Survey: 35% of Americans believe Bible study and prayer alone can overcome mental illness

[nineteeneightysix]

i would qualify living in fear of an invisible being who has a terrible place for you if you disobey him, as a mental illness

I am with you on that one...

But objectively, then a lot of other things will also fall in the "mental illness" category...

 

[Dafunkdoc_Unlimited]

lol...The title of the article was due to the survey showing that evangelicals on average are more likely to agree with the statement. But again, there is nothing to indicate that the survey was targeting evagelicals.

35% of Americans polled said they agree with the statement, not 35% of evangelicals.

Well, we KNOW evangelicals/fundamentalists would agree. You also responded before I edited my post. I'm trying to clarify where the 48% comes from. Stating it was 35% of Americans is misleading as well since the sample size of 1,001 is only 3% of the US population. Is that a large enough group to determine much of anything statistically?​

 

[Blackking]

So where is this supposed "victim oppressed by religion" stance in this thread?

It's been in many threads and you know it..

if you don't want to derail your own thread further......

you should review this statement closer. This is the ' true or false' that they gave people to chose from...

"With just Bible study and prayer, ALONE, people with serious mental illness like depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia could overcome mental illness."

They aren't talking about curing AIDS and Mouth Cancer with the holy ghost. When presented with very limited options... Evangelicals (basically the bible thumpers of Christianity) chose True when presented with a limited choice. The study is flawed because, of Course (u dont need a study to tell you) Evangelical belief is that spirituality, pray, and the message is important to mental health. From Marriage to dealing with temptations like gambling addiction.

It's not the craziest things we've ever heard though. They believe that those things help with over all happiness and studies (every study ever done in history) has presented facts to support that there may be some indirect effects that make them right. Pray is a form of meditation - getting your beliefs, thoughts, life, wants and needs wrapped up in a closed eyed focus session + an enlightening (in their opinion) and inspiring message though the 'word'= what? It doesn't equal depression. If your opinion is that they are just ignorant than you are simply succeeding the point, because ignorance is blissful when it makes u feel better.. .

Also, with these studies being full of soo much bullshyt its disgusting - They 1) use leading or narrow questions 2) don't narrow down what they are even referring to. It's set up to get a certain result - Obviously. They don't specify what mental illness they are speaking of..... there are thousands. All we do know is that whether it's sexual or drug dependance, general depression, post tramatic stress, etc etc.......... group support and care is one of the leading recommendations by any professionals. Just because there may be a Bible involved we shouldn't discount it. We also shouldn't ignore the millions - especially drug addicts, who have used the Church as their therapy - -- effectively. IT's not much different than group secessions at a secular clinic, expect there is mandatory meditation and reflection - along with added bonus of giving that person (what they think is) a PURpose.

So I'm not understanding the point of this very stupid and flawed study...... it is to simply point a finger or make fun or Church goers? Is it to single out Evangelicals? Whatever the purpose - I'm sure that it will ignore that fact that there are ways in which that 35% are 100% correct.

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

Well, we KNOW evangelicals/fundamentalists would agree. You also responded before I edited my post. I'm trying to clarify where the 48% comes from. Stating it was 35% of Americans is misleading as well since the sample size of 1,001 is only 3% of the US population. Is that a large enough group to determine much of anything statistically?​

Like the article said, they polled random Americans and got 35% of Americans agreeing with the statement. They also asked those people if they identified as born-again, evangelical, or fundamentalist, and of those people, 48% said they agree.

The purpose if the poll was to get Americans opinions on prayer as a cure for mental illness, and see if evangelicals and born agains showed deviation from the mean, and they did.

Your claim that they targeted evangelicals is erroneous and baseless. It was a random telephone survey. You can read the data here.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/18/evangelical-christians-prayer-mental-illness

And Lifeway Research is a Christian organization, so there goes any insinuation of anti-Christian bias. You jumped the gun. You're going to have to try your devil's advocate trolling for religion in another thread bruh.

And regarding it being a survey of only 1, 000 people and conclusive enough to say with certainty that it applies to the whole country, I know that. That's why I just stated that the survey said it and didn't extrapolate it into conclusive, accurate number for the whole country. The results are still troublesome though.

