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Researchers report in areas with greater numbers of Christian fundamentalists, infant mortality rates are higher than in areas with more mainstream Christians. The study reveals external factors such as lack of social support, birth defects, poverty and lack of insurance, in addition to religious conviction, are the main reasons for the increased mortality rates.
The odds of an infant dying before their first birthday are higher in counties with greater proportions of conservative Protestants, especially fundamentalists, than in counties with more mainline Protestants and Catholics, according to a new Portland State University study The study, published online in May in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, supports the idea that the more insular, anti-institutional culture of fundamentalists can lead to poorer health outcomes.
Ginny Garcia-Alexander, a sociology professor in PSU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the study's lead author, examined the influence of religion on postneonatal infant mortality rates, or the number of deaths from four weeks through the first year, using data from 1990 through 2010. Garcia-Alexander said a leading cause of infant death in the first 28 days is birth defects, which can be heavily influenced by advances in medical knowledge and technology. By contrast, deaths in the next 11 months of life are more often linked to external factors such as poverty, lack of insurance, social support networks and religion.
Garcia-Alexander said the findings mirror trends seen in adult mortality rates, where areas with more mainline Protestants and Catholics had better health outcomes than areas with more conservative Protestants.
The study's findings build on previous research that says that Catholicism and mainline Protestantism are civically minded, externally oriented faiths that emphasize community-level care. For example, church-affiliated hospitals and social-service providers such as Catholic Charities can bolster the health infrastructure of local communities.
Source: https://neurosciencenews.com/infant-mortality-fundamentalism-9165/
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday June 19 2018, @10:16PM
Oh come now. The Bible is an Iron Age history, with, sadly, a whole lot of religious propaganda baked in. However there are reasons for that. As a tool to aid religious leaders in maintaining and spreading the faith, it was a brilliant success. The problem is that today there are still millions of people who eat up the propaganda. The writers obviously had not a clue how the world came to be, but to satisfy the fundamentalists of those times who were demanding just such a story and other knowledge and miracles to "prove" the divine provenance, they made up all that stuff in Genesis about 6 days to create everything, and resting on the 7th day, playing upon vague memories of far older traditions and superstitions. In these times, we know much, much more, so that it should be obvious to all that the creation story in Genesis is a load of made up fiction.
Why 7 days? A week could have just as easily been 8 days, or 6 days, or some other length. It's because the Sumerians thought 7 was special, a lucky number. And also, because 7 days fits closely with a quarter of the lunar cycle and the menstrual cycle.
The whole thing is calculated to wow the sheep. Don't blame the Bible for there still being science deniers around today. If it didn't exist, they'd merely seize on something else. Wanting to flush it down the toilet is no better than wanting to hold a book burning.