Religious people have healthy life style:

I am sure you’ll agree that the world’s major religions encourage healthy living.

Some even mandate abstention or moderation as basic doctrine. Devout Hindus

are strict vegetarians, as are many traditional Buddhists. The dietary laws

of Judaism, kashrut, date from the earliest books of the Bible. Few pious Muslims

drink alcohol. Mormons and Seven Adventists practice healthy temperance

in their daily lives. All established religions discourage drunkenness, risky

sexual behavior, and any habit or activity harmful to the human body, which

has traditionally been viewed as sacred, created in the image of God.

1. A growing array of research is charting the benefits to physical health

that religious people often enjoy. I’m particularly impressed by studies

showing that adolescents from strong religious backgrounds who frequently

attend worship service, pray, and read scripture are far less

likely to drink alcohol, smoke tobacco, or experiment with illegal

drugs than their nonreligious peers.

2. Research also indicates premarital sexual intercourse is far less common

among religious adolescents than among less religious teenagers.

3. And there’s convincing evidence that the shield of religious moderation

continue into adulthood.

4. These lifestyle attitudes are the basis of the much lower rates of alcohol-

and tobacco-related afflictions and sexually transmitted diseases

among the religious when compared with their secular peers.

 

Freedom to determine our own moral standards is considered a necessity

for being fully human.

In many areas of life, freedom is not so much the absence of restrictions as

finding the right ones, the liberating restrictions. If we only grow intellectually,

vocationally, and physically through judicious constraints – why would it not

also be true for spiritual and moral growth? Instead of insisting on freedom to

create spiritual reality, shouldn’t we be seeking to discover it and disciplining

ourselves to live according to it?