god is in the chemicals

When I discovered the 23 February 2009 issue of Time magazine in my mailbox I was seething with skepticism. Plastered across the cover was the profile of a middle-aged white woman, eyes closed and hands clasped together. Why the hell is an evil, liberal publication such as Time dedicating a double issue to religion, mind and body, which features the cover story "How Faith Can Heal"? Shouldn't this publication be spending its time and effort furthering the dastardly Socialist agenda of the Barack Hussein (his middle name is Hussein, were you aware of that!) Obama Administration?

Of course I'm kidding. The cover story is actually comprised of four pieces. The main article, "The Biology of Belief," (written by Jeffrey Kluger and located here at the Time site) was thoroughly researched and chock full of intriguing data. Kluger attempts to reconcile the gap between science and religion by presenting some university studies that suggests faith contributes to a longer, healthier life.

• Prayer or meditation permanently changes the brain; "long-term meditators appear to have thicker frontal lobes … people who describe themselves as highly spiritual tend to exhibit an asymmetry in the thalamus. And better-functioning frontal lobes help boost memory."
  
• "Social demographer Robert Hummer of the University of Texas has been following a population of subjects since 1992. Those who never attend religious services have twice the risk of dying over the next eight years as people who attend once a week. People who fall somewhere between no churchgoing and weekly churchgoing also fall somewhere between in terms of mortality."
  
• "Daniel Hall, an Episcopal priest and a surgeon at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, found that church attendance accounts for two to three additional years of life."
  
• "Neal Krause, a sociologist and public-health expert at the University of Michigan, [has been studying] 1,500 people … since 1997. He has focused particularly on how regular churchgoers weather economic downturns as well as the stresses and health woes that go along with them. Not surprisingly, he has found that parishioners benefit when they receive social support from their church. But he has also found that those people who give help fare even better than those who receive it — a pillar of religious belief if ever there was one. He has also found that people who maintain a sense of gratitude for what's going right in their lives have a reduced incidence of depression, which is itself a predictor of health. And in another study he conducted that was just accepted for publication, he found that people who believe their lives have meaning live longer than people who don't."
  

As I read these data, I asked myself a series of questions: Do you want a life that is less stressful? Yes. Do you want a healthier, longer life? Yes. Do you believe in god? Mmmm, no. But all you have to do is roll the dice, pass Go and collect $200! Yeah, but I think faith requires more than a simple nod and a "Yep, I'm down with that."

See, I don't have a beef with god. I don't. And it's not an ego thing; I'm not trying to compensate for my shortcomings. I simply find the existence of god illogical. And it's not as if I haven't been down that spiritual path. I have experienced enough "spiritual awakenings" for a couple lifetimes, some of which have occurred since this blog's inception (and, duh, of course I blogged about 'em). But those "awakenings" fizzled, which is odd, because when you are enraptured in that kind of supernatural reality, everything feels permanent and ecstatic, and you feel as though you have reached an inescapable plateau, you've acquired infinite knowledge that has changed your life forever.

But it won't.

(And before I proceed, I'm not one of those haughty atheists who espouses his poignant knowledge to the willing and unwilling alike. Largely, I respect people of faith; however, the very faith that allows some to love all allows others to condemn "sinners.")

So is god at work? Is god blessing congregations across the fruited plain with health and peace? No. It is my opinion that many of the curious discrepancies between churchgoers and heretics can be explained not by something that defies science and logic, but by a fundamental medical fact: the placebo effect. Healing can be facilitated by creating a belief in the possibility of being healed. Consider this: in "The Biology of Belief," Dr. Andrew Newberg, a professor of radiology, psychology and religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania, "describes a cancer patient whose tumors shrank when he was given an experimental drug, grew back when he learned that the drug was ineffective in other patients and shrank again when his doctor administered sterile water but said it was a more powerful version of the medication. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration ultimately declared the drug ineffective, and the patient died."

And this case is not extraordinary. Placebos play a crucial role in medical studies and, most significantly, illustrate the brain's function in physical and mental health. Granted it is not the most reliable source, but I encourage you to at least check out (if you are interested, of course) the Wiki entry for placebo – it's a great starting point for a most fascinating topic.

"The placebo is dead! Long live the placebo!"

xx