Do you see any benefits to religious faith?

[Simon Moon]

Yep, just as I thought.

The studies that are quoted in the first link in Chad's post (Larson, Gartner, Koenig) point to religious attendance, not the religion itself.

As a Forbes article says in reference to these and other studies, "Interestingly, there is a large body of research on the health, economic, educational, and other benefits (or lack thereof) of religion. Most researchers have found that the myriad non-spiritual benefits of religion are related to regular religious attendance. It is less the strength of your faith than the dependability of your arrival at religious services and other events that matters. This suggests that the mechanism for these benefits may be as much or more the social network that a religious community provides than the actual practice of the religion in a theological sense. Or it may be that those with the most faith also attend services regularly.

Also, all the results presented here are benefits found to derive from religious attendance or involvement in any religion, so there is nothing here to suggest that one’s particular beliefs are the key to the results."


So, as much as you'd like to believe the benefits are due to the religion itself, it is actually due to the community the 'ingroup' receives as part of the religion.

In other words, the same benefits could be received from regular attendance to ANY group where the sense of community is included.

Of course you say that without an ounce of proof to counteract the findings that are specific to religious attendance. More research is needed to say otherwise.

I've read the studies that the author of the link to the article you posted (Larson, Gartner, etc). ALL the benefits are correlated with regular religious attendance (and the associated community that goes along with it), not the belief itself.

Oh, and to add, the the " large body of research on the health, economic, educational, and other benefits" mentioned in the Forbes article, are many of the same studies mentioned in the article you posted a link to.