Health and Religion

[BADecker]

@BADecker where I see possible fault in Dennis Prager argument is in the following.

Do not carry the name of the Lord thy God in vain. For the Lord will not hold guiltless” — meaning “will not forgive” — whoever takes His name in vain.

Not hold guiltless does not necessarily mean will not forgive. That appears to be Pragers interpretation of the wording though I do not know if it comes from him or others. Not hold guiltless could also mean that such an action is always sin as opposed to say theft where it is possible that in extreme circumstances (like stealing food to feed a starving child when no other options exist) theft may not be a sin.

There are several places in the Bible that show that God is complex enough that we will never figure Him out entirely. But even if the Bible didn't say it directly, we could still understand this by looking at nature and the fact that God created it in 6 days. We don't even understand the things around us. So how are we going to understand the Creator? Why do I mention this?

Even the love that God has for us is beyond understanding. God sent His Son, Jesus, so that God could hold people guiltless without holding them guiltless. How did He do it? By shifting the guilt onto Jesus, and Jesus, by willingly accepting the guilt, and then the punishment.

In broad and general terms, it's like you lose your job. You can't make your mortgage payments. You are about to lose you house. So, your neighbor pays your mortgage off for you. You couldn't pay then, but even if you get a new and better job, you can't pay on the mortgage any longer. It isn't there. The bank won't accept your payment. You might try paying your neighbor, but even if you can't, the debt is paid.

The point is, you were held guilty in Jesus. And Jesus paid, and then forgave. Jesus was both God and man at the same time. Being God, Jesus could take the pressure of the punishment for all people. Being man, Jesus was a proper one to punish.

This is why it is so important to accept Jesus salvation. Not because you can pay a debt that is already paid. Rather, because if you don't accept Jesus salvation, you are fighting against God. Who will win in that battle?

[Tyrantt]

Religion gives hope to sick people is that prayer may help in recovery. This is another deception of religion. Once again convinced that religion is harmful to humans and built on deception.

Placebo effect works. Prayer causes working placebo affect to exist at times.

God listens to prayer, and very often heals in answer to prayer, and according to His will.

Some people pray but doubt. Those are the people who often are not healed.

Time and chance affect all things. This is why prayers seem to not work at times.

Prayer always works, but not always in the way that people pray for.

And what does the placebo effect religion? In addition, this effect is very limited. Cancer is not a placebo effect won't cure. How many don't use the word honey in the mouth will not be sweet

English is not your language. I don't understand what you are saying.

Prayer works because of:
1. Placebo effect;
2. God answering prayer;
3. Coincidentally sometimes.

Prayer does not work because:
1. The people praying do not believe;
2. God has other plans;
3. Time and chance work in everything to some extent.

Tim Minchin says it best:

Now I understand a prayer can work:
A particular prayer in a particular church
In a particular style with a particular stuff
And for particular problems that aren't particularly tough,
And for particular people, preferably white
And for particular senses, preferably sight
A particular prayer in a particular spot
To a particular version of a particular god

And if you get that right, he just might
Take a break from giving babies malaria
And pop down to your local area
And fix the cataracts of your mum!

There is only one possible answer to the prayers and it's MAYBE. The same result you'd get as praying to a car or any other object.

[BADecker]

Religion gives hope to sick people is that prayer may help in recovery. This is another deception of religion. Once again convinced that religion is harmful to humans and built on deception.

Placebo effect works. Prayer causes working placebo affect to exist at times.

God listens to prayer, and very often heals in answer to prayer, and according to His will.

Some people pray but doubt. Those are the people who often are not healed.

Time and chance affect all things. This is why prayers seem to not work at times.

Prayer always works, but not always in the way that people pray for.

And what does the placebo effect religion? In addition, this effect is very limited. Cancer is not a placebo effect won't cure. How many don't use the word honey in the mouth will not be sweet

English is not your language. I don't understand what you are saying.

Prayer works because of:
1. Placebo effect;
2. God answering prayer;
3. Coincidentally sometimes.

Prayer does not work because:
1. The people praying do not believe;
2. God has other plans;
3. Time and chance work in everything to some extent.

Tim Minchin says it best:

Now I understand a prayer can work:
A particular prayer in a particular church
In a particular style with a particular stuff
And for particular problems that aren't particularly tough,
And for particular people, preferably white
And for particular senses, preferably sight
A particular prayer in a particular spot
To a particular version of a particular god

And if you get that right, he just might
Take a break from giving babies malaria
And pop down to your local area
And fix the cataracts of your mum!

