Thought-provoking hypothesis: Diminishing or eliminating religion will further increase the depression epidemic - Agree or disagree?

Many experts believe that depression has become an epidemic. By some estimates, clinical depression is ten times more likely in 2010 than it was in 1910. The WHO predicts that by the year 2020 depression will be the second-leading cause of mortality.

There are many factors that seem to contribute: the goal that our lives should be perfect, our increasingly individualistic culture, job insecurity, the unraveling of the social fabric, the diminished feeling of belonging and commitment to our families and communities, and less social support and fewer meaningful connections to others.

Source: Sonja Lyubomirsky

Suicide rates for the Amish of Lancaster County were 5.5 per 100,000 in 1980, about half that of the general population and a third the rate of the non-religious population.

Epidemiologist William Strawbridge and his co-workers followed 5286 Alameda, California, adults over 28 years. After adjusting for age and education, the researchers found that not smoking, regular exercise, and religious attendance all predicted a lowered risk of death in any given year. Women attending weekly religious services, for example, were only 54 percent as likely to die in a typical study year as were nonattenders.

In a national health survey financed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, religiously active people had longer life expectancies.

Although the religion-health correlation is yet to be fully explained, Harold Pincus (1997), deputy medical director of the American Psychiatric Association, believes these findings “have made clear that anyone involved in providing health care services…cannot ignore…the important connections between spirituality, religion, and health.”

Source: http://www.davidmyers.org/Brix?pageID=52

Opinions?

Does religion/spirituality make us healthier?

Does tolerant religion (free of zeal and hatemongering) make us healthier?

Does aggressive atheism make us less healthy?

Is the attempt to eliminate tolerant forms of religion a risk for society?