Are long life-spans putting religion on the ropes?

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(CBS) Researchers have come up with a surprising explanation for the long decline in church attendance in the U.S. and other developed countries: We're living longer, so we're less worried about what happens after death.

"Many religions and societies link to some degree the cumulative amount of religious effort to benefits in the afterlife," Dr. Elissaios Papyrakis of the University of East Anglia in England, said in a written statement describing a new study he co-authored. "We show that higher life expectancy discounts expected benefits in the afterlife and is therefore likely to lead to postponement of religiosity, without necessarily jeopardizing benefits in the afterlife."

In other words, if you're more confident that you won't be meeting your maker anytime soon, you're less likely to attend worship services.

The study, published online in the International Journal of Social Economics, is fraught with irony.

Previous research showed that regular churchgoers live longer than people who seldom or never attend worship services. A 1999 study published in the journal "Demography," for example, showed that people who go to church at least once a week live about seven years longer than people who never attend, according to Science Daily.

Frequent churchgoers may be less likely to smoke and or to engage in heavy drinking - and more likely to have strong emotional and practical support when health challenges arise, the researchers behind that study said. But these factors didn't seem to fully explain the link between religiosity and longevity observed in the study.

That raises the question: Is God responsible for letting people live into old age? If so, is she putting herself out of business?

[Clark Nova]

Maybe if you live long enough you can develop a little common sense and see through the whole sky-daddy meme, even if you started out badly.

[johngarvey]

The problem is that some, if not a majority, of people were taught to believe in whatever, and that it would mean death, or near death, if they did not believe. Thank you for sharing your comment.

[amerilatino]

Maybe it's the other way around, maybe one of the reasons folks are living longer is because they have figured that they can live without the stress caused by the broomstick that the more esoteric rules of religion try to shove up their ...

[johngarvey]

Being calm, relaxed, and logical, are definetly three paths to a longer life. Thank you for your eye opening comment.

[dgmeansit]

I believe it is quite foolish to think that living longer has anything to do with one's beliefs. I think that many people are turning away from religion because of increased education and access to information about the universe that has never been known to previous generations. It's not so easy for the Catholic Church of today to hide the truth as they once did to maintain their power base; for example!

[johngarvey]

Thank you for your intelligent response. I learned much from your comment.

[babooph]

Maybe older people have gotten wise to some delusions....

[dgmeansit]

It is quite possible, even probable, that as one ages their beliefs change in some way. As a young man (less than 20) I believed in what I was taught in a Babtist church. After that, I logically came to the conclusion that all I had been taught in that church was just poppycock; for lack of a better word.

[johngarvey]

My reply is that they based their decline in people not believing as they age to less money dropped in weekly collections. I think this has more to do with poverty than the logic that should cause understanding of the church's tales to be declared false.

[rwsmith29456]

Fear of death isn't the only reason for practicing a religion.

[johngarvey]

Thank you for your comment. What else, besides entry, water on the baby, marriage, and burial, do you see as reasons for faith ?

[freeb22]

"The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one."
- George Bernard Shaw

"A man without religion is like a fish without a bicycle."
- Murphy's Laws

"I do not fear death, in view of the fact that I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it."
- Mark Twain

[Clark Nova]

That's not one of Murphy's laws, it's a quote from San Francisco's late lamented columnist, Herb Caen.

[johngarvey]

You are a brilliant man. The sharing of these quotes to a topic they concern is awe inspiring. Thank you.

[johngarvey]

Longevity of life may also increase one's feeling of control of their life, rather than attending religous services.

[johngarvey]

A belief that you control your ability to live, and not your faith, would be a tough sale, for even the best salesperson.