Health and Religion

[CoinCube]

You are worse than ISIS. At least they acknowledge God, even though they have many mistakes about Him and what He wants. If you happen to catch up to ISIS, perhaps you can do it right.

Two reasons why this line of thinking is flawed BADecker.

First from the Christian tradition:

http://biblehub.com/sermons/auth/binnie/presumptuous_sins_and_sins_of_ignorance.htm

Some sins are more heinous in the sight of God than others; more heinous in their own nature, or by reason of aggravating circumstances. The distinction is familiar to all. Murder is a sin more heinous in the sight of God and man than petty theft. Armed rebellion against just authority is a greater sin than heedless omission to pay due honour and courtesy to a superior in office...

1. Some sins are described as sins of ignorance. The reference is to faults that are due to error or inadvertence. We all know, to our cost, how liable we are to these. Never a day passes but we omit duty and commit faults, either because we knew no better, or because we were "off our guard" and stumbled before we were aware. These are sins of infirmity, such as cleave to the best of men in the present life.

2. Other sins are done presumptuously.(Literally, "with a high hand.") The matter is one about which there is no dubiety; the person knows well what is right and what is wrong; knowing this, he deliberately and purposely does the wrong. He offends against light, conviction, conscience. This is presumptuous sin.

And second via the Jewish tradition.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_views_on_sin

Sins between people are considered much more severe in than sins between man and God. Yom Kippur, the main day of repentance in Judaism can atones for sins between man and God, but not for sins between man and his fellow...he does not atone until he appeases his fellow.

[CoinCube]

To solve the problem of religious disputes, I suggest let the atheists are treated in medical institutions, and the believers may be treated with prayers. And we will see who is right.

This argument is an false dichotomy. Religion is not a substitute for medicine. Nor is medicine a substitute for religion.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia a triumph modern medicine.
http://m.cancer.org/cancer/news/childhood-leukemia-survival-rates-improve-significantly

A new study shows that children with the most common type of childhood cancer, acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) have a 5 year survival rate of more than 90%. ALL accounts for about 3 out of 4 cases of childhood leukemia.

...

In the 1960s, the 5-year survival rate was less than 10%

Medicine offers little hope for those with pancreatic cancer.
http://www.healthline.com/health/pancreatic-cancer/prognosis-life-expectancy#Overview1

More than 48,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year,
...
The five year survival for stage 4 pancreatic cancer is 1%

Medicine is very good at managing and mitigating serious illness. If you develop a major medical problem the best person to see is a physician as that will be the person with the highest chance of helping you. However, there are many problems medicine cannot cure. These types of problems require an close analysis of the benefits vs the potential harms of the available treatments options.

Prayer has its place but praying for divine intervention instead of going to the doctor is a lot like praying for divine intervention to stop the flooding caused by a broken pipe. Nothing is impossible but a better outcome will likely result from finding and shutting off the water main.

[Aikonio]

To solve the problem of religious disputes, I suggest let the atheists are treated in medical institutions, and the believers may be treated with prayers. And we will see who is right.

This argument is an false dichotomy. Religion is not a substitute for medicine. Nor is medicine a substitute for religion.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia a triumph modern medicine.
http://m.cancer.org/cancer/news/childhood-leukemia-survival-rates-improve-significantly

A new study shows that children with the most common type of childhood cancer, acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) have a 5 year survival rate of more than 90%. ALL accounts for about 3 out of 4 cases of childhood leukemia.

...

In the 1960s, the 5-year survival rate was less than 10%

Medicine offers little hope for those with pancreatic cancer.
http://www.healthline.com/health/pancreatic-cancer/prognosis-life-expectancy#Overview1

More than 48,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year,
...
The five year survival for stage 4 pancreatic cancer is 1%

Medicine is very good at managing and mitigating serious illness. If you develop a major medical problem the best person to see is a physician as that will be the person with the highest chance of helping you. However, there are many problems medicine cannot cure. These types of problems require an close analysis of the benefits vs the potential harms of the available treatments options.

Prayer has its place but praying for divine intervention instead of going to the doctor is a lot like praying for divine intervention to stop the flooding caused by a broken pipe. Nothing is impossible but a better outcome will likely result from finding and shutting off the water main.

If you say so then I believe that you recognize the lack of assistance from prayer. How then can you say that God is? And in a few water shut-off valves and if God was he would have closed the other valve.

