(10-17-2012, 11:01 PM)kandrathe Wrote: So, ok, here is some info I found --
"Religiously unaffiliated subjects had significantly more lifetime suicide attempts and more first-degree relatives who committed suicide than subjects who endorsed a religious affiliation. Unaffiliated subjects were younger, less often married, less often had children, and had less contact with family members. Furthermore, subjects with no religious affiliation perceived fewer reasons for living, particularly fewer moral objections to suicide. In terms of clinical characteristics, religiously unaffiliated subjects had more lifetime impulsivity, aggression, and past substance use disorder. No differences in the level of subjective and objective depression, hopelessness, or stressful life events were found." - link.
But, again, I would be cautious in equating a link between atheism and suicide without investigating additional factors. For example, other things that might contribute to isolation, such as their profession, IQ, work habit, etcetera. It just might be that a person who is in the high suicide risk population would be there due to their high IQ, and thereby may have fewer friends who understand them. Or, it may be a contributing factor in that their may be few non-religious venues for help. Is the problem then the individuals marginalizing choice, or society's lack of equal access to counseling services?
They control for most of that - income, race, social factors, etc...
Leaving aside my usual nails-on-chalkboard reaction to excessive reliance on statistical significance testing as the only relevant factor, I have some issues with their interpretation. First, their n is relatively small for the irreligious, being only 70 or so, and their characteristics are noted as being biased towards the factors that they themselves find to be associated with suicide: Aggression, low family obligation, and moral objection to suicide. To really test atheism vs. religion, you'd have to control for all the other variables, especially the ones correlated with suicide, which they clearly have not. They've taken a sample of convenience, and are interpreting it as a quasi-controlled experiment. You can try to un-load the dice with statistics, but starting from this position makes their results shaky.
When they do account for this statistically, they do not find that religious affiliation matters. Instead, they find that moral objection to suicide matters. This "mediates" the relationship - it's the thing that really does the causal heavy lifting. Once you control for that channel, they find religion does not appear to matter in any other way. So, people who think suicide is wrong are less likely to commit suicide. Not surprising. But they conclude religion-is-good. I don't understand why, when their own study shows that the key issue is establishing a moral objection to suicide, and not religion per se, which they have not shown to be significant.
On this particular issue, I'm don't believe suicide is an inherently bad thing. Think of two people, one religious, one not, both suicidal. They would rather take their own life, but one does not, because they are afraid of hellfire. Is that person better off? That isn't obvious to me. I believe people have the right to end their own life if they want to, and that stopping this is not necessarily a good thing.
-Jester