@TheMiddleWay May one ask if YOU have ever been involved in picking up the bits and pieces of dead bodies as I have done so very often sadly?
A Preacher during and after times like that, ESPECIALLY when one is removing the shattered remain of a 10 year old child from under a 130 ton Diesel-Electric Locomotive AFTER his Aunt has played 'chicken' with a 2,500 ton train doing 90 kilometres per hour, is not much better than absolutely useless.
Far better to sit down, de-brief and talk to someone, anyone who does NOT want to offer up prayers and sympathy BUT one who will listen, understand and guide you through the absolute horrors of having to crawl under the Locomotive and gather up bits like the head, arms, legs, torso and as often as not, even the abdominal contents, etc.
So, please tell me IF you have experienced anything like that and how many times you have done it.
My sad tally in 12 years was 3 children UNDER the age 13 years, 6 Teenagers who tried JUMPING over a speeding frieght train on Motocross bikes only to end up splattered worse than bugs hitting a windscreen on a car on the sides and in between shipping containers, 2 Insurance Salepersons who were playing 'Beat the train,' 1 fellow worker crushed between the couplings of 2 freight wagons, 1 fellow worker whose legs were almost completely amputated when the wheels went over them whilec he was repairing the wagon and the Shunting Crew moved it and a local man who got drunk, accepted a dare to sleep on the tracks and lost both legs, 1 arm at the wrist and the other between the elbow and the shoulder and lastly a woman approx. 7 months pregnant who decided to commit suicide by stepping in front of a passenger train travelling between 2 Stations.

@TheMiddleWay Would you like me relate all of my experiences as a Nurse on top of those that I had whilst working with the Railways?
Perhaps you'd like to hear what it is like to watch as a child dies from Cancer, my OWN Child as well as numerous others we met and got to know?
Maybe you might like to hear what it is like to assist the Coroner as he does a P.M. on a body that has been out in a closed car for well over a week in daily temperatures of 30+ degrees Celsius?
Or to be caled out with the Ambulance Service to attend the site where a man has sat upon a crate of Gelignite and then detonated it, spreading his bits and pieces around the ENTIRE neighbourhood?
After ever occasion al there ever was was a de-brief and a Counsellor who would listen to to us, talk WITH us and offer us words of kindness and encouragement, NOT prayers, Tea and Sympathy thankfully.
And without those neither me or any others I worked with would here today.

@TheMiddleWay They are most DEFINITELY NOT anecodotes, they are 100% Factual accounts FYI.
I would neither be exaggerating or understating that I have, in my life seen far more death and carnage that you could ever hope to even imagine.

IMHO, there ain't much hope going around AFTER you've spent an hour or so picking up bits of a body or two when an idiotic driver has decided to try to beat a few thousand tons of train to a Level Crossing and lost the race.
But merely being able to sit and talk with someone who is not going to offer prayer, tea and sympathy but, instead, says to you that "you did everything humanly possible to give a bit of dignity to the person who has died" does make you feel a bit better.

@TheMiddleWay good point. I just wish this particular research question would have long since already sparked research on some of the follow up questions. Instead, I just see repeated research correlating religious observance with happiness. Meanwhile my anecdotal experience as a therapist has me more often seeing the most religious people being the most anguished about problems in their lives, tortured wondering why God allows their problems to afflict them.

@TheMiddleWay agreed. Why I said it was anecdotal. And yes, even the choice of what is researched is never without some perspective bias.

@TheMiddleWay
I wonder if studies have been done comparing church-goers with people who regularly attend non-religious groups. I know social isolation can affect mental health in general, but I don’t know if it’s just a matter of being around other people, or if it has something to do with the religious mindset.

@skado

Pew study on benefits of religion
[pewforum.org]

Scholarly article on religion and crime
[researchgate.net]

Read the abstract:
[academic.oup.com]

American Psychological Assn:
[psycnet.apa.org]

Cva