[CoinCube]

If you say so then I believe that you recognize the lack of assistance from prayer. How then can you say that God is? And in a few water shut-off valves and if God was he would have closed the other valve.

Not at all in fact I would argue that closing your eyes to the realities around you is failing to appreciate the true the nature and magesty of prayer.

Below is an exploration of prayer that I agree with. However this is a very deep topic and I do not presume to say that this is the only answer.

The Meaning of Prayer
http://m.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/682090/jewish/The-Meaning-of-

The question may be asked, Why do we have to pray to our Father in Heaven for our daily needs? Does God not know our needs even better than we our-selves? Is God not by His very nature, good and kind, and always willing to do us good? After all, children do not "pray" to their loving parents to feed them, and clothe them, and protect them; why should we pray to our Heavenly Father for these things?

...

Like all other commandments which God has commanded us to do, not for His sake but for ours, He has commanded us to pray to Him for our sake. God does not need our prayer; He can do without our prayers, but we cannot do without our prayers. It is good for us to acknowledge our dependence on God for our very life, our health, our daily bread, and our general welfare. And we should do so every day, and many times a day. We must often remind ourselves that our life and happiness are a gift from our Merciful Creator, for we should then try to be worthy of God's kindnesses and favors to us. God does not owe us anything; yet He gives us everything. We should try to be the same way towards our fellow-men and grant favors freely. We should express our gratitude to God not merely in words, but in deeds: by obeying His commands and living our daily life the way God wants us to do, especially as it is all for our own good.

...

Thus, what we said about prayer in answer to the question: "Why do we pray?" is but the first step on the "ladder" of prayer. On a higher level prayer has to do with things that are higher than the daily material needs, namely spiritual things.

...

Thus, the time of prayer is the time of self-judgment and self-evaluation. When a person addresses himself to God and prays for His blessings, he must inevitably search his heart and examine himself whether he measures up to the standards of daily conduct which God had prescribed for man to follow. If he is not one who fools himself, he will be filled with humility, realizing that he hardly merits the blessings and favors for which he is asking. This is why we stress in our prayers God's infinite goodness and mercies, and pray to God to grant us our heart's desires not because we merit them, but even though we do not deserve them. This is also why our prayers, on week-days, contain a confession of sins which we may have committed knowingly or unknowingly. We pray for God's forgiveness, and resolve to better ourselves. Prayers help us to lead a better life in every respect, by living more fully the way which God commanded us.

...

On a still higher level, prayer becomes service... prayer is meant to purify our hearts and our nature.

...

The earth is full of treasures, but the treasures are often buried deep. It is necessary to dig for them; and when you discover them, you still have to clear away the impurities, refine them or polish them, as in the case of gold, or a diamond, and the like. So is every (human) is full of wonderful treasures of character—modesty, kindness and other natural traits, but sometimes they are buried deep and covered up by "soil" and "dust," which have to be cleared away.

We speak of a person of good character as a "refined" person, or a person of "refined" character. It entails an effort, and very often a hard effort, to overcome such things as pride, anger, jealousy and similar bad traits, which may be quite "natural" but still unbecoming for a human being.

These bad character traits stem from the "animal" in man, and are "natural" to it. But we are endowed with a "Divine" soul, which is a spark of Godliness itself, and the treasury of all the wonderful qualities which make a man superior to an animal. During prayer, our Divine soul speaks to God, and even the animal soul is filled with holiness. We realize that we stand before the Holy One, blessed be He, and the whole material world with all its pains and pleasures seems to melt away. We become aware of the real things that really matter and are truly important, and even as we pray for life, health and sustenance, we think of these things in their deeper sense: a life that is worthy to be called "living"; health not only physical, but above all spiritual; sustenance—the things that truly sustain us in this world and in the world to come.

We feel cleansed and purified by such "service," and when we return to our daily routine, the feeling of purity and holiness lingers on and raises our daily conduct to a level which is fitting

...

Prayer is like a "ladder" of many rungs. To get to the top of it, we must start at the bottom and steadily rise upwards... We must, therefore, become familiar with our prayers: first of all their plain meaning, then their deeper meaning, and finally, with the whole "order" of our service.

[dirokkl]

Health prayer will not add. It is clear to all. And there is no God is an axiom for me. But there is a placebo effect. The people themselves with their faith include mechanisms of self-healing of your body.