 

[RAX 010]

Religion is a mental illness
How Ironic

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

It's been in many threads and you know it..

if you don't want to derail your own thread further......

you should review this statement closer. This is the ' true or false' that they gave people to chose from...



They aren't talking about curing AIDS and Mouth Cancer with the holy ghost. When presented with very limited options... Evangelicals (basically the bible thumpers of Christianity) chose True when presented with a limited choice. The study is flawed because, of Course (u dont need a study to tell you) Evangelical belief is that spirituality, pray, and the message is important to mental health. From Marriage to dealing with temptations like gambling addiction.

It's not the craziest things we've ever heard though. They believe that those things help with over all happiness and studies (every study ever done in history) has presented facts to support that there may be some indirect effects that make them right. Pray is a form of meditation - getting your beliefs, thoughts, life, wants and needs wrapped up in a closed eyed focus session + an enlightening (in their opinion) and inspiring message though the 'word'= what? It doesn't equal depression. If your opinion is that they are just ignorant than you are simply succeeding the point, because ignorance is blissful when it makes u feel better.. .

Also, with these studies being full of soo much bullshyt its disgusting - They 1) use leading or narrow questions 2) don't narrow down what they are even referring to. It's set up to get a certain result - Obviously. They don't specify what mental illness they are speaking of..... there are thousands. All we do know is that whether it's sexual or drug dependance, general depression, post tramatic stress, etc etc.......... group support and care is one of the leading recommendations by any professionals. Just because there may be a Bible involved we shouldn't discount it. We also shouldn't ignore the millions - especially drug addicts, who have used the Church as their therapy - -- effectively. IT's not much different than group secessions at a secular clinic, expect there is mandatory meditation and reflection - along with added bonus of giving that person (what they think is) a PURpose.

So I'm not understanding the point of this very stupid and flawed study...... it is to simply point a finger or make fun or Church goers? Is it to single out Evangelicals? Whatever the purpose - I'm sure that it will ignore that fact that there are ways in which that 35% are 100% correct.

Read my response to the Dafunkdoc, in which I linked the original data. This "stupid, flawed study" meant to belittle evangelicals was actually conducted by a Christian organization. They recognize that the distrust and ignorance of mental health and reliance on just prayer among many in the Christian community is a problem that should be addressed.

 

[Dafunkdoc_Unlimited]

Like the article said, they polled random Americans and got 35% of Americans agreeing with the statement. They also asked those people if they identified as born-again, evangelical, or fundamentalist, and of those people, 48% said they agree.

They got 35% of 1,001 people that agreed with the statement. Of that 351, 48% of them identified as born-again, evangelical or fundamentalist which equals 168 people.

That's .00006% of the world's Christian population.

Unless I'm using incorrect numbers, there are more important matters to attend to. Also, I know the study wasn't done to 'belittle' anyone. It just isn't a 'big enough' problem, IMO, and that's a good thing.
​

 

[Type Username Here]

You can't overcome a mental illness with mental illness, can you?

 

[Blackking]

Read my response to the Dafunkdoc, in which I linked the original data. This "stupid, flawed study" meant to belittle evangelicals was actually conducted by a Christian organization. They recognize that the distrust and ignorance of mental health and reliance on just prayer among many in the Christian community is a problem that should be addressed.

And you are on hear trying to tell me that Christian organizations don't have agendas and can't produce flawed studies?

 

[Brown_Pride]

Read my response to the Dafunkdoc, in which I linked the original data. This "stupid, flawed study" meant to belittle evangelicals was actually conducted by a Christian organization. They recognize that the distrust and ignorance of mental health and reliance on just prayer among many in the Christian community is a problem that should be addressed.

The real question that i would want to know is of those 35% how many ONLY PRAY to solve those issues? I believe prayer can solve a lot of things, it provides comfort, reflection, self mental exploration...i also go see a doctor to get meds if i feel fuked in the head and or depressed or any other mental or physical illness...yet i believe in prayer.

Believing in prayer and ONLY using prayer are totally different things.

