Proposition of Value Paper
RESOLUTIONAL ANALYSIS
Background of controversy: Secular humanism, or the idea that humans can behave morally and
realize self-fulfillment without a belief in God, dates back to pre-Socratic philosophy and existed
alongside the polytheistic theologies of the Greek and Roman empires. This concept disappeared
from Western civilization when classical society crumbled with the resulting
philosophical/theological void being replaced for the most part by the monotheistic religions of
Judaism, Christianity and Islam until the Renaissance and Enlightenment brought about the
reappearance of humanistic ideas. Many, if not all, of the Founding Fathers of the United States
were students of the Enlightenment despite also being Christian. These men established a nation
where freedom to worship was guaranteed, but where religion was also held separate from the
state--the radical notion of a government of the people, where the institution of religion would
not govern. As America developed into the richest, most powerful, and arguably, the most
influential nation of modern times, the conflict as to whether secular humanism or institutional
religion is more beneficial than the other, has been a source of (sometimes heated) debate. Many
recent studies have attempted to quantify the societal benefits of institutional religion vs. secular
humanism in terms of the problems of today--health, happiness, philanthropy, and civic
participation. Research leads to the following argument:
Proposition of Value: Institutional religion is better for American society than secular
humanism.
Value object: Religion in America.
Definition: For our purposes the definition of institutional religion comes from the New Oxford
American Dictionary which defines institution as “an established official organization having an
important role in the life of a country,” and defines religion as “a particular system of faith and
worship.” Using the same resource, we define secular humanism as: “humanism (an outlook or
system of thought attaching prime importance to human rather than divine or supernatural
matters), with regard in particular to the belief that humanity is capable of morality and selffulfillment without belief in God.” Additionally, religiosity is defined as “belonging to a
monastic order or other group of people who are united by their practice of religion”.
Value: societal benefit.
Claim A: Americans who are involved with religious institutions live happier lives.
Grounds A1: Recent studies reveal this in a 2010 LiveScience article, “Why Religion Makes
People Happy (Hint: Not God)”: “Religious people are more satisfied with their lives than
nonbelievers, but a new study finds it's not a relationship with God that makes the devout happy.
Instead, the satisfaction boost may come from closer ties to earthly neighbors. According to a
study published today (Dec. 7) in the journal American Sociological Review, religious people
gain life satisfaction thanks to social networks they build by attending religious services. The
results apply to Catholics and mainline and evangelical Protestants. The number of Jews,
Mormons, Muslims and people of other religions interviewed was too small to draw conclusions
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about those populations, according to study researcher Chaeyoon Lim, a sociologist at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison. The surveys showed that across all creeds, religious people
were more satisfied than non-religious people. According to the data, about 28 percent of people
who attended a religious service weekly were "extremely satisfied" with their lives, compared
with 19.6 percent of people who never attended services.”
Warrant A1: “The pursuit of happiness” has long been an important quality in American
society. One element of happiness is life satisfaction; the study demonstrates that belonging to a
religious institution results in more life satisfaction than a secular lifestyle.
(causation/generalization)
Backing A1: According to a 2006 Washington Times article, Live Science is a “Web site
encompassing all the latest advances and innovations in science and technology. Live Science's
mission is to give the intellectually curious a concise look at breakthroughs, research adventures
and oddities around the world in an online newsmagazine format.” It is managed by media outlet
TechMediaNetwork, Inc.
Grounds A2: In American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us published in Oct. 2010,
Robert Putnam and David E. Campbell further expand the concept of life satisfaction and its
connection to religiosity: “Many researchers have found that religious people are happier.
Indeed, a common finding is that religiosity is among the closest correlates of life satisfaction, at
least as strong as income. Why that might be true remains a matter of some controversy (like
almost everything else about religion). However, to our surprise, the linkage between religion
and life satisfaction seems to be virtually identical in form to the linkage between religion and
good neighborliness: religious friends remain very important, even when we compare people
with equal numbers of friends overall, and in that sense religious friendship seems supercharged.
Moreover, as with good neighborliness, the effects of religious social networks do not depend on
maintaining a religiously homogeneous social environment; on the contrary, people whose
closest friends are all from the same religion are, other things being equal, less happy than those
whose friends are diverse.”
Warrant A2: Again, the correlation between religiosity and life satisfaction is demonstrated.
Additionally, diversity, tolerance and good neighborliness are important factors in a strong
democratic society. Institutional religion provides and encourages this kind of beneficial
camaraderie whereas secular organization could tend to be divided along racial, class or gender
lines. (causation/generalization)
Backing A2: Robert D. Putnam is Harvard Public Policy Professor and David E. Campbell is
founding director of the Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy at the University
of Notre Dame. Their conclusions are based primarily on the results of two Faith Matters
surveys, using a randomly selected, national sample of 5,017 Americans, as well as results from
the General Social Survey, the National Election Studies, the Pew Religion and Public Life
surveys, and “other comparable, publicly available sources of data.”
Claim B: Americans who belong to religious institutions are healthier than their “stay away”
counterparts.
Grounds B1: U.S. health studies conducted comparing the health of U.S. religious with nonreligious Americans reveal an interesting phenomenon. A 2012 Psychology Today article, “Are
Religious People Healthier?” further explores the religion-health connection in the U.S.: “As a
group, Americans who attend church regularly are healthier than stay aways. They lead longer
lives, have more robust immune systems, lower blood pressure, and better recovery times from
operations, although these claims have been disputed. Apart from giving people a sense of
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purpose, religious communities comprise a social support system and this accounts for some of
the health benefits of religious participation. Another beneficial feature shared by all religions is
prayer and ritual that help members to manage stress. Researchers at Duke University found that
religious rituals function as an anti-stress mechanism. They demonstrated that individual prayer,
as well as church services, reduce blood pressure, high blood pressure being a reliable index of
psychological stress. Elevated blood pressure causes heart disease and heart disease is the
number one killer in many developed countries.”
