STUDY: Want ‘sustained happiness’? Get religion.

[Randy Carson]

Yeah, that worked wonders for Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Dee Dee Ramone, Kurt Cobain...

You are aware that jimi hendirx did not commit suicide. He died of a medical mistake. Just wanted to point that out.

From Wikipedia:

Death, post-mortem, and burial

Although the details of Hendrix's last day and death are widely disputed, he spent much of September 17, 1970, in London with Monika Dannemann, the only witness to his final hours.[269] Dannemann said that she prepared a meal for them at her apartment in the Samarkand Hotel, 22 Lansdowne Crescent, Notting Hill, sometime around 11 p.m., when they shared a bottle of wine.[270] She drove Hendrix to the residence of an acquaintance at approximately 1:45 a.m., where he remained for about an hour before she picked him up and drove them back to her flat at 3 a.m.[271] Dannemann said they talked until around 7 a.m., when they went to sleep. She awoke around 11 a.m., and found Hendrix breathing, but unconscious and unresponsive. She called for an ambulance at 11:18 a.m.; they arrived on the scene at 11:27 a.m.[272] Paramedics then transported Hendrix to St Mary Abbot's Hospital where Dr. John Bannister pronounced him dead at 12:45 p.m. on September 18, 1970.[273]

To determine the cause of death, coroner Gavin Thurston ordered a post-mortem examination on Hendrix's body, which was performed on September 21 by Professor Robert Donald Teare, a forensic pathologist.[274] Thurston completed the inquest on September 28, and concluded that Hendrix aspirated his own vomit and died of asphyxia while intoxicated with barbiturates. [emphasis added][275] Citing "insufficient evidence of the circumstances", he declared an open verdict.[276] Dannemann later revealed that Hendrix had taken nine of her prescribed Vesparax sleeping tablets, 18 times the recommended dosage.[277]

[Pyrrho]

You are aware that jimi hendirx did not commit suicide. He died of a medical mistake. Just wanted to point that out.

From Wikipedia:

Death, post-mortem, and burial

Although the details of Hendrix's last day and death are widely disputed, he spent much of September 17, 1970, in London with Monika Dannemann, the only witness to his final hours.[269] Dannemann said that she prepared a meal for them at her apartment in the Samarkand Hotel, 22 Lansdowne Crescent, Notting Hill, sometime around 11 p.m., when they shared a bottle of wine.[270] She drove Hendrix to the residence of an acquaintance at approximately 1:45 a.m., where he remained for about an hour before she picked him up and drove them back to her flat at 3 a.m.[271] Dannemann said they talked until around 7 a.m., when they went to sleep. She awoke around 11 a.m., and found Hendrix breathing, but unconscious and unresponsive. She called for an ambulance at 11:18 a.m.; they arrived on the scene at 11:27 a.m.[272] Paramedics then transported Hendrix to St Mary Abbot's Hospital where Dr. John Bannister pronounced him dead at 12:45 p.m. on September 18, 1970.[273]

To determine the cause of death, coroner Gavin Thurston ordered a post-mortem examination on Hendrix's body, which was performed on September 21 by Professor Robert Donald Teare, a forensic pathologist.[274] Thurston completed the inquest on September 28, and concluded that Hendrix aspirated his own vomit and died of asphyxia while intoxicated with barbiturates. [emphasis added][275] Citing "insufficient evidence of the circumstances", he declared an open verdict.[276] Dannemann later revealed that Hendrix had taken nine of her prescribed Vesparax sleeping tablets, 18 times the recommended dosage.[277]

One would hope that being in a hospital would mean that the medical staff would prevent one from drowning in one's own vomit, but that, it seems, is a vain hope.

[Randy Carson]

As I have stated elsewhere in this forum, God is not interested in our happiness; He is interested in our holiness. If we are also happy in this life, that's a bonus.

Then what is the purpose of seeking "sustained happiness"?

It is a by-product, but you have to admit that it beats the alternative.

