Belief In God Correlates With Better Mental Health Treatment Outcomes 931
Hatta writes "According to researchers from Harvard Medical School, belief in god is correlated with improved outcomes of treatment for depression. Quoting: 'In the study, published in the current issue of Journal of Affective Disorders, researchers comment that people with a moderate to high level of belief in a higher power do significantly better in short-term psychiatric treatment than those without. "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., an instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.' This raises interesting questions. Does this support the concept of depressive realism? If the association is found to be causal, would it be ethical for a psychiatrist to prescribe religion?"
Re:Not religion, but purpose (Score:4, Informative)
But to have a sense of purpose in a meaningless world, it needs to be packaged properly. Religion is just a very effective and time-tested vessel for purpose.
Umm, try enslavement, not purpose. Religion is a distraction from reality used to get power over people. TFA on the other hand is talking about belief in God, which does not necessarily include organized religious affiliation, i.e., religion. Belief in God gives people a happy, fuzzy feeling that there's a giant spaghetti monster (or whatever you believe) hovering high above them their whole life watching out for them and making sure good things and not bad happen to them. That's crazy!
Re:There's always two sides to a coin (Score:5, Informative)
Well fuck me. I hate replying to myself bit I didn't expect it to be so easy to track down.
See here:
http://www.jpsych.com/pdfs/david.hillel.rosmarin.cv.pdf [jpsych.com]
Prepared: November, 2012
David H. Rosmarin, Ph.D.
GRANT REVIEW ACTIVITIES
2012 John Templeton Foundation
The Templeton Foundation Strikes again.
Re:This is here, because? (Score:5, Informative)
Ascribing any particular "meaning" to life would necessitate having a belief in some sort of purpose or specific design for life in the first place. People who do not believe in God do not typically subscribe to such philosophies.
Re:Not religion, but purpose (Score:5, Informative)
Based on the abstract [jad-journal.com] and the article, that doesn't appear to be what is going on - that is use of religion as cognitive therapy. Belief in God appears to be the independent variable in the study. The subjects in the study that receive treatment and believe in God have better outcomes. Belief in God and religion aren't the treatment but effect the outcome.
Re:This is here, because? (Score:5, Informative)
I'll field this one. There's a few different Gods we refer to when we start using "God" in thought experiments:
1. A Blind Watchmaker.
2. A Spoiled, Brutal Child
3. A Perfect, Immortal Machine
4. Further interesting ideas
However, people who are talking about God who isn't part of a thought experiment, but who actually worship Him usually are referring to American Jesus, who cries when you:
1 .Look at pictures of naked women
2. Play Dungeons and Dragons
3. Read Harry Potter books
4. Are gay
5. Refuse to believe that dinosaurs and humans coexisted.
A lot of people really don't like that guy.