Warrant B1: Stress relief is important to a healthy lifestyle and a healthy population benefits
any society. (causation/generalization)
Grounds B2: Alcoholism remains a challenge to health, especially teen health in American
society. Among studies linking religion to drug and alcohol abuse, religiosity has been found to
have a positive mitigating effect on teen alcoholism in a study published in Alcoholism: Clinical
and Experimental Research in Sep. 2010: “In adolescence, genetic variance of problem alcohol
use decreased significantly with increasing levels of religiosity in both men and women, whereas
in early adulthood, religiosity did not moderate the genetic variance of problem alcohol use in
either men or women. Religiosity appears to moderate the genetic effects on problem alcohol use
during adolescence, but not during early adulthood. The reduced genetic variance for problem
alcohol use in adolescence may be the consequence of greater social control in adolescence than
in young adulthood.”
Warrant B2: Health benefits of institutional religion are demonstrated again. This time in a
study dealing with the recognized health problem of teen alcoholism. (causation/generalization)
Grounds B3: Teen birth rates also negatively impact American societal health due to both
medical (low birth weight, premature births) and psychosocial (resulting poverty and need for
social support) difficulties. Connection to institutional religion provides a mitigating effect as
demonstrated by a 2012 study published in Demographic Research entitled, “Spatially varying
predictors of teenage birth rates among counties in the United States.”: “The OLS (ordinary least
squares) metropolitan county model results revealed that with an increase in the religiosity index
of 0.09, the TBR (teen birth rate) decreases by approximately 8 births per 1,000 females. The
GWR (geographically weighted regression) results also show a negative relationship between the
religiosity index and the TBR in the majority of the significant counties. The reduction in the
TBR across counties ranges from approximately 2 to 16.5 births per 1,000 females. The largest
decreases in the TBR can be found along the west coast and in Georgia and South Carolina,
while the majority of the significant metropolitan counties experience a decrease in the TBR with
higher religiosity.”
Warrant B3: An increase in teen birth rates has demonstrated adverse consequences to the
mother and child, as well as to the overall health of American society. The influence of
religiosity in reducing teen pregnancy is demonstrated by these study results.
(causation/generalization)
Backing B3: The study referenced was a 2012 “county-level analysis of all counties in the
continental US,” using “data from the US decennial census and other governmental agencies
such as the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)” gathered by the authors, Carla Shoff
and Tse-Chuan Yang. The study drew its conclusions using the “ordinary least squares”
statistical model as a “maximum likelihood indicator” to determine accuracy of the survey.
Grounds B4: Unlike secular humanism, institutional religion encourages and provides
opportunities for praying, both individually and in community. The benefits of prayer relating to
improved health are outlined in a 2011 TIME article by Meredith Melnick, “More Americans
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Are Praying About Their Health.”: “More Americans are praying about health issues — both for
themselves and for the health of others — according to a new study published in the journal
Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. And the increase in prayer as a “coping resource,” as the
paper puts it, occurred in people whether or not they had health insurance or whether their health
had taken a turn for the better or worse. Researchers analyzed data from the National Health
Interview Survey, which is conducted regularly by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. The new study focused mainly on surveys from 2002 and 2007, which showed that
the percentage of adults praying for their health had increased from 43% to 49% over that time
period. The study characterized prayer as a form of “alternative medicine.” Indeed, some
research shows that the practice of meditation and mindfulness may have some health benefits,
including improving the rate of pregnancy in women undergoing IVF and helping patients with
chronic pain.”
Warrant B4: The encouragement and benefit of prayer in the study’s evidence are further
examples of the positive effect institutional religion can better provide to American society than
its secular counterpart. (generalization).
Backing B4: Psychology of Religion and Spirituality is a peer-reviewed academic journal
published by the American Psychological Association. The articles published are original and
explore the relationship between psychology and religion/spirituality.
Conclusion: While there remains controversy as to whether institutional religions can take full
credit for many of the societal benefits mentioned in this argument, the fact remains, that in
America today, religious institutions may be better at providing answers and solutions to societal
ills. Further, the positive influence on American’s health and happiness provided by institutional
religion leads to the conclusion that institutional religion as it exists today, is better for American
society than secular humanism.
Sources Cited:
Barber, Nigel. “Are Religious People Healthier?” Psychology Today. 22 Dec. 2012. Web. 9 Apr.
2013.
Button, Tanya M. M. et al. “The Moderating Effect of Religiosity on the Genetic Variance of
Problem Alcohol Use.” Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. 34.9 (2010):
1619-1624. Web. 10 Apr. 2013.
Melnick, Meredith. “More Americans Are Praying About Their Health.” TIME. 26 May 2011.
Web. 16 Apr. 2013.
Pappas, Stephanie. “Why Religion Makes People Happier (Hint: Not God). LiveScience. 6 Dec.
2010. Web. 5 Apr. 2013.
Putnam, Robert D. Campbell, David E (2010-10-05). American Grace: How Religion Divides
and Unites Us. (Kindle Location 7014). Simon & Schuster, Inc. Kindle Edition.
Szadkowski, Joseph. “Newsy Live Science quenches curiosity.” The Washington Times. 16 June
2005. Web. 17 Apr. 2013.
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Shoff, Carla, and Tse-Chuan Yang. "Spatially varying predictors of teenage birth rates among
counties in the United States." Demographic Research 27 (2012): 377+. Academic OneFile.
Web. 9 Apr. 2013.
The New Oxford American Dictionary. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. Software
Version 2.2.3 (118.5).
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