There is only one possible answer to the prayers and it's MAYBE. The same result you'd get as praying to a car or any other object.

Wrong! The answer to prayers is always, God knows best, and answers all prayers in the best way.

[HateNATO]

Health dont have nothing with religion i don t understand w+how somebody can connect that 2 things when they are 100 x times other thing swhich dont have nothnig with it .You need to work on your body to be health religion will not help you.

[BADecker]

Health dont have nothing with religion i don t understand w+how somebody can connect that 2 things when they are 100 x times other thing swhich dont have nothnig with it .You need to work on your body to be health religion will not help you.

If you look throughout this thread, you will find that CoinCube has shown all kinds of studies that essentially prove that religion and health have a lot to do with each other. Look in the last 2 or 3 pages to find some of them.

[Buffer Overflow]

... studies that essentially prove that religion and health have a lot to do with each other.

atheism is a religion.

In that case, atheists must be in really good mental shape. 

[CoinCube]

Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays?
Dennis Prager who happens to be Jewish answers this question.

https://www.prageru.com/courses/political-science/just-say-merry-christmas

[CoinCube]

If you look throughout this thread, you will find that CoinCube has shown all kinds of studies that essentially prove that religion and health have a lot to do with each other. Look in the last 2 or 3 pages to find some of them.

The amount evidence from multuliple studies really is quite impressive.

Married Couples Who Attend Church Services Together Are Less Likely to Divorce
http://www.christianpost.com/news/married-couples-who-attend-church-services-together-are-less-likely-to-divorce-study-171853/

Married couples who attend church services together are more likely to live longer, are less likely to be depressed, and less likely to get divorced, according to a new study conducted by a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health.

The study, titled "Religion and Health: A Synthesis," conducted by Tyler J. VanderWeele, professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, noted that religious service attendance is connected to "better health outcomes, including longer life, lower incidence of depression, and less suicide," the Institute for Family Studies noted on Tuesday.

According to the study, religious service attendance is also "associated with greater marital stability — or more specifically, with a lower likelihood of divorce."

Married couples who attend religious services are 30 to 50 percent less likely to get divorced than those who do not, the study asserts. Such couples are also nearly 30 percent less likely to be depressed and, over a 16-year follow-up period, were shown to have significantly lower risk of dying.

...

Though some might criticize the marital stability data by suggesting that those contemplating divorce might be more likely to stop attending religious services, the researchers took that into account.

By looking into the timing of changes in religious service attendance, VanderWeele said, "we were able to control for this possibility, and the results persisted: those who attended religious services were 47 percent less likely to subsequently divorce."

"Religion is, of course, not principally about promoting physical health or decreasing the likelihood of divorce, but about communion with God," he said, and efforts to commune with God have "profound implications for numerous other aspects of life, including health and marriage."

While Christians understand and interpret the word "religion" and everything it entails differently than academic researchers, the operative definition VanderWeele posits for the study is: "the pursuit of complete human well-being: physical, mental, social, and spiritual."

Taken together, "religion is about both communion with God and the restoration of all people to their intended state of complete wholeness and well-being. The evidence suggests that it can indeed accomplish both," he said.

...

"The religious community provides social support, a constant reinforcement and reminder of the religious teachings, family programs, and a communal worship and experience of God. I would not say that good marriages need a community to thrive, but it certainly does help!"

[MaryAngela_Fantocci]

There are many persons intelligent and religious at same time.
But there are many people that so lazy and blinkered - they choose to follow for someone, they need the leader (religion in our example) that will be say how to live and it will be only one right way. For these people are easy to be religious.

If the person is smart he will never believe that which he does not find convincing evidence. And he doesn't believe in God. A lot of people really don't, but in order not to stand out from the others pretend to believe.

Most of religions says that God inside each of us. So there no reasons to searching convincing evidence..

I would agree, if religion recognized the existence of billions of gods. Each person has his own. But every religion recognizes one God. And achieves the subordination to him of all people. I don't agree.

I think you are so quickly move from issue to issue without deep discussion
Do you read about Jiddu Krishnamurti?