[Dizaster2015]

People must rely on their own strength. But if they had not we must appeal to another person. God never, who did not help. The religion in addition to troubles I don't see anything. Any religion is harmful.

[CoinCube]

Health prayer will not add. It is clear to all. And there is no God is an axiom for me. But there is a placebo effect. The people themselves with their faith include mechanisms of self-healing of your body.

People must rely on their own strength. But if they had not we must appeal to another person. God never, who did not help. The religion in addition to troubles I don't see anything. Any religion is harmful.

The data available on the topic says you are both wrong. There is strong evidence that the health effects of religion go far beyond placebo which makes religion the opposite of harmful. Don't take my word for it. Look at the evidence yourselves.

In U.S., Very Religious Have Higher Wellbeing Across All Faiths
http://www.gallup.com/poll/152732/religious-higher-wellbeing-across-faiths.aspx

Very religious Americans of all major faiths have higher overall wellbeing than do their respective counterparts who are moderately religious or nonreligious. This relationship, based on an analysis of more than 676,000 interviews as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, is statistically significant after controlling for major demographic and regional variable

Countries with higher levels of atheism also have the highest suicide rates
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_atheism#Europe

In a global study on atheism, sociologist Phil Zuckerman noted that countries with higher levels of atheism also had the highest suicide rates compared to countries with lower levels of atheism. He concludes that correlations does not necessarily indicate causation in either case.[24]

A study on depression and suicide suggested that those without a religious affiliation have a higher suicide attempt rates than those with a religious affiliation.[25]

Belief in God coupled with observance of belief is correlated with numerous positive health outcomes
http://smithandfranklin.com/current-issues/The-Wager-Renewed-Believing-in-God-is-Good-for-You/9/1/40/html
The paper linked to above highlights the multiple studies that show that a belief in God coupled with observance of belief is correlated with numerous health outcomes including:
1) Happiness
2) Physical health
3) Mental health
4) Longevity
5) Stable marital relations

[CoinCube]

This Is Your Brain On God
http://unews.utah.edu/this-is-your-brain-on-god/

During fMRI scans, 19 young-adult church members — including seven females and 12 males — performed four tasks in response to content meant to evoke spiritual feelings.
...
Researchers collected detailed assessments of the feelings of participants, who, almost universally, reported experiencing the kinds of feelings typical of an intense worship service. They described feelings of peace and physical sensations of warmth. Many were in tears by the end of the scan. In one experiment, participants pushed a button when they felt a peak spiritual feeling while watching church-produced stimuli.
...
Based on fMRI scans, the researchers found that powerful spiritual feelings were reproducibly associated with activation in the nucleus accumbens, a critical brain region for processing reward. Peak activity occurred about 1-3 seconds before participants pushed the button and was replicated in each of the four tasks. As participants were experiencing peak feelings, their hearts beat faster and their breathing deepened.
..
In addition to the brain’s reward circuits, the researchers found that spiritual feelings were associated with the medial prefrontal cortex, which is a complex brain region that is activated by tasks involving valuation, judgment and moral reasoning. Spiritual feelings also activated brain regions associated with focused attention.

[Xester]

the relationship between religion and health are intertwined. why if you have a religion of the heart will feel calm and peaceful. because, your soul closer to the Almighty GOD. this is causing yourself to be healthy both physically and mentally thank you

Yes you are right. We have energies that are being reflected by the physical condition. Spiritual inclination to God energizes us and cleanses the negative energies in our body and that way we become more active, alive and healthy. Religious people who are prayerful are persons who can handle stress well, they have strong will to move on. Religion also teaches that we should maintain our health since it is a gift from God, and if we are healthy we can focus and concentrate well and can attend to all religious activities without being held back by illness.

