Here's an interested report that was bandied about in the media for a few weeks, reported here by Jim Niemi.
This article's title is really only touched upon in the body of the text, and most of it related to how prayer and religion brought help to the family while the the son was recovering from a terrible accident.
The following excerpt is of particular interest:
”The pastor (David Campbell) and his wife came and sat with the family,“ she said. ”A lot of people were praying for him. … It makes you wonder how people survive who don't go to church.“
Faith in God is a survival skill, helping people who have experienced tragedy cope with their circumstances, said David Sharrard, professor of pastoral care and counseling at Lexington Theological Seminary.
”If you believe in God and that God created us, you ... have a core belief, a lens through which you can see life,“ Sharrard said. ”Life does not consist of isolated incidents. All things interact, and core beliefs spill over into other aspects of life.“
These core beliefs aid us ”when bad things happen to good people,“ Sharrard said. ”People can believe that God is with them.“
In cases of traumatic injury, Sharrard said, the effect of core beliefs is measurable. ”People with these beliefs have shorter stays in hospitals and function better than non-religious folks“ once they are dismissed.
I would agree with Sharrard at least from a personal perspective, belief in God is definately a mental survival tool - a way to cope with something traumatic, especially if you cannot accept that some things in life are beyond your control, and there is nothing you can do to make them better.
Sharrard mentions some research into hospital stays and religious belief , but doesn't mention the other findings of the article that state that attendance at religious services predicted longer hospital stays, and that prayer had no relation to recovery.
It is also interesting that social support and dispositional optimism were also unrelated to the outcome.
This makes me wonder whether trying to keep a positive outlook (as you hear from many people going through difficult medical recoveries) is not enough, and instead the outlook must be doubt-free and that "whatever happens is meant to be" - which I imagine would be the outlook of one with a very strong religious belief.
***UPDATE: Also note this study was only administered to 152 people. I'm sure further studies would be warranted but from a study of this size it's not a definitive link - also it is a correlation between strong religious belief and length of hospital stays, and NOT a cause-and-effect relationship***
The rest of the article describes the terrible accident and aftermath, and as well as the comfort of "God", prayer also gave the family something to do, something that allowed them to say "I did all I could by doing this".
So note well, this family's religion 1) helped them through two deaths plus a terrible accident 2) made them feel like they were doing something positive in a situation where otherwise they could do nothing 3) seemingly allowed their son to live.
This strength and the circumstances is why I believe you should never try to pit science as the opposite or the antithesis to religion, just look at what you are taking away.
It's the foundation of the family's mental stability, and you'd be asking them to choose between religion and insanity.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment