Do you see any benefits to religious faith?

[Angrboda]

From my studies of religion and the brain, there appear to be intrinsic cognitive rewards to engaging in religious behaviors. Raising our arms to the sky stimulates the production of certain hormones/transmitters, for example. And religious concepts appear to be built on the bedrock foundations of our social behaviors. So I imagine there are many benefits for the believing brain. Perhaps these neurological benefits conspire to create the apparent greater health of religious people. I'm skeptical of such studies, but if the results are borne out, perhaps the neurology of religious behavior offers a plausible explanation for why they are healthier, one that doesn't depend upon coming to any conclusions about the inherent truth of the beliefs. Atheistic Unitarian-Universalists engage in the same rituals that theistic believers engage in. This is often explained as satisfying things like "a need to belong", but perhaps it's a way of tickling our brain in a more fundamental sense.