[IATIA]

... Hendrix aspirated his own vomit and died of asphyxia while intoxicated with barbiturates. [emphasis added] ...

Which does not say he committed suicide.  One can aspirate their own vomit during an influenza infection.

[abaris]

The research points to the opposite of what you have just said

As in MAY? Maybe you could finally enlighten us about the meaning of the word MAY. I've capitalized it for your convenience. MAYbe that helps you understand the question a little bit better.

[Aractus]

You could have read the paper abstract (which he linked to) and that alone would have told you where the data came from. And the data is clear that Religion is the only social activity of the ones studied that had a positive health outcome across all areas of Europe for the participants in the study. Although there was some limited benefit for some of the others noting that data-mining the data will result in eventually finding a false-positive (a positive association by chance), so they cannot then decide to break it down to the per-country level as that wouldn't be objective.

Also, it's peer-review published in a respected journal. Why on Earth would you have claimed the study is BS in the first place? It is very rare for a BS study to get published in such a journal...

I thought the article itself was very interesting, PM me if you want to read it in full.

I'm talking about the article he posted explaining that study suggested religion leads to sustained happiness, I was not able to read the actual study, so the only thing I had to go on was the article he posted. The abstract really doesn't tell me much, because my beef was based on the article suggesting that religion leads to sustained happiness. I believe you that study does not suggest that religion leads to sustained happiness, but the article's analysis of the study is that it does and that was my whole beef.

No, he posted the abstract as well. The abstract does tell you where the data comes from. I didn't read the Washington Post article, but just going by the first paragraph it's wrong. The paper has nothing to say about "joining" a religion for health benefits. It had to do with participation and the study was longitudinal, it had nothing to do with "joining" social groups for health benefits.

Fourth, you highlighted the following paragraph from the study (btw, you must have some formal background in this, yes?):

"Earlier research found that religiously active persons have better mental health than the religiously inactive (24, 42). Our findings suggest that this association might reflect a causal association. Participation in religious organizations may protect mental health through several pathways, including influencing lifestyle, enhancing social support networks, and offering a mechanism for coping with stress (24, 42). For example, religion has been shown to serve as a coping mechanism during a period of illness in late life (43, 44). Through participation in religious activities, people may also become more attached to their communities, which prevents social isolation, a predictor of old-age depression. Spirituality has also been proposed as an important promoter of mental health, but this construct is not well defined, and its relationship with depression is not well understood (24). By contrast, people may not accrue the same social support, lifestyle, and coping benefits from participating in sports, social clubs, or other kinds of clubs, which may explain why these forms of social participation did not predict levels of depressive symptoms 4 years later. Although we expected stronger associations between social participation and depressive symptoms in Northern and Western European countries, the lack of regional differences in the associations across Europe supports the findings of Di Gessa and Grundy (17)." (pp. 173-174)

Maybe I've missed your point, but nothing in that paragraph sounds bad to me...

As I have stated elsewhere in this forum, God is not interested in our happiness; He is interested in our holiness. If we are also happy in this life, that's a bonus.

That paragraph is not a conclusion, you need to exercise caution when discussing the findings notice the use of "might" and "may" not "does" or even "likely".

[Brakeman]

Question: What is the best way to achieve "sustained happiness"?

Not by being a christian obviously..

Look at the the nearly 100% of christians that choose to sin after they have accepted jesus into their heart and had a personal talk with the 100% pure goodness of jesus and god and with 100% certainty that god and jesus are watching then still choose to perform that next sin. The strength of emotion of the holy spirit can't dull the happiness that we seek in sin. Even the certain threat of hell and extreme torture forever doesn't seem to dull our craving for the happiness found in sin..

If you crave something that badly... it's good!

[Confused Ape]

Researchers at the London School of Economics and Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands found that the secret to sustained happiness lies in participating in religious organizations. Of the four, participating in a religious organization was the [u]only social activity associated with sustained happiness[/u], researchers found.

