The Evolution of Civilization

[PsychoSarah]

Show me your evidence. According to science religious people on the average life five years longer.

The same studies also found that the reason why wasn't the religion itself, but being active in the community. That is, only the religious people that attended church regularly and connected with people there had any benefit, and the same exact benefits are seen in non-religious people that connect with the people in their community. Being a part of a community is the source of the benefits, not religion.

Having people around you to fall back on in times of emotional and physical need will lengthen your life. Going to a chess club every weekend will get you the same benefit as going to church every Sunday.

They tend not to smoke, drink and avoid living a high risk life style.

Again, the only time drops in drug abuse are seen is in people highly active when it comes to their religion, and again, the reason is due to connecting with other people, not being religious. But if you want some real drops in alcoholism, you should check out a Muslim crowd rather than a Christian one, seeing as that religion actually bans its consumption.

Also, would you define committing crimes as part of a high risk lifestyle? Because religion has a POSITIVE correlation with crime.

Many atheists live a temperate lifestyle because they see the advantages to that.

Temperate means "showing moderation or self-restraint". This is the type of lifestyle you have been asserting is a benefit of religion. It goes against your argument to suggest plenty of atheists live this way.

 

[joshua 1 9]

The same studies also found that the reason why wasn't the religion itself, but being active in the community.

Exactly, we have to walk our talk, thank you for helping me make my point

 

[joshua 1 9]

the same exact benefits are seen in non-religious people

Of course, God is not mocked. What He does for one person He will do for all.

Acts 10:34(KJV) Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:

 

[joshua 1 9]

Why do people who live in countries with much lower belief in a god, have longer life spans than the US?

Science kills people off before their time.

 

[joshua 1 9]

Amen...BUT...the Apostle Paul could NOT live that perfect sinless life.

Paul is saying we can not live in the flesh and please God. We have to live according to the spirit.

2Peter3:16 "He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction."

 

[bhsmte]

Science kills people off before their time.

Has zero to do with my point.

 

[JackRT]

Perhaps the best book I have ever read on the topic of the evolution of human societies is "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond. Below is an extract from a book review by Mal Warwick on the Amazon website.

In a Prologue, Diamond poses the question at the heart of this book. He quotes a friend in what is now Papua New Guinea from a conversation in 1972, when he was studying bird evolution there: “‘Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo [goods] and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?'” To answer the question, Diamond begins his story around the year 11,000 BCE, when the last Ice Age was drawing to a close and human beings were beginning to form villages in a few places around the world. It’s unclear whether the formation of villages preceded the deliberate cultivation and production of food, or vice versa. However, regardless of the sequence, that shift from hunter-gatherer society to agriculturally based settlements set in motion the course of events that have led to the “civilization” in which we live.

Diamond argues, convincingly, that the much greater availability of domesticable plants and large animals in Eurasia than in sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas. Furthermore, he explains that the east-west orientation of Eurasia from the Bering Strait to the Atlantic Ocean made it possible for the development of agriculture and animal husbandry to spread quickly to distant lands. By contrast, the north-south orientation of the Americas and sub-Saharan Africa—and the presence of barriers such as the Sahara Desert, the Panamanian Isthmus, and the deserts of northern Mexico and southwestern United States—impeded the spread of these (and, later, other) new technologies to the extremities of those continents. The advent of food production enabled the development of ever-larger settlements. This, in turn, spelled the emergence of labor specialization and eventually the growth of empires as well as the appearance and spread of communicable diseases contracted from domesticated animals. Those differences in historical development eventually led to the “guns, germs, and steel” that made Eurasian dominance possible—and dictated the huge differences in economic development between what today we call East and West.

Guns, Germs, and Steel is crammed with facts and densely written. It doesn’t make for light reading. But if you have any interest in understanding how the world came to be as it is, you’ll find this book highly rewarding.

 

[lesliedellow]

Why do people who live in countries with much lower belief in a god, have longer life spans than the US?

The circumference of the average American might have something to do with it. Climb into a gas guzzler to drive half a mile.

 

[JackRT]

The circumference of the average American might have something to do with it. Climb into a gas guzzler to drive half a mile.

When the man they shoot out of a cannon at the circus was killed in a car accident, the ringmaster was really emotional --- "It will be difficult to find another man of the same caliber".

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

When the man they shoot out of a cannon at the circus was killed in a car accident, the ringmaster was really emotional --- "It will be difficult to find another man of the same caliber".

Nice one!

Reminds me of the reference given for the worker a company was glad to be rid of, "You will be lucky to get this man to work for you".

 

[bhsmte]

The circumference of the average American might have something to do with it. Climb into a gas guzzler to drive half a mile.

Thatis one factor, no question.

 

[joshua 1 9]

Has zero to do with my point.

I reduced it to the lowest common denominator.

 

[bhsmte]

I reduced it to the lowest common denominator.

You reduced it to a reponse that did not address my post. Read it again and see if you can address the point directly.

 

[PsychoSarah]

Of course, God is not mocked. What He does for one person He will do for all.

Acts 10:34(KJV) Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:

-_- no, I meant in people that connect in their communities in general. They don't need to be in churches to get the benefit. Also, your quote has nothing to do with your claim in this post.

 

[PsychoSarah]

Exactly, we have to walk our talk, thank you for helping me make my point

-_- your point was literally the opposite, since you were claiming that religious people on average live longer than non-religious people, and that this was some indication of religious people being right.

 

[joshua 1 9]

your point was literally the opposite,

The point is we have to walk our talk and do what the Bible says to do. Then we can receive the results that the Bible says we will receive. We have to follow the blueprint that God provides for us.

 

[Warden_of_the_Storm]

The point is we have to walk our talk and do what the Bible says to do. Then we can receive the results that the Bible says we will receive. We have to follow the blueprint that God provides for us.

Your said that religious people lived five years longer on average than nonreligious people simply because they are religious. When you were asked for evidence, you gave none.
This is really becoming a sad routine for you.

 

[joshua 1 9]

I meant in people that connect in their communities in general. They don't need to be in churches to get the benefit.

Yes, the benefit seems to be in joining and being a functional part of a community center. It could be a synagogue or a mosque, it does not have to be a church. This is a good place for people to learn social skills and how to communicate with people.

 

[joshua 1 9]

Your said that religious people lived five years longer on average than nonreligious people simply because they are religious. When you were asked for evidence, you gave none.
This is really becoming a sad routine for you.

Is this a flame in violation of the rules? I can give you tons of evidence. Study after study on this subject. But I am not going to tolerate personal attacks.

 

[Warden_of_the_Storm]

Is this a flame in violation of the rules? I can give you tons of evidence. Study after study on this subject. But I am not going to tolerate personal attacks.

No, it's not a flame. You said that religious people lived five years longer than non-religious people, then when asked for evidence, you gave none and then you disappeared. Then you came back to give an off-topic reply in a meta-debate that has completely derailed this thread you yourself started.
It's a routine that you keep doing and it's sad because the original thread line was fairly interesting.
Especially when there's new evidence that humans lived in the Americas 20,000 years ago.