“Living Longer”

An interesting short piece by the famous University of Chicago church historian Martin Marty:

https://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/living-longer

I’ve been aware of such findings for quite a few years now, but the science seems to be firming up considerably.

On a virulently anti-Mormon (mostly atheist) message board that I look in upon fairly frequently — deep inside me, there’s always been an aspiring social psychologist — a thread regularly appears on Fridays entitled “What are you drinking tonight?”  Similarly, on Sundays, there is inevitably a thread devoted to what the posters are doing instead of attending sabbath services in “the Cult.”

Those who post on the thread appear to live incredibly rich lives on Sunday.  Contrary to appearances — which strongly suggest that they’re spending at least significant portions of the day sitting in seclusion before a computer screen typing notes to a group of strangers about how much they hate Mormonism and about how fiercely and completely they despise Mormon leaders, their Mormon neighbors, their Mormon family members, and their Mormon ex-spouses (one fellow posts regular satires of the weekly letters that his young nephew, currently serving as a full-time missionary, sends to his family) — the participants on this board apparently spend most Sundays hiking in alpine meadows, eating lavish gourmet breakfasts, sipping fine wines, enjoying trendy music at fashionable venues, luxuriating at beautiful beach resorts, training for marathons, and/or reading very deep experimental fiction.

But now we may know something else that they’re doing on Sundays, rather than attending church:  They’re dying faster.