 

[tru_m.a.c]

When presented with very limited options... Evangelicals (basically the bible thumpers of Christianity)

So I'm not understanding the point of this very stupid and flawed study...... it is to simply point a finger or make fun or Church goers? Is it to single out Evangelicals?

you did a pretty good job

try to discredit a study for being hostile towards a population by insulting the population yourself brehs

Whatever the purpose - I'm sure that it will ignore that fact that there are ways in which that 35% are 100% correct.

breh, anyone that thinks schizophrenia can be cured by bible study needs to catch a johnny cage split punch to the gonads.

But I'm curious to know, what ways the 35% are 100% correct? Is this an oversimplification of flexible philosophies like the importance of family or personal strength, tailored to meet religious guidelines?

I'm confused by this statement. Are you projecting your criticism of non theistic beliefs by making a blanket statement for religion. Or are you in fact defending certain individual Evangelical beliefs that bring them closer to the God as 100% correct?

 

[tru_m.a.c]

The real question that i would want to know is of those 35% how many ONLY PRAY to solve those issues? I believe prayer can solve a lot of things, it provides comfort, reflection, self mental exploration...i also go see a doctor to get meds if i feel fuked in the head and or depressed or any other mental or physical illness...yet i believe in prayer.

Believing in prayer and ONLY using prayer are totally different things.

*Oh thats fukkn wild, I had some shyt typed up and it got deleted*

isn't that the major critique us non theist have against you guys. Your ability to pick and choose when only to believe and when to accept other avenues is quite confusing.

And every time we call y'all out on that, you fade to black with:
1) only god can judge me/know my heart
2) being a *insert religion* is hard. But I'm on the right path. *Insert quote 1*
3) this is the right way. All other believers are just cults. They have interpreted the word wrong.

If they caught a cold, they'd go get some theraflu. If they broke their leg, go to the ER. If they got parkinsons or alzheimers, they'd be diagnosed by a physician and wouldn't look back. What gives them the liberty to BELIEVE that something like schizophrenia can be cured by prayers.

The answer is pretty simple. For the other conditions, science has already discovered the answer and rendered their belief obsolete.

I don't understand how you can have a belief about a medical condition, when you don't even understand its pathophysiology

 

[Blackking]

they shot themselves in the foot. furthermore, i really was addressing the opinions from posters about what they think of the study.

Also, have you seen what churches do for some 'mental illnesses.? Do you know how many clinics and treatment centers are ran by Christian organizations. It's not like they are completely off base - and that's my main point.

And there is no diss to atheist.... but clearly the diss by atheist to Christians is unwarranted in this case - as the study was flawed.

 

[Brown_Pride]

*hold on*

Think about it. How many people do you see in a hospital praying next to their loved ones? If it was ONLY prayer they would be hold up in their own home. You can believe in medicine and in God. Most do.

Ergo the question being a bit misleading. I believe in miracles, i believe it is possible that God can sometimes choose to perform miracles. So techinically sure, i believe it's possible for prayer to cure disease...that being said I believe in medicine.

Story time:
There's a man stuck in a flood. He see's his house is flooding, he prays to God to deliver him. A police officer comes and says, "sir, you need to evacuate," the man says, "i believe God will deliver me. The flood waters rise. The man is now in his upstairs bedroom, he hears the calls of his neighbors, they are in a boat. They call out to him, "you need to evacuate you're going to die," the man responds, "I'm praying and God will deliver me." The food waters rise. The man is now stuck on his roof, a helicopter comes bay, they lower a basket and tell him they are there to save him. He tells them, "I'm praying and God will deliver me." The flood waters rise. The man dies.

He get's to heaven and tells god, "God, why did you not answer my prayers?" God looks at him and says, "first i sent the police, then your neighbors and finally a helicopter "

Needless to say I take medicine.

 

[Sensitive Blake Griffin]

Think about it. How many people do you see in a hospital praying next to their loved ones?

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/04.06/05-prayer.html

"In total, complications occurred in 59 percent of those who were prayed for, compared with 51 percent of those who received no prayers, a significant difference."

pray for loved ones in the hospital, brehs.

It's 2013. How many thousands of years does it take to prove that prayer doesn't work?