Atheists and suicide

[Angrboda]

Meh. From looking at both specific studies and overviews of the general question "Are religious believers better off than non-believers," (including an excellent overview by Zuckerman), I'm of the semi-considered opinion that the subject is fraught through with methodological issues and selection bias, such that it would be foolhardy to attempt to draw any larger conclusions based on the often fragmented and conflicting studies. Moreover, people neglect that belief isn't the same as surety and confidence, and I suspect the religious struggle with existential questions every bit as weighty as those that trouble the atheist, with likely the same consequences. It's just not possible to draw firm conclusions, I think. I'm certainly willing to entertain the notion that perhaps religion provides some insulation against the existentialist cold, I'm just unsure how one would go about demonstrating the fact in a way that is both rigorous and sound.

But perhaps we don't even need to do so. The question, even if more atheists are troubled with suicide is the same question that arises in the debate over race and intelligence. Looking at the extremes doesn't tell you much about the data sets, you need to look at both variability (distribution) and overlap. If 2% of atheists are significantly worse off than theists, with respect to suicide, is that really an indictment of atheism and belief as experienced by the majority of overlapping, roughly comparable persons, both believers and non? I think not.