Tuesday, April 23, 2013

power of prayer



We are all concerned about our health in one way or another and we process it in our own individual ways. I personally have learned a new way to look at my health through a sociological way. Sociology is the study of the factors that affect us as a society through our surroundings.

 A sociological factor is an influence on our lives that comes from our surroundings. These influences are usually beyond our own control. It’s a factor that we live with every day that we probably don’t consciously recognize. It could be something as simple as the neighborhood that we grew up in, or the color of our skin or even what religion we believe in, but these things impact our health in a deep way.
 As an example people who belong to a religion statistically are healthier. Why do followers of religion have better health statistics?  One theory I have is the since of community that religious people have. Church goers as a group look out for each other and when one member of that group encounters an illness or disability the others will help them with fundraisers for monetary support and prayer for emotional support.
Kenneth Ferraro and Jerome Koch stated that Social scientist and epidemiologist have made important contributions to current knowledge about health and illness by identifying how social structures and processes are related to health and illness. Although religion has been regarded as for consequential for ones well being recent research has on the possible link between religion and health provides new evidence about how the structure of social environments can influence individual actors. Not only can religion affect the mind but emerging shows that religious beliefs and practices may affect bodily state and heath conditions more generally.(Ferraro and Koch,1994)


References

Ferraro, K. F., & Koch, J. R. (1994). Religion and Health Among Black and White Adults: examining Social Support and Consolation. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion33(4), 362. Retrieved April 24, 2013

1 comment:

  1. It is refreshing to see that some are supporting prayer and health as a good combination. The nice thing is that prayer, meditation and church support is free of charge! With the economy the way it is, people are finding it hard to afford some medical care and with this perspective anyone religious or not can find meditation, prayer and support very easy and affordable.

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