I am not looking for a debate (yet). But having a discussion about the power of prayer with a friend made me wonder if christians live longer than athiests (or hiindus or moslems for that matter), once other factors have been accounted for. This would be some evidence for (christian) spiritual healing if it existed.
They live eternally, so hard to beat that. 
Not much data on prayer although there have been some equivocal studies.
Nuttin’ on spiritual healing. I am reasonably close to that crowd and they are uninterested in close inspection of any kind.
No it wouldn’t at all. There are many confounding factors. The big one is that married people are known to live longer so, if you found that fundamentalist Christian people lived longer than those that aren’t, it could be due to the lifestyle and choices they lead (I am assuming a correlation there myself but it doesn’t matter because there are a number of confounding factors that could lead to longer life other than the spiritual: or maybe the belief does have an effect: you have to test for that exclusively).
You are looking for a correlation leading to a causation and it usually can’t be done and, when it can, it may not mean what you think it means. You indicated that you wanted other factors controlled for and that isn’t really possible.
I expect Christians in poorer countries live shorter lives than wealthy atheists.
This would of course show that God loves the secular rich. :smack:
You would have to find a way to control for economic and geographical disparities and then you’d still have a host of other variables, including genetic factors. I doubt it’s testable, but I can’t conceive of any reason why specific religious belief should make any difference. Faith in general, maybe, inasmuch as it may have a tempering affect on lifestyle choices or reduce stress.
Source: NY Times - 31 March 2007
Sam Harris made some related observations:
Countries like Norway, Iceland, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Japan, the Netherlands, Denmark and the United Kingdom are among the least religious societies on Earth. According to the United Nations’ Human Development Report (2005) they are also the healthiest, as indicated by measures of life expectancy, adult literacy, per capita income, educational attainment, gender equality, homicide rate and infant mortality. Conversely, the 50 nations now ranked lowest in terms of human development are unwaveringly religious. Other analyses paint the same picture: The United States is unique among wealthy democracies in its level of religious literalism and opposition to evolutionary theory; it is also uniquely beleaguered by high rates of homicide, abortion, teen pregnancy, STD infection and infant mortality. The same comparison holds true within the United States itself: Southern and Midwestern states, characterized by the highest levels of religious superstition and hostility to evolutionary theory, are especially plagued by the above indicators of societal dysfunction, while the comparatively secular states of the Northeast conform to European norms. Of course, correlational data of this sort do not resolve questions of causality–belief in God may lead to societal dysfunction; societal dysfunction may foster a belief in God; each factor may enable the other; or both may spring from some deeper source of mischief. Leaving aside the issue of cause and effect, these facts prove that atheism is perfectly compatible with the basic aspirations of a civil society; they also prove, conclusively, that religious faith does nothing to ensure a society’s health.
That study is pretty much worthless. It doesn’t seem to have any controls on it at all. It ceratinly doesn’t prove any correlation.
Going from this page at the Wikipedia, you can see that Sweden and Japan both have longer average life expectancies than the US. Both of these countries are majority athiestic/agnostic (while as the US is majority Christian.)
Of course, both of these countries have universal health care, and minimal crime. You can choose which is the most probable causal factor for yourself.
There were three studies there; one a meta-study.
All worthless without the proper controls.
No, it just seems that way because you have to listen to so much of their self righteous yammering.
Well if happily married people live longer, it would appear atheists have Christians beat…
Do Christians live longer? No, it just feels that way.
At least to the rest of us.
Interesting studies thanks. I guess there is evidence on both sides. The fact that church going blacks (in one of the studies) live 10 years longer is not too surprising sg given the large amount of crime/drugs/alcohol that would be less in a church going community (possibly blatant racial stereotyping sorry)
People with strong social networks tend to live longer, too, so churchgoers might be benefiting from this effect.
Saw the question, scrolled down the replies, no, no one’s said it yet, nearly at the bottom … Damn! Beaten again to the perfect answer! 
Comparing countries with homogeneous populations (cultural or genetic) to heterogeneous ones is fraught with difficulty.