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helviragoThis is a major peeve of mine.
Nurture your spiritual side. Faith not only provides valuable support, but it's a way to focus on something other than yourself. "Study after study finds that actively religious people are happier, and that they cope better with crises," says Myers.
It bothers me every time I see something like this. It's all well and good that religious people get various health and happiness benefits, but it's not a freaking bathroom freshener, people! Everything else on the list is something you can choose to do -- exercise, act outgoing even if you don't feel like it, work on your friendships -- which implies that this would be too. I suppose if you're already religious, it's all well and good, you could just be more active. But if you're not, it's just... taunting. "See? If only you were religious! You'd live longer!" Yeah, thanks, that's insufficient evidence of divinity for me. Maybe if they start doing product giveaways in church...
I guess it particularly bothers me because I'm agnostic. I know a lot about Christianity, I have a lot of respect for (many) believers, I'm not ruling it out. But for these reasons and more, it's something pretty serious to me. It's not something I pick up in the supermarket because it's got less fat than the alternative.
Enough ranting. Next post will have cute meaningless quiz stuff.
Nurture your spiritual side. Faith not only provides valuable support, but it's a way to focus on something other than yourself. "Study after study finds that actively religious people are happier, and that they cope better with crises," says Myers.
It bothers me every time I see something like this. It's all well and good that religious people get various health and happiness benefits, but it's not a freaking bathroom freshener, people! Everything else on the list is something you can choose to do -- exercise, act outgoing even if you don't feel like it, work on your friendships -- which implies that this would be too. I suppose if you're already religious, it's all well and good, you could just be more active. But if you're not, it's just... taunting. "See? If only you were religious! You'd live longer!" Yeah, thanks, that's insufficient evidence of divinity for me. Maybe if they start doing product giveaways in church...
I guess it particularly bothers me because I'm agnostic. I know a lot about Christianity, I have a lot of respect for (many) believers, I'm not ruling it out. But for these reasons and more, it's something pretty serious to me. It's not something I pick up in the supermarket because it's got less fat than the alternative.
Enough ranting. Next post will have cute meaningless quiz stuff.
