Does belief in divine support lower mortality risk? Research points to yes in many cases, especially when that belief leads to regular religious participation like churchgoing, which seems to protect against early death.
Studies show a clear pattern: as people attend church less, certain kinds of deaths go up. For example, in the United States, states with the biggest drops in churchgoing from 1985 to 2000 saw sharper rises in what experts call “deaths of despair.” These include drug overdoses, suicides, and alcoholic liver disease. This trend hit middle-aged white Americans without college degrees hardest, affecting both men and women in cities and rural areas alikehttps://news.osu.edu/a-decline-in-churchgoing-linked-to-more-deaths-of-despair/. The rise started before the opioid crisis in the late 1990s, suggesting less religion played a role early onhttps://hoodline.com/2025/12/study-links-decline-in-religious-attendance-to-rising-deaths-of-despair-among-white-americans/.
Why might this happen? Belief in a higher power or divine support often brings comfort. Scholars note that religious and spiritual ideas can ease fears about death and other big life worrieshttps://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2511006122. Churchgoing adds community ties, a sense of purpose, and habits that boost life satisfaction. Researchers found no easy replacement for this through other social groups, and things like social media might even make isolation worse.
One study even tested this by looking at “blue laws,” old rules that kept stores closed on Sundays to encourage church. When those laws ended, church attendance fell more, and deaths of despair rose in those areas. Data came from reliable places like the General Social Surveys for religion trends and the Centers for Disease Control for death recordshttps://news.osu.edu/a-decline-in-churchgoing-linked-to-more-deaths-of-despair/.
Not every study agrees completely. Some past work found strong spiritual beliefs linked to worse health outcomes in specific medical cases, like poorer treatment adherencehttps://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12703117/. But broader evidence on mortality leans toward benefits from active faith practices.
People today are less religious overall, and without good substitutes, health risks could linger.
Sources
https://news.osu.edu/a-decline-in-churchgoing-linked-to-more-deaths-of-despair/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12703117/
https://hoodline.com/2025/12/study-links-decline-in-religious-attendance-to-rising-deaths-of-despair-among-white-americans/
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2511006122
