For Good Self-Control, Try Getting Religious About It

If I’m serious about keeping my New Year’s resolutions in 2009, should I add another one? Should the to-do list include, “Start going to church”?

This is an awkward question for a heathen to contemplate, but I felt obliged to raise it with Michael McCullough after reading his report in the upcoming issue of the Psychological Bulletin. He and a fellow psychologist at the University of Miami, Brian Willoughby, have reviewed eight decades of research and concluded that religious belief and piety promote self-control.

This sounded to me uncomfortably similar to the conclusion of the nuns who taught me in grade school, but Dr. McCullough has no evangelical motives. He confesses to not being much of a devotee himself. “When it comes to religion,” he said, “professionally, I’m a fan, but personally, I don’t get down on the field much.”

His professional interest arose from a desire to understand why religion evolved and why it seems to help so many people. Researchers around the world have repeatedly found that devoutly religious people tend to do better in school, live longer, have more satisfying marriages and be generally happier.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/30/science/30tier.html?th&emc=th

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cigarettes and downing cup after cup of coffee at AA & NA meetings! Yep, addiction is a tough one to manage all right! I guess spirituality can be an easier way, but only for a time.

I don't drink or smoke or do drugs--the only thing I was ever addicted to was diet soda pop--and I quit that cold turkey when I was 16, and didn't fall off the wagon. I have had a problem with weight all my life and recently finally got a diet tailored to my physiology and I'm sticking to it. That does take will power.

I have attended religious services all my life, and prayer and meditation is a part of my daily life.

Ted Haggard blows THAT theory all to hell. :rofl:

Then find me a valid survey that says educational attainment is positively correlated with religiosity. They are indeed correlated, but negatively. As education level rises, atheism does too.

The subjective "happiness" quotient does indeed show up, but surely that's not hard to imagine why it might be slanted. People who are religious and asked on a survey about religion to say whether they are happy or not obviously have a vested interest in defending their faith both to themselves and others. Nonbelievers have nothing to defend or evangelize. Certainly avid churchgoers have at least a surface level built in support system which may be a real help for those who are not all that self-reliant, but the same could be said of anybody who is active in a larger community of likeminded individuals, secular or no.

It's certainly true some people get some positive benefits from religion. If it were not so, then the world would be about 2/3 insane as theer is no plausible reason to continue doing something which grants you no benefit, especially when that same something takes time and money from you and imposes rules on you. The real question though is why, and would it matter if their religion were otherwise?

I can do a brief rundown of family and acquaintances. The least educated has two years of college, and a majority of post graduate degrees, acquired with honors (or high honors). All are religious or spiritual.

As to happiness, I will agree with what you said, as I've found that folks who believe tend to have their ups and downs just like those who do not. I would say that, in my case, knowing there is a Being to which we are all interconnected has given me peace when I have been warring with my emotions.

I KNOW you are well informed enough to know that anecdotes do not refute data. If you knew a million people and all were bopth intelligent and religious, it could not change the fact that religiosity declines with educational attainment.

http://www.norc.org/GSS+Website /

http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?...

It may be true, but I require proof.

This author falls for the Post Hoc fallacy also. He implies that religiosity results in self discipline. But there is no evidence that it is not self discipline that causes religiosity. In fact, there is no cause and effect relationship proved for any such business.

http://www.cs.umass.edu/~danilche/texts/intelligence.txt">Really?

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W4M-4TFV93D-1&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=db2ee09bae0195cc1ecbd026da77245c">He's sure about that?

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W4M-4SD1KNR-1&_user=10&_coverDate=04%2F29%2F2008&_alid=759868596&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_cdi=6546&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_ct=1&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=bdb3ca48b21fdb2959f6f8ce4b6001de">That's interesting

http://www.gallup.com/poll/109108/Belief-God-Far-Lower-Western-US.aspx">What does he define as "repeatedly"?



http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/news/file002.html">I'd be rather interested in the basis of his claim...



...

As for religious people being generally happier? Maybe. Children who believe in Santa tend to be happy too around Christmas time, that doesn't mean you should take that fact as recommending Santa-ism as a life guiding philosophy.

Having more self control? Someone remind me... what do you call it when you can't impose discipline on yourself but need to resort to external structures and controls to force you into behaving in the manner you want to behave in? Is that self control? Because that doesn't sound quite right. If you need a church and a religious support structure to make you study for your tests or pay attention to your marriage because you've come to the conclusion that you just wanting to do them yourself is insufficient motivation to make you actually follow through on it I've got news for you... "possessed of self control" is not the descriptive phrase that applies to you.

Don't you have to be a believer to benefit from belonging to a congregation? It's been over 15 years since I studied this stuff, but I recall that benefits gained from belonging to a congregation included not only social support and guidelines for living, but also a purpose for living and the hope of immortality.

Still, I'd encourage you to try it. What harm could it do -- and there's not better way to test the theory, eh?

But it is not necessary to be a member of a religious congregation to get those benefits.

Also the article posted in the OP stated information that was provably FALSE and used logical fallacies to promote his point.

THAT is the better way to test the theory, by testing the facts and the logic.

People can always find one to refute it, and then everyone gets upset. Some religious people are more disciplined, but not all. Same with non-religious people.

'nuff said.

the mind.. and what goes thru it