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Do you feel good when you go to church ?  I'm not talking about dropping the guilt for all the times you don't, but a true, down deep feeling of peace? That's your brain rewarding you, according to newswise.com. A new study has found that religious and spiritual experiences activate the brain reward circuits in much the same way as love, sex, gambling, drugs and music, report researchers at the University of Utah School of Medicine . “We’re just beginning to understand how the brain participates in experiences that believers interpret as spiritual, divine or transcendent,” says senior author and neuroradiologist Jeff Anderson, M.D., Ph.D. “In the last few years, brain imaging technologies have matured in ways that are letting us approach questions that have been around for millennia.” Specifically, the investigators set out to determine which brain networks are involved in representing spiritual feelings in one group, devout Mormons, by creating an environ...

I'm going back to church. People who do this live longer. At least that's what a new study has found, according to The New York Times.  Researchers used data from a long-term study of 75,534 women that tracked their health and lifestyle, including their attendance at religious services, over 16 years through 2012.  After controlling for more than two dozen factors, they found that compared with those who never went to church, going more than once a week was associated with a 33 percent lower risk for death from any cause, attending once a week with a 26 percent lower risk, and going less than once a week a 13 percent lowered risk. Risks for mortality from cardiovascular disease and cancer followed a similar pattern. The researchers statistically eliminated the possibility of reverse causation — that is, that healthy people go to church more than unhealthy ones. And they found that some variables, such as social support and a tendency not to smoke...

Do you go to church?  Synagogue?  Mosque? Do you know the reason why?  Some go because it's a social event, meeting people you know and like.  Others, because they've lost a job, or a loved one and need comfort.  Even others, like me, because they are desperately hoping for something they don't have and want (a child). When my prayers were finally answered, yes, I became more spiritual.  But it didn't take long to forget about this miracle.  Then I was diagnosed with cancer, twice, and God (or what I call God) came back into my life. But a new study has found that while all these reasons may be what's compelling us, there's something else going on we don't even know about. Researchers say it's because religion satisfies all of the 16 basic desires that humans share.  Say, what? That's right.  Acceptance, curiosity, eating, family, honor, idealism, independence, order, physical activity, power, romance, saving, social contact, statu...

I admit, this distressed me. Adolescents who attend religious services with one or both of their parents are more likely to feel greater well-being, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. Ours does not. Now,our son, who is 13, might have a better excuse than most.  His father is Jewish, his mother, Christian, and though he was bar-mitzvahed, he also celebrates Christmas (Christmas Eve in church) and Easter.  My rules.  (He was also baptized, but my husband doesn't really know what that means.  Just blame it on my Catholic cousins who taught me that those babies who aren't, and die, go to Purgatory, and even though it's undoubtedly untrue, I wasn't taking any chances). The study looked at how spiritual beliefs or behaviors have appeared to strengthen generally happy marriages and how a person’s religious and/or spiritual functioning may influence that of his or her family members. Sadly, once kids have their bar mitzvah...

They've done studies on how going to church can make your life better, but I don't remember any done on synagogues .  And now, we're finding out that going to temple makes Jews feel better, too. Two new Baylor University studies show that "Israeli Jewish adults who attend synagogue regularly, pray often, and consider themselves religious are significantly healthier and happier than their non-religious counterparts," according to a story at newswise.com. They're also more satisfied with life. I'm a regular church goer -- I teach Sunday school and also volunteer at an afterschool homework club there -- and I have to admit that going to church just stabilizes my life.  I also have to say that there have been periods in my life when I've been very angry at God, yet I still needed to go to church on Sunday. Most recently, a young friend with a son my own son's age, died of cancer, and though she had been sick for some time, I was still so mad at ...

According to an op-ed in The New York Times' Sunday Review today, people who go regularly to church live longer. It's not just good for your soul.  It's good for your health. Maybe it's because I go to church every week (and teach Sunday school to rowdy eight-year-olds), but it was exciting to hear that you can add as much as three years to your life, T.M. Luhrmann writes in his op-ed, by attending a religious service often. No one's quite sure why, Luhrmann reports, and it's quite possible it's the social network, the community, it inspires, and activates.  I'm pretty much a loner but when I had cancer surgery six years ago, it helped me to know that I was being prayed for, by a lot of people, some I didn't even know, and I'm convinced that's one of the things that helped me heal faster. But it's not just that.  Back when I was newly living with my boyfriend (now my husband), I made a good friend with an adorable toddler nickname...