Why Religion

Religion benefits humanity

Study after study show that religious people fare better in important aspects of life than matched non-religious controls. These studies are not small nor published in obscure "pro-religious" journals [1-4]. Physical & mental health measures are better in the religious, such that social scientists had to study the underlying causes [5] presumably to make it less "miraculous." Regression analyses haven't been able to pin down 100% of the effect size to explain the all the ways religious participation confers beneficial outcomes (e.g. better health, longer & happier life) as of this writing, but even if/when it can be explained, it still is meaningful. 

Religions are also good for societies in a variety of ways. [6]

These data may go against the atheist scientists' dogma that religion is for the weak-minded and guilt-ridden without a place in modern science, but such scientists are doing humanity a disservice ignoring data for in support of their unfounded/outdated dogma.

Why religion? Because it such is good for the soul. More on this later.

1.Spirituality in Serious Illness and Health. The Journal of the American Medical Association. 2022. Balboni TA, VanderWeele TJ, Doan-Soares SD, et al.
2.Religious-Service Attendance and Subsequent Health and Well-Being Throughout Adulthood: Evidence From Three Prospective Cohorts. International Journal of Epidemiology. 2021. Chen Y, Kim ES, VanderWeele TJ.
3.Association of Religious Service Attendance With Mortality Among Women. JAMA Internal Medicine. 2016. Li S, Stampfer MJ, Williams DR, VanderWeele TJ.
4.Religiosity/­Spirituality and Mortality. A Systematic Quantitative Review. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. 2008. Chida Y, Steptoe A, Powell LH.
5.Do Purpose in Life and Social Support Mediate the Association Between Religiousness/­Spirituality and Mortality? Evidence From the MIDUS National Sample. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2023. Boylan JM, Biggane C, Shaffer JA, et al.
6. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2019/01/31/religions-relationship-to-happiness-civic-engagement-and-health-around-the-world/ accessed 4/18/2026

When I began my career as a cosmologist some twenty years ago, I was a convinced atheist. I never in my wildest dreams imagined that one day I would be writing a book purporting to show that the central claims of Judeo-Christian theology are in fact true, that these claims are straightforward deductions of the laws of physics as we now understand them. I have been forced into these conclusions by the inexorable logic of my own special branch of physics.

-Frank J. Tipler