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Sex & Religion — Perfect Together?
January 17, 2010
A University of Waterloo study recently found that stress and sex are two reasons people turn to religion. You can read the complete story here, but in a nutshell, the researchers gave study participants photos to look at prior to answering questions. When men and women saw photos of people who might be competition on the dating scene, the participants reported greater ties to religious beliefs — especially those that reinforce monogamous relationships. They also reported feeling stronger religious ties when they saw anxiety-causing photos (think slimy worms and gross things).
This isn’t to say that non-religious folks aren’t interested in partnering up, by the way. They just make connections between relationships and religiosity in a different way. The other thing to remember about research studies is that they are always limited by both the thinking of the researchers and the participants. For example, as a gardener, my heart gets all warm and fuzzy when I see worms because I know they’re churning through my soil and saving me work. No anxiety, and, I assume, no impact on my religiosity.
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