In his 1971 song "Imagine," John Lennon asks us to envision a secular utopia. There s no heaven, no hell. Peace and harmony reign, and a global "brotherhood of man" flourishes.
Amid this blissful state of affairs, of course, we find "no religion." Lennon was a talented songwriter, but when it came to theology, he was 180 degrees off. A world free of religion would certainly have no heaven.
But there would be plenty of hell and right here on earth. This isn t simply the opinion of a lady who takes her faith seriously. A large and growing body of social science research shows what a huge difference religious faith makes in our everyday lives.
It s no overstatement, in fact, to say that religion makes civil society possible. Without it, just about every indicator of human misery would be off the charts. For a concise yet comprehensive catalog of just how bad things could be, take a look at , the Heritage Foundation s premier social-science researcher.
In it, he sifts through countless studies that show the remarkable effect of religion on marriage, divorce, child-rearing, drug/alcohol abuse, out-of-wedlock births even mental and physical health. Start with an area near and dear to my heart family relations. My husband and I have raised our three teenagers in a loving, religious household.
Our faith in God has sustained us in good times and bad, and it has been a steady source of inspiration, comfort and encouragement. So I was particularly pleased to read the following in Fagan s paper:
Compared with mothers who did not consider religion important, those who deemed religion to be very important rated their relationship with their child significantly higher.
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