[zikel]

the relationship between religion and health are intertwined. why if you have a religion of the heart will feel calm and peaceful. because, your soul closer to the Almighty GOD. this is causing yourself to be healthy both physically and mentally thank you

Yes you are right. We have energies that are being reflected by the physical condition. Spiritual inclination to God energizes us and cleanses the negative energies in our body and that way we become more active, alive and healthy. Religious people who are prayerful are persons who can handle stress well, they have strong will to move on. Religion also teaches that we should maintain our health since it is a gift from God, and if we are healthy we can focus and concentrate well and can attend to all religious activities without being held back by illness.

unless religion calls to monitor their health? It teaches children to school. Nothing to do with religion. Here everyone defines which style to choose life

[socks435]

the relationship between religion and health are intertwined. why if you have a religion of the heart will feel calm and peaceful. because, your soul closer to the Almighty GOD. this is causing yourself to be healthy both physically and mentally thank you

Yes you are right. We have energies that are being reflected by the physical condition. Spiritual inclination to God energizes us and cleanses the negative energies in our body and that way we become more active, alive and healthy. Religious people who are prayerful are persons who can handle stress well, they have strong will to move on. Religion also teaches that we should maintain our health since it is a gift from God, and if we are healthy we can focus and concentrate well and can attend to all religious activities without being held back by illness.

Honestly there is different when i was always calling to god and pray than doing nothing i feel good or i feel high if i am done to pray and wish from him to give me another good life and strength and thanking for blessing they have the only think that i can contribute is to stay away in any bad habit that can danger my life..

[BADecker]

Why is it that some of you folks simply don't want to accept the statistics that CoinCube shows? People are religious beings. And even if religious people are mistaken about the reality of some aspects of their religion, they still are religious beings. Look at this from CoinCube again:

This Is Your Brain On God
http://unews.utah.edu/this-is-your-brain-on-god/

During fMRI scans, 19 young-adult church members — including seven females and 12 males — performed four tasks in response to content meant to evoke spiritual feelings.
...
Researchers collected detailed assessments of the feelings of participants, who, almost universally, reported experiencing the kinds of feelings typical of an intense worship service. They described feelings of peace and physical sensations of warmth. Many were in tears by the end of the scan. In one experiment, participants pushed a button when they felt a peak spiritual feeling while watching church-produced stimuli.
...
Based on fMRI scans, the researchers found that powerful spiritual feelings were reproducibly associated with activation in the nucleus accumbens, a critical brain region for processing reward. Peak activity occurred about 1-3 seconds before participants pushed the button and was replicated in each of the four tasks. As participants were experiencing peak feelings, their hearts beat faster and their breathing deepened.
..
In addition to the brain’s reward circuits, the researchers found that spiritual feelings were associated with the medial prefrontal cortex, which is a complex brain region that is activated by tasks involving valuation, judgment and moral reasoning. Spiritual feelings also activated brain regions associated with focused attention.

[Tyrantt]

Health prayer will not add. It is clear to all. And there is no God is an axiom for me. But there is a placebo effect. The people themselves with their faith include mechanisms of self-healing of your body.

I wouldn't call that the placebo effect, because you'd have the same effect praying to the jug of milk.

People must rely on their own strength. But if they had not we must appeal to another person. God never, who did not help. The religion in addition to troubles I don't see anything. Any religion is harmful.

Everything can be harmful, specially in large doses. Just like apple seeds, if you eat one or two, nothing will happen but if you eat 200 or 20 apple cores, you might die due to cyanide poisoning. So let's keep everything in moderation.

[CoinCube]

RELIGION AND MENTAL HEALTH
http://europe.newsweek.com/religion-better-mental-health-sport-study-finds-331240?rx=us

Researchers from the London School of Economics (LSE) and the Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands studied the impact of various social activities on depressive symptoms in older European people. They found that participation in religious organisations was associated with a decline in depressive symptoms, while being part of a political or community organisation—such as a local branch of a political party—had a detrimental effect on mental health. Membership of sports and social clubs had short-term benefits, but did not lead to a decline in depressive symptoms in the longer term.

The study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, followed 9,000 Europeans, aged 50 and above, over a four-year period. Mauricio Avendano, an epidemiologist at the LSE and the study's lead author, said that religious activity, such as going to a church, mosque or synagogue regularly, was the only reliable predictor of sustained mental welfare among the factors studied.

[Tyrantt]

RELIGION AND MENTAL HEALTH
http://europe.newsweek.com/religion-better-mental-health-sport-study-finds-331240?rx=us

Researchers from the London School of Economics (LSE) and the Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands studied the impact of various social activities on depressive symptoms in older European people. They found that participation in religious organisations was associated with a decline in depressive symptoms, while being part of a political or community organisation—such as a local branch of a political party—had a detrimental effect on mental health. Membership of sports and social clubs had short-term benefits, but did not lead to a decline in depressive symptoms in the longer term.