Now, my question is: what if you get involved in a local church (3) that has an outreach to the poor and homeless in the local community (1 & 4) and offers Bible study classes (2)?

Seems to me you'd be so happy you could hardly stand it.

If I was ever going to participate in any kind of religious organisation I'd go for Wicca and join a coven. Christianity isn't the only religion out there.

[Lemonvariable72]

You are aware that jimi hendirx did not commit suicide. He died of a medical mistake. Just wanted to point that out.

From Wikipedia:

Death, post-mortem, and burial

Although the details of Hendrix's last day and death are widely disputed, he spent much of September 17, 1970, in London with Monika Dannemann, the only witness to his final hours.[269] Dannemann said that she prepared a meal for them at her apartment in the Samarkand Hotel, 22 Lansdowne Crescent, Notting Hill, sometime around 11 p.m., when they shared a bottle of wine.[270] She drove Hendrix to the residence of an acquaintance at approximately 1:45 a.m., where he remained for about an hour before she picked him up and drove them back to her flat at 3 a.m.[271] Dannemann said they talked until around 7 a.m., when they went to sleep. She awoke around 11 a.m., and found Hendrix breathing, but unconscious and unresponsive. She called for an ambulance at 11:18 a.m.; they arrived on the scene at 11:27 a.m.[272] Paramedics then transported Hendrix to St Mary Abbot's Hospital where Dr. John Bannister pronounced him dead at 12:45 p.m. on September 18, 1970.[273]

To determine the cause of death, coroner Gavin Thurston ordered a post-mortem examination on Hendrix's body, which was performed on September 21 by Professor Robert Donald Teare, a forensic pathologist.[274] Thurston completed the inquest on September 28, and concluded that Hendrix aspirated his own vomit and died of asphyxia while intoxicated with barbiturates. [emphasis added][275] Citing "insufficient evidence of the circumstances", he declared an open verdict.[276] Dannemann later revealed that Hendrix had taken nine of her prescribed Vesparax sleeping tablets, 18 times the recommended dosage.[277]

Randy not only are you citing wikipedia, but your citing a wikipedia article that cant even get his gender right.

[Randy Carson]

From Wikipedia:

Death, post-mortem, and burial

Although the details of Hendrix's last day and death are widely disputed, he spent much of September 17, 1970, in London with Monika Dannemann, the only witness to his final hours.[269] Dannemann said that she prepared a meal for them at her apartment in the Samarkand Hotel, 22 Lansdowne Crescent, Notting Hill, sometime around 11 p.m., when they shared a bottle of wine.[270] She drove Hendrix to the residence of an acquaintance at approximately 1:45 a.m., where he remained for about an hour before she picked him up and drove them back to her flat at 3 a.m.[271] Dannemann said they talked until around 7 a.m., when they went to sleep. She awoke around 11 a.m., and found Hendrix breathing, but unconscious and unresponsive. She called for an ambulance at 11:18 a.m.; they arrived on the scene at 11:27 a.m.[272] Paramedics then transported Hendrix to St Mary Abbot's Hospital where Dr. John Bannister pronounced him dead at 12:45 p.m. on September 18, 1970.[273]

To determine the cause of death, coroner Gavin Thurston ordered a post-mortem examination on Hendrix's body, which was performed on September 21 by Professor Robert Donald Teare, a forensic pathologist.[274] Thurston completed the inquest on September 28, and concluded that Hendrix aspirated his own vomit and died of asphyxia while intoxicated with barbiturates. [emphasis added][275] Citing "insufficient evidence of the circumstances", he declared an open verdict.[276] Dannemann later revealed that Hendrix had taken nine of her prescribed Vesparax sleeping tablets, 18 times the recommended dosage.[277]

Randy not only are you citing wikipedia, but your citing a wikipedia article that cant even get his gender right.

Jimi ingested nine of Monika's sleeping tablets...they were prescribed by her doctor, not his.