An Article By Matt Roper In The Daily Mirror, Admittedly Not A Newspaper Of Record, States That The More You Go To Church...

[sandyRoe]

...the longer you live.
"The University of Texas said: 'There is a difference in life expectancy between those who never attend church and those who attend weekly'."
How can this be explained?

Incidentally, in was the churchgoers, not the UnGodly, who enjoyed 2 or 3 extra years of life.

[stokemaveric]

thats like saying if you dont smoke you wont die of cancer..complete and utter rubbish.....

[karenmac60]

I should have asked my 99 year old great grandmother who never went to church in her life....

[naomi24]

It might be more appropriate to ask why the findings don't apply to all. I know of several regular church-goers who died young - and none more devout.

[Svejk]

It just seems longer?

[ludwig]

^ That's what I was going to say thetaliesin. An hour in church seems like about five in the real world.

[modeller]

That must be bad news for the theists they will have to wait an extra 2/3 years before reaching their goal.

[LazyGun]

@Sandy - It would be nice to see the original article to which to you refer.

Which one of these articles by Matt Roper, in the Daily Mirror, are you referring to?
http://www.mirror.co.uk/authors/matt-roper/?pageNumber=1

[modeller]

I now know why the 3 atheists in my club died early. They were 97, 96, 96.
Another atheist is still alive and well and he's 98. Oh I forgot two others with a bleak outlook they are 94.

[sandyRoe]

LazyGun, I don't suppose Matt Roper is ever going to trouble the people who award the Pulitzer Prize for journalism or its UK equivalent.
The couple of paragraphs under the heading , 'Go to church', is one of the 25 easy steps to a happy, full and long life he wrote about in yesterdays Mirror.

[atalanta]

My father died aged 100 and he can't have attended church a dozen times in his life - weddings, baptisms and funerals only.

[modeller]

I don't believe that church going is the cause but rather people who do something regularly are more likely to be content with their routine lives and that acceptance of life contributes to their better health.
It could be true for the person who goes to the pub every night.
It's the routine not the activity, that stabilises the body. With a routine stress is minimised and we all know the affect of stress.

[LazyGun]

@Sandy - Found the article thanks; This one?

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/25-steps-to-a-happy-full-and-long-1552712
(actually by Ben Rankin)

I would have no quarrel at all with most of the sentiments expressed, with the exception of wearing pyjamas, tea @9:10 pm etc, and the going to church thing ;) Oh, and I would change the order a tad - a regular and active sex life would be higher up the list.....

I know the study to which he is referring - A Duke University study. lead author Dr. Koenig, that seemed to show a correlation between religiosity, as measured by church attendance and daily prayer, and better health. But it is one study. They were not able to demonstrate a causal link, and the control of confounding factors was not brliiant.

There are also studies out there for instance which demonstrate a negative correlation between health and religiosity; Respondents of all ages with a more conservative religious affiliation manifested poorer health than did those with a more liberal affiliation. So, the rather boring answer is that religiosity appears to have both positive and negative impacts on health and well-being.

The link is hardly strong enough, in my opinion, to state categorically, as the Mirror article appears to do, that going to church benefits your health ;)

Truth is- if you are religious, you will find comfort in the rites, rituals and practices of your particular religion. Those who do not believe will find the same comforts and benefits from things they wish to engage in.

[LazyGun]

heh cross-posted with modeller , who makes the point more succinctly than I do :)

[mibn2cweus]

//How can this be explained?//

Just like them goodly UnGodly to go a lyin' 'bout their age . . . innit? :o/

[keyplus90]

Does that also apply to the people like me who do not go to the church but to Masjid (mosque)?

[sandyRoe]

Yes, indeed it does, Keyplus. I'd say that religious observance, of whatever kind, betokens a sober, settled, and content life. That's nearly a recipe for longevity

[jomifl]

It is difficult to understand how it is that the Japanese (least religious population) are the most long lived.

[jomifl]

So people don't die of boredom then?

[factor-fiction]

Doesn't the survey show this because churchgoers tend to be older people.

[sandyRoe]

It stands to reason that as the Godly continue to enjoy their bonus years the ranks of the unGodly will be thinning out.
I think the longevity of the Japanese can be attributed in part to their fishy diet.