When Brigham Young said the Sun and Moon were inhabited was that just a Revelation or was it Prophesy?
Careful now, don't wanna' risk your becoming a God in the afterlife!
Christian religion: Jesus died and was reborn. Jesus turned water into wine.
Liberal Religion: Diversity is our strength. Race is only a social construction.
Believing in things that are just no so is not a hallmark only of Mormonism. Liberals believe in their religious nonsense, Christians believe in theirs, Jews believe in their nonsense.
Why not instead look at how the black box of religious belief results in social metrics. Salt Lake City has one of the highest levels of social mobility in the nation, that is some of the greatest movement up and down the income ladder. If you are born poor in SLC you have a far better chance moving up through the income quintiles than you would in Seattle or Los Angeles or Boston, all cities run by liberals.
Mormons families are more stable, less plagued by alcoholism and divorce, they have more children, they're more middle class, they have lower rates of single motherhood, drug abuse, etc. These are actual life influencing consequences,
so why put emphasis on the beliefs if the beliefs produce these results?
Before you go packing your bags and head for Utah, you should know that it's leading the nation with the highest antidepressant usage.
Study Finds Utah Leads Nation in Antidepressant Use
and
Utah No. 1 in online porn subscriptions, report says
Koshergrl has a thread which tells all about porn addicts and how they become serial rapists.
Serial Killers rapists Liked Porn First Page 3 US Message Board - Political Discussion Forum
Thanks for those links. They're interesting. What do they say though? People in Utah are white and middle class. The same dynamic which describes Oregon and Maine. Surely you're not suggesting that Oregon and Maine are hotbeds of Mormonism.
To be fair, most of the positive attributes associated with Mormonism also derive from its whiteness. Mormon America is like 1950s America - June and Ward Cleaver and that's why it has so many positive outcomes.
For those who are hoping for Mormon failure, rest easy, it's coming as Mormonism becomes multicultural. They can't produce the same outcomes seen in Utah's white population in multicultural Mormon populations. This though doesn't take anything away from the accomplishments made in white Mormon communities. Mormonism seems to channel and amplify good behaviors.
As for depression, there are a few balls in the air. Rates of depression, rates of anti-depressant use and the correlations between anti-depressant use and race and income. Once you get all of that nailed down, then you've cleared the decks to see what effect Mormon religion has on anti-depressant use. My guess is no effect at all.
Anti-depressant use:
Approximately 14.3% of whites and 5.0% of African Americans used antidepressants in 1996. In controlled analyses, the prevalence odds ratio for antidepressant use in whites, compared to African Americans, was 1.76 in 1986 and 3.77 in 1996.CONCLUSIONS: African American elders are much less likely to take antidepressants, and the difference in use increased over the 10 years of the survey.
Prevalence of depression:
Prevalence of major depressive disorder differed significantly by racial/ethnic group, with the highest prevalence in White participants =. Mexican American and White individuals had significantly earlier onset of major depressive disorder compared with African American individuals
Correlation of income to diagnosis of depression:
Financial factors may also play a role in the detection rates, according to Akincigil.
Among Medicare beneficiaries, African-Americans are substantially less likely than non-Hispanic whites to have private supplemental insurance that covers charges larger than standard Medicare-approved amounts.
“Differences in provider reimbursement may favor increased clinical detection of depression in white patient groups if higher payment rates result in longer visits,” she said.