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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: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 19 2018, @11:53AM (3 children)
People with religious affiliations live forever.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 19 2018, @01:01PM
But it typically takes a few hundred years in the eternity until they recognize that this is actually a punishment. ;-)
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday June 19 2018, @01:55PM (1 child)
Depends on your karma. If it's bad enough, you may be reincarnated quite quickly as a lower form. (grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 19 2018, @03:19PM
What's lower form? If suffering is really the problem, and the goal is the cessation of suffering, and the root of suffering is desire wouldn't humans suffer more than a virus? Viruses likely have far fewer desires than humans. If so wouldn't viruses be higher forms and closer to nirvana than humans? And humans one of the lowest forms?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/buddhism/beliefs/fournobletruths_1.shtml [bbc.co.uk]
So I do disagree a bit with Buddhism with its obsession with ending suffering and getting out of this world. To me both desire and suffering aren't such bad things. Unnecessary/useless suffering is the problem. It's like pain. Pain can be useful. Without pain you would damage yourself more. But chronic pain is a problem when there is no real problem or when the problem is already known and being addressed (or can't be fixed). The mindfulness stuff is good stuff though.
Last but not least often there's growth that you can't get without suffering.