Setting all theological tenets, such as the concept of eternal life, aside, it is an incontrovertible fact that belief in any religious teachings can prolong your life by reducing the stresses caused by the uncertainty of our daily life.
Stress kills! According to Dr. Carol J. Scott, stress can cause sudden cardiac arrests without any warning. On the average, 2,400 American men and women die of heart attacks everyday. That is roughly one fatal heart attack every 36 seconds. CVD (Cardiovascular Disease) claims more lives then cancer, accidents, diabetes, and lower respiratory disease combined. Stress has become the social disease of the 21st century and almost everyone suffers from it. Therefore, anything that relieves stress can prolong our lives.
I am a Born Again Christian but not everyone believes as I do and that is ok. I respect everyone’s right to believe as they choose. Whatever your beliefs are, whether you are a practicing Christian, Muslim, Taoist, Shinto, Confucian, etc., does not matter. What matters is that any belief that takes the full responsibility for what happens to you or in your life off your shoulders and places that responsibility on the shoulders of some omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God will relieve stress and prolong your life.
When I first met my wife to be, we had our own kind of holy wars because she was a practicing Catholic and I a fire and brimstone preaching Born Again Christian and we believe that any ritualized worship is wrong and Catholics are very ritualistic in their chosen style of worship. What I learned is that all that did not really matter because we both served the same God who we turned to in times of trouble and stress. My human philosophy on life has always been that if there was something going wrong in my life and I could do something to make the situation better, I would act and not worry about it. On the other hand, if I could not do anything to make it better, I would accept it and not worry about it. Accepting those things that I could not change without worrying about them was easy for me because as a Christian I believe that every things works for the good for those who truly believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. The same principle applies to anyone who firmly believes that the god they choose to place their faith in has total control over their lives.
Ones theological beliefs and practices can prolong ones life, but one must truly believe with their whole mind, body, and soul for it to work.