The study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, followed 9,000 Europeans, aged 50 and above, over a four-year period. Mauricio Avendano, an epidemiologist at the LSE and the study's lead author, said that religious activity, such as going to a church, mosque or synagogue regularly, was the only reliable predictor of sustained mental welfare among the factors studied.

That may be more the main display of "Mind over matter". Somewhat like placebo effect.

[BADecker]

RELIGION AND MENTAL HEALTH
http://europe.newsweek.com/religion-better-mental-health-sport-study-finds-331240?rx=us

Researchers from the London School of Economics (LSE) and the Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands studied the impact of various social activities on depressive symptoms in older European people. They found that participation in religious organisations was associated with a decline in depressive symptoms, while being part of a political or community organisation—such as a local branch of a political party—had a detrimental effect on mental health. Membership of sports and social clubs had short-term benefits, but did not lead to a decline in depressive symptoms in the longer term.

The study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, followed 9,000 Europeans, aged 50 and above, over a four-year period. Mauricio Avendano, an epidemiologist at the LSE and the study's lead author, said that religious activity, such as going to a church, mosque or synagogue regularly, was the only reliable predictor of sustained mental welfare among the factors studied.

That may be more the main display of "Mind over matter". Somewhat like placebo effect.

The words, "that may be" can cover multitudes of things. The point isn't why it works or happens. The point is that religious-spiritual-meditative-worship, especially when knowingly directed towards God, has been shown to increase health benefits significantly in people across the board. Sure, some may not show many benefits, but there will be some who show greater than average benefits.

[praboso96]

RELIGION AND MENTAL HEALTH
http://europe.newsweek.com/religion-better-mental-health-sport-study-finds-331240?rx=us

Researchers from the London School of Economics (LSE) and the Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands studied the impact of various social activities on depressive symptoms in older European people. They found that participation in religious organisations was associated with a decline in depressive symptoms, while being part of a political or community organisation—such as a local branch of a political party—had a detrimental effect on mental health. Membership of sports and social clubs had short-term benefits, but did not lead to a decline in depressive symptoms in the longer term.

The study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, followed 9,000 Europeans, aged 50 and above, over a four-year period. Mauricio Avendano, an epidemiologist at the LSE and the study's lead author, said that religious activity, such as going to a church, mosque or synagogue regularly, was the only reliable predictor of sustained mental welfare among the factors studied.

A terrible picture - is disgusting emotions - like picture crazy. I'm sorry if I offended anybody. It's just my opinion.
In general, religion affects everything, including health. And whether it is positive or negative impact - that is another question

[CoinCube]

A terrible picture - is disgusting emotions - like picture crazy. I'm sorry if I offended anybody. It's just my opinion.
In general, religion affects everything, including health. And whether it is positive or negative impact - that is another question

Everyone is entitled to their opinion though yours is indeed quite odd.
What exactly is the emotion here that you find disgusting?

Happiness?
Rapture?
Love?
Tranquility?
Amusement?

If you find those emotions disgusting I feel very sorry for you as you are missing out on a large part of what make life worth living.

We agree that religion effects health and as I have show with references to multiple studies the data is clear that the impact is positive.

[CoinCube]

WHEN ATHEISTS ARE ANGRY AT GOD
https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2011/01/when-atheists-are-angry-at-god

I’ve shaken my fist in anger at stalled cars, storm clouds, and incompetent meteorologists. I’ve even, on one terrible day that included a dead alternator, a blaring blaring tornado-warning siren, and a horrifically wrong weather forecast, cursed all three at once. I’ve fumed at furniture, cussed at crossing guards, and held a grudge against Gun Barrel City, Texas. I’ve been mad at just about anything you can imagine.

Except unicorns. I’ve never been angry at unicorns.

It’s unlikely you’ve ever been angry at unicorns either. We can become incensed by objects and creatures both animate and inanimate. We can even, in a limited sense, be bothered by the fanciful characters in books and dreams. But creatures like unicorns that don’t exist—that we truly believe not to exist—tend not to raise our ire. We certainly don’t blame the one-horned creatures for our problems.

The one social group that takes exception to this rule is atheists. They claim to believe that God does not exist and yet, according to empirical studies, tend to be the people most angry at him.