I did not read what? It's probably someone from the hare Krishnas or Buddhists. These religions are in my opinion the least hostile to humans, but it does not mean that they are not detrimental. Any religion inhibits a person teaches to obey. For me it's not acceptable

No, it's not Buddhists or Krishnas, it's his own teaching. I'm not religious and I don't need it. I agree that religions inhibits a person teaches to obey. But really person isn't smart and intelligent if religious? Smart person always looking for answers and ideas - in books, in teaching etc

[jvc12]

if there is any there is anything anybody will ever wish for is be in health because they say health is wealth  as for that of religion i think it all about family background because it what one was bone into that what he or she will want to follow when he or she grow up the family has a great role to play in the life a child.

[RealityTruth]

it's a sad thing some one is so delusional to be an atheist

[qwik2learn]

Health dont have nothing with religion i don t understand w+how somebody can connect that 2 things when they are 100 x times other thing swhich dont have nothnig with it .You need to work on your body to be health religion will not help you.

If you look throughout this thread, you will find that CoinCube has shown all kinds of studies that essentially prove that religion and health have a lot to do with each other. Look in the last 2 or 3 pages to find some of them.

Indeed, you can find many examples that religion causes mild to severe mental illness, right on this forum.

Starting with paranoia, hallucinations, delusions and eventually leading to delirium.

Bottom line is this:  

If you believe in, see or hear something that other people cannot see or hear, you are suffering from mental illness.

Mental wards are full of prophets, aliens, historical figures, gods (or his/her relatives) etc.  So don't kid yourselves, religion is affecting people's mental health.  There is no question about it.

This downgrading of the individual human spirit is far from accidental. It’s launched as a sustained propaganda campaign, the purpose of which is top-down control.

“British empiricist philosophy is individualist. And it is of course clear that if the only criterion of true and false which a man accepts is that man’s, then he has no base for social agreement. The question of how man ought to behave is a social question, which always involves several people; and if he accepts no evidence and no judgment except his own, he has no tools with which to frame an answer.” (Jacob Bronowski, Science and Human Values, 1956).
Bronowski is quite sure that hearing other people’s evidence and then keeping one’s own counsel is wrong. One has to accept that evidence on its face? This is sheer idiocy. Individuals are capable of deciding, on their own, what social agreements to enter into.

Read more from writer Jon Rappaport about the fraud of psychiatry, it will help you find the truth about "voices". Check out my recent posts on this too.

[CoinCube]

If you look throughout this thread, you will find that CoinCube has shown all kinds of studies that essentially prove that religion and health have a lot to do with each other. Look in the last 2 or 3 pages to find some of them.

...

Bottom line is this:  

If you believe in, see or hear something that other people cannot see or hear, you are suffering from mental illness.

Mental wards are full of prophets, aliens, historical figures, gods (or his/her relatives) etc.  So don't kid yourselves, religion is affecting people's mental health.  There is no question about it.

This downgrading of the individual human spirit is far from accidental. It’s launched as a sustained propaganda campaign, the purpose of which is top-down control.

...

af_newbie is correct in this:
Religion is affecting people's mental health.  There is no question about it.

RESEARCH SHOWS BELIEVING IN GOD IMPROVES YOUR MENTAL HEALTH
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1216/religion_mental_health.php3

Researchers have found that there is a direct correlation between good mental health and believing in a Higher Power.

Whether you are Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, or practice another faith, you are more likely to have less stress and better mental health than those who do not affiliate themselves with any religious group.


Study #1: Better mental health

Researchers at the University of Missouri analyzed the results of three studies and the results of their findings are astonishing.

The surveys interviewed 160 people total. Of that group, 40 were Buddhist, 41 were Catholic, 22 were Jewish, 26 were Muslim and 31 were Protestant. Amongst all of the faiths, those who said that they were actively spiritual had better mental health, were more extroverted and were less likely to be neurotic


Study #2: Treatment was more successful

In the Journal of Affective Disorders, researchers followed patients receiving care from a hospital-based behavioral health program, hoping to correlate their relationship with religion and the outcome of their treatments.

They were not surprised when they found that those who believed in a higher power did significantly better with short-term psychiatric treatment.

While assessing the same 159 patients over a one-year period in 2013, researchers examined depression levels, overall well-being and risk of self-harm at the beginning and end of the treatment program. After the conclusion of the study, the patients who did not belief in a higher power were twice as likely not to respond to treatment.

"Belief was associated with not only improved psychological well-being, but decreases in depression and intention to self-harm," says David H. Rosmarin, Ph.D., and instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

Study #3: Less Depression

In another analysis, Dr. Harold G Koenig, director of the Center of Spirituality, reviewed 93 studies and found that religious individuals involved in the studies had fewer depressive symptoms.

