When anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann set out to study
evangelical Christianity she did some field work. She joined a church.
If her New York Times article she shows that she is objective and even sympathetic to evangelical Christianity.
She begins by reminding us of recent scientific studies of
religious experience:
ONE of
the most striking scientific discoveries about religion in recent years is that
going to church weekly is good for you. Religious attendance — at least,
religiosity — boosts the immune system and decreases blood pressure. It may add
as much as two to three years to your life.
Social
support is no doubt part of the story. At the evangelical churches I’ve studied
as an anthropologist, people really did seem to look out for one another. They
showed up with dinner when friends were sick and sat to talk with them when
they were unhappy.
One does not want to sound any more churlish than usual, but
atheism provides none of those benefits. Atheism offers people the kind of false
pride that accrues to those who are smug about being trendy.
Since no group congregates once a week to
celebrate nothing, atheism will not provide you with an affirmative sense of
belonging to a community.
Given the state of the ambient discourse, it is natural and
normal to ask whether churchgoing is therapeutic.
I prefer to turn the question around. Modern therapy
developed for people who lost their religion. Despite its pretense to be
science therapy offers access to an imitation religion. Beginning with
psychoanalysis it has mostly offered a religious experience to
non-believers.
Regular churchgoing affirms your social being. This, it turns out, is good for your health. Since we are more than biological organisms, having more friends and better relationships will improve our morale and our overall well-being.
Attending religious services regularly contributes
significantly to these.
Luhrmann explains:
A study
conducted in North Carolina found that frequent churchgoers had larger social
networks, with more contact with, more affection for, and more kinds of social
support from those people than their unchurched counterparts. And we know that
social support is directly tied to better health.
If you define yourself as a member of a group, you will care
about how your behavior is seen by other members of the group. Your therapist
might tell you to ignore what other people think of you. The result: you will not care about your moral character.
When you value your
membership in a church or religious group you will naturally want to look good
in everyone’s eyes. And that means, more good behavior.
In Luhrmann’s words:
Healthy
behavior is no doubt another part. Certainly many churchgoers struggle with
behaviors they would like to change, but on average, regular church attendees
drink less, smoke less, use fewer recreational drugs and are less sexually
promiscuous than others.
To top it off, those who pray to a loving God accrue other
psychological benefits. This point should sound familiar. It has more than a passing similarity to the recent
work on positive psychology. It turns out that if you believe that God loves you it is
easier to sustain positive thoughts about yourself.
Luhrmann explains that the capacity to visualize a loving God
adds to your well-being:
What I
saw in church as an anthropological observer was that people were encouraged to
listen to God in their minds, but only to pay attention to mental experiences
that were in accord with what they took to be God’s character, which they took
to be good. I saw that people were able to learn to experience God in this way,
and that those who were able to experience a loving God vividly were healthier —
at least, as judged by a standardized psychiatric scale. Increasingly, other
studies bear out this observation that the capacity to imagine a loving God
vividly leads to better health.
"To top it off, those who pray to a loving God accrue other psychological benefits"
ReplyDeleteVery true. Take it from someone who was forced into therapy and had it unknowingly harm them for years:
God is the greatest therapist.
And the NYT printed it! They do so love anthropological studies of the lesser classes...
ReplyDeleteI found this laughable:
ReplyDeletehttp://religion.blogs.cnn.com/category/atheism/
There is an atheist community?
This annoyed me because of the "me me me" complaint.