The Times (June 24) reports that a study of 265 people at 24 religious events in Britain and Brazil found that worship significantly increased the ability of those attending to withstand pain — an indication, the researchers argue, that the body’s natural “mu-opioid” system had been activated.
Dr Valerie van Mulukom of Oxford Brookes University, a co-author of the study, concludes that the results show that religious rituals stir an ancient biological mechanism that is key to humans feeling a sense of belonging.
People felt more connected, on average, after a service than before; they also had a higher pain threshold. Moreover, the people whose pain threshold rose the most also tended to be the people who felt most bonded to their fellow worshippers.
Secular choirs, dance groups, football teams and humanist societies can also create powerful social ties. But Van Mulukom suspects religion is unusually good at reinforcing feelings of belonging by combining them with meaning and commitment. “The more research I do on religion, the more it points to it being about social bonding,” she said.
Read The Times (£) here https://www.thetimes.com/uk/science/article/opium-of-the-masses-karl-marx-religion-study-87jkc9k52