The conclusion of every study revealed that spiritual belief is, in fact, associated with mental health.

[qwik2learn]

If you want you can read about spirit mediums and thereby get a real education about "voices"; it should not take too long to decipher this phenomena once you have seen the best cases. In some cases the spirit obviously exists, like we see with the chess game and as detailed in the paper "The Problem of Seth's Origin".
http://www.aeces.info/Top40/top40-main.shtml

[BADecker]

If you want you can read about spirit mediums and thereby get a real education about "voices"; it should not take too long to decipher this phenomena once you have seen the best cases. In some cases the spirit obviously exists, like we see with the chess game and as detailed in the paper "The Problem of Seth's Origin".
http://www.aeces.info/Top40/top40-main.shtml

But if you are seeking the truth, you won't be able to avoid finding the God of the Universe, who is shown by these...

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=737322.msg10718395#msg10718395
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1355109.msg14047133#msg14047133
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1662153.40
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1054513.msg16803380#msg16803380

... and many more proofs.

[Tyrantt]

There is only one possible answer to the prayers and it's MAYBE. The same result you'd get as praying to a car or any other object.

Wrong! The answer to prayers is always, God knows best, and answers all prayers in the best way.

so it's still a maybe, if the best "way" for you is not to listen to your prayer and you're not aware of his thought, the answer is maybe.

[BADecker]

There is only one possible answer to the prayers and it's MAYBE. The same result you'd get as praying to a car or any other object.

Wrong! The answer to prayers is always, God knows best, and answers all prayers in the best way.

so it's still a maybe, if the best "way" for you is not to listen to your prayer and you're not aware of his thought, the answer is maybe.

Maybe what? There are maybe's all over the place in life. One of the places that ISN'T a maybe is that God answers prayer in the best way. Like you think that we know what is best, better than the Guy Who controls everything through cause and effect, and MAYBE a million other ways, as well?

Come on, man. God is on your side. Quit fighting Him.

[Klima]

There is only one possible answer to the prayers and it's MAYBE. The same result you'd get as praying to a car or any other object.

Wrong! The answer to prayers is always, God knows best, and answers all prayers in the best way.

so it's still a maybe, if the best "way" for you is not to listen to your prayer and you're not aware of his thought, the answer is maybe.

Maybe what? There are maybe's all over the place in life. One of the places that ISN'T a maybe is that God answers prayer in the best way. Like you think that we know what is best, better than the Guy Who controls everything through cause and effect, and MAYBE a million other ways, as well?

Come on, man. God is on your side. Quit fighting Him.

Show me one person whom prayers have helped to beat cancer. No such people. If the doctors helped, they say that God heard the prayers, if the doctors don't help, then say what is bad prayed. This is nonsense!

[BADecker]

There is only one possible answer to the prayers and it's MAYBE. The same result you'd get as praying to a car or any other object.

Wrong! The answer to prayers is always, God knows best, and answers all prayers in the best way.

so it's still a maybe, if the best "way" for you is not to listen to your prayer and you're not aware of his thought, the answer is maybe.

Maybe what? There are maybe's all over the place in life. One of the places that ISN'T a maybe is that God answers prayer in the best way. Like you think that we know what is best, better than the Guy Who controls everything through cause and effect, and MAYBE a million other ways, as well?

Come on, man. God is on your side. Quit fighting Him.

Show me one person whom prayers have helped to beat cancer. No such people. If the doctors helped, they say that God heard the prayers, if the doctors don't help, then say what is bad prayed. This is nonsense!

All people who knew they had cancer and beat it, did so through prayer. Some of the people knew they were praying. Others didn't.

[qwik2learn]

If you want you can read about spirit mediums and thereby get a real education about "voices"; it should not take too long to decipher this phenomena once you have seen the best cases. In some cases the spirit obviously exists, like we see with the chess game and as detailed in the paper "The Problem of Seth's Origin".
http://www.aeces.info/Top40/top40-main.shtml

Another example of "voice" phenomena can be seen in Ancient Aliens episode called "Russia's Secret Files". Multiple Soviet cosmonauts witnessed the same "hallucination" of giant winged beings and also related hearing voices; these beings basically informed the cosmonauts that mankind is "not ready" to venture "out there".

Electronic Voice Phenomena is another well documented example of unexplained empirical results that fly in the face of the idea that hearing "voices" indicates a mental defect.