x=x.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday June 19 2018, @03:34PM (5 children)
Sigh
You die right now: you have started Infinity now.
I die 80 years from now, I don't start infinity for another 80 years.
INFINITY does not even enter ANY equation for another 80 years for me.
80 + X = 80 AND X, not "forget you lived 80 years altogether, you've ALWAYS been infinite, it doesn't matter WHEN you die, lol"
(Or is your God a douche and only pretends you live and die.)
It's called an 'after life' for a reason.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 19 2018, @04:01PM (3 children)
It's just that you don't understand infinity.
The 80 years do matter for the (finite) life before death. They don't make a difference for the supposed infinite life after death.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday June 19 2018, @04:14PM (2 children)
Well see, now you're agreeing with both her AND me:
"The 80 years do matter for the (finite) life before death. "
If you live for 80 years before dying THEN you enter the after life.
If you die right now, you will enter the after life (and Infinity) RIGHT NOW.
x=after life (infinity)
80, then x = 80 before "...they get ... to enjoy the afterlife?"
So they get less time to enjoy the afterlife! (as she said). Infinity does not start UNTIL you die.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 23 2018, @07:36PM (1 child)
How do you know when the afterlife starts?
Maybe everyone starts it at the same time, regardless of when they die.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday June 23 2018, @08:51PM
Now we're just heading into sillyville.
Let's call it the 'after LIFE' because it starts for EVERYONE ever born and yet TO be born at the exact fucking same time, yeah.....yeah. That's makes perfect sense.
We won't call it the after LIFE because it starts when you die....that would be just dumb.
Done here.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 19 2018, @04:39PM
I wish the entire lot of you pedants would die right now. Just sayin'.
(Score: 1) by exaeta on Tuesday June 19 2018, @04:10PM
I've always taken the position that "Infinity" is a condition-set of equations or bounds rather than a "number". If you adopt the principle that nothing can be equal to infinity and only a member of the "infinite set" you can do very useful tranformations on infinite series that yield correct results but produce "infinite" values as intermediates. Under "infinity is a number" logic, if sigma i=0; infinity; f(x) is equal to infinity, you cann't do any operations on it. So if I have two values X and Y and both are "infinity" then X - Y is undefined. But you can say instead that X and Y are members of the infinite set and subtract them, then get a finite value out. i.e., just because X and Y are members of infinity, it does not follow that X = Y.
The Government is a Bird
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 19 2018, @12:23PM (2 children)
Islam is a fake religion, Mohammed was a false prophet and Muslims are going to hell! [reddit.com]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 19 2018, @01:40PM (1 child)
Fascinating. Link to a discussion about Pastafarianism on an ex-muslim board and get modded "flamebait". Presumably from a moderator that has no problem being openly critical of Christianity -- there'll be no redemption from the Flying Spaghetti Monster for such hypocritical moderators.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 19 2018, @05:05PM
Nah, just someone who took the post at face value instead of investigating the link to find out it is a joke.