A new set of studies in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology finds that atheists and agnostics report anger toward God either in the past or anger focused on a hypothetical image of what they imagine God must be like. Julie Exline, a psychologist at Case Western Reserve University and the lead author of this recent study, has examined other data on this subject with identical results. Exline explains that her interest was first piqued when an early study of anger toward God revealed a counterintuitive finding: Those who reported no belief in God reported more grudges toward him than believers.

At first glance, this finding seemed to reflect an error. How could people be angry with God if they did not believe in God? Reanalyses of a second dataset revealed similar patterns: Those who endorsed their religious beliefs as “atheist/agnostic” or “none/unsure” reported more anger toward God than those who reported a religious affiliation.

Exline notes that the findings raised questions of whether anger might actually affect belief in God’s existence, an idea consistent with social science’s previous clinical findings on “emotional atheism.”

...

The most striking finding was that when Exline looked only at subjects who reported a drop in religious belief, their faith was least likely to recover if anger toward God was the cause of their loss of belief. In other words, anger toward God may not only lead people to atheism but give them a reason to cling to their disbelief.

...

Many atheists do, of course, proceed to their denial of God based solely on rational justifications. That is why evidentialist and philosophical approaches to apologetics will always be necessary. But I'm beginning to suspect that emotional atheism is far more common than many realize. We need a new apologetic approach that takes into account that the ordinary pain and sufferings of life leads more people away from God than a library full of anti-theist books. Focusing solely on the irate sputterings of the imperfectly intellectual New Atheists may blind us to the anger and suffering that is adding new nonbelievers to their ranks.

[Tyrantt]

WHEN ATHEISTS ARE ANGRY AT GOD
https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2011/01/when-atheists-are-angry-at-god

I’ve shaken my fist in anger at stalled cars, storm clouds, and incompetent meteorologists. I’ve even, on one terrible day that included a dead alternator, a blaring blaring tornado-warning siren, and a horrifically wrong weather forecast, cursed all three at once. I’ve fumed at furniture, cussed at crossing guards, and held a grudge against Gun Barrel City, Texas. I’ve been mad at just about anything you can imagine.

Except unicorns. I’ve never been angry at unicorns.

It’s unlikely you’ve ever been angry at unicorns either. We can become incensed by objects and creatures both animate and inanimate. We can even, in a limited sense, be bothered by the fanciful characters in books and dreams. But creatures like unicorns that don’t exist—that we truly believe not to exist—tend not to raise our ire. We certainly don’t blame the one-horned creatures for our problems.

The one social group that takes exception to this rule is atheists. They claim to believe that God does not exist and yet, according to empirical studies, tend to be the people most angry at him.

A new set of studies in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology finds that atheists and agnostics report anger toward God either in the past or anger focused on a hypothetical image of what they imagine God must be like. Julie Exline, a psychologist at Case Western Reserve University and the lead author of this recent study, has examined other data on this subject with identical results. Exline explains that her interest was first piqued when an early study of anger toward God revealed a counterintuitive finding: Those who reported no belief in God reported more grudges toward him than believers.

At first glance, this finding seemed to reflect an error. How could people be angry with God if they did not believe in God? Reanalyses of a second dataset revealed similar patterns: Those who endorsed their religious beliefs as “atheist/agnostic” or “none/unsure” reported more anger toward God than those who reported a religious affiliation.

Exline notes that the findings raised questions of whether anger might actually affect belief in God’s existence, an idea consistent with social science’s previous clinical findings on “emotional atheism.”

...

The most striking finding was that when Exline looked only at subjects who reported a drop in religious belief, their faith was least likely to recover if anger toward God was the cause of their loss of belief. In other words, anger toward God may not only lead people to atheism but give them a reason to cling to their disbelief.

...

Many atheists do, of course, proceed to their denial of God based solely on rational justifications. That is why evidentialist and philosophical approaches to apologetics will always be necessary. But I'm beginning to suspect that emotional atheism is far more common than many realize. We need a new apologetic approach that takes into account that the ordinary pain and sufferings of life leads more people away from God than a library full of anti-theist books. Focusing solely on the irate sputterings of the imperfectly intellectual New Atheists may blind us to the anger and suffering that is adding new nonbelievers to their ranks.

None of the serious atheists are angry at god since they dont believe in god therefore we cant be angry at one. We're just amused at peoples stupidity in 21st century.



“Tell people there's an invisible man in the sky who created the universe, and the vast majority will believe you. Tell them the paint is wet, and they have to touch it to be sure.” 

-George Carlin