I'd rather be surrounded by stoners than Jehovah's witnesses...

Religiosity curbs everything by half

Good.

Proselytizing always harshes my mellow anyway.

god is the only high i need!

Criminologist mode ON-

Of course it does. There's no real question about it, and there probably shouldn't be. Mainstream religion tends to reinforce relatively (to extremely) conservative belief structures. Most of the religions currently extant in this country are also ascetic in their precepts. Being stoned does not, from most religious perspectives, effectively bring one "closer to God". Thus, those with stronger affiliation to religion would be less likely to use.

Additionally, it is pretty certain that parents who drag their young children to church all the time, and/or restrict their peer associations to those children who are "vetted" through the church, are going to be parents that view drugs as more negative, and have stricter expectations regarding behavior. More regulation of adolescents will be associated with lower incidence of drug use through simple reduction of opportunity.

Also, as we know that peer influence is also very strongly correlated with engaging in/abstaining from delinquent or criminal acts, it stands to reason that someone who primarily affiliates with others of a religious nature is less likely to be in a social environment which is accepting of drug use. Or, for that matter, less likely to be in a situation where drugs are readily available (compared to their non-church-focused associates).

There's no "message" to be taken from this study, at least as it pertains to the correctness of religion's anti-drug stance. If the primary religion in the US were Rastafarianism, I daresay that the correlation between religion and pot use would be pretty strongly positive.

Criminologist mode OFF

/I'd far rather be around stoners all day than the Sarah Palin style of moronic, credulous Godbotherers who would probably suffocate if they didn't remember to breathe.

It doesn't surprise me at all that the Jesus-nut kids are less likely to smoke pot. They're also less likely to drink, have sex, or generally enjoy life.

dahmers love zombie: I'd far rather be around stoners all day than the Sarah Palin style of moronic, credulous Godbotherers who would probably suffocate if they didn't remember to breathe.

Sweet heavenly THC this.

Eh, I'd mes up their study. I swear half the time I'm the only person on Fark who doesn't have a druggie past. Hell, I can honestly say I've never smoked anything. That, and I've know a lot of kids with very religious families who were druggies of some form or another.

GAT_00: Eh, I'd mes up their study. I swear half the time I'm the only person on Fark who doesn't have a druggie past. Hell, I can honestly say I've never smoked anything. That, and I've know a lot of kids with very religious families who were druggies of some form or another.

You and Mrs. Love Zombie have a similar experience. And, remember that us social scientist wonks deal in generalities. Never will we be able to predict ALL behavior, but humans are pretty easy to study regarding some matters.

Churchill2004: It doesn't surprise me at all that the Jesus-nut kids are less likely to smoke pot. They're also less likely to drink, have sex, or generally enjoy life.

Eh? To enjoy life as a teen you need to smoke pot, drink, and have sex?

Danielsan: Eh? To enjoy life as a teen you need to smoke pot, drink, and have sex?

Not necessarily, but it doesn't hurt.

After all, why would you need the lack of self control, free thought and personal choice, and the intellectual stultification provided by marijuana once you have religion in your life? Seems redundant.

I bet this pisses God off.

"I made you guys an awesome plant, loaded it with THC so you could relax every now and then, and you go off, invent beer, and ban THC. Whatev, you're on your own."

Scruffinator: I bet this pisses God off.

"I made you guys an awesome plant, loaded it with THC so you could relax every now and then, and you go off, invent beer, and ban THC. Whatev, you're on your own."

If I recall correctly, smokable cannabis had to be specially bred to get a worthwhile THC content. It also has to be grown in a certain way, not allowing it to be pollinated as it would in the wild.

So it's not so much suppressing the work of an invisible man in the sky so much as it is suppressing something that was actually a greater triumph of human ingenuity than some caveman sucking on a rotten fruit.

Churchill2004: Scruffinator: I bet this pisses God off.

"I made you guys an awesome plant, loaded it with THC so you could relax every now and then, and you go off, invent beer, and ban THC. Whatev, you're on your own."

If I recall correctly, smokable cannabis had to be specially bred to get a worthwhile THC content. It also has to be grown in a certain way, not allowing it to be pollinated as it would in the wild.

So it's not so much suppressing the work of an invisible man in the sky so much as it is suppressing something that was actually a greater triumph of human ingenuity than some caveman sucking on a rotten fruit.

(I saw this on the History channels "Hooked: Illegal drugs and how they got that way"). It was talking of the earliest uses of pot, in this case dated to the Incas(or whichever civ nestled in the mountians of South America), in which they would harvest large fields of pot, start a fire, throw a large tent over it, threw the harvest on the fire and sat in the tent. If it's true, then it doesn't sound like it had to be bred first.

Every study like this is bullshiat, because people usually aren't gonna be all telling the Man "Hells yeah fools, I be chiefin' like a mofo" for some damn survey.

Let me tell you. Church can be really boring unless you get really, really high before the sermon.

Before I click on TFA, I make this prediction:

People who belong to a religion and attend 1/week+ :: Low drug usage.

People who don't belong to religion :: Medium drug use.

People who used to belong to a religion :: High drug use.

ninjakirby: Before I click on TFA, I make this prediction:

Well, ok so TFA doesn't have any of those details. Fine, be that way. I will add however, that if this study was compartmentalized to responders within Utah, it's going to be seriously skewed. The LDS have the strongest anti-drug institutions in their religion, going so far as to ban caffeine as a stimulant.

"The power of peers is less among youths who are religious," Bahr said. "Meaning if you are religious, the pressure from peers to use drugs will not have as much effect."

This is incredibly short-sighted. In Utah, your peers are all Mormon. There isn't anyone to pressure you into using drugs, because you're peer pressure comes from your religious affiliation. It's not weaker, it's just aiming somewhere else.

Boobies: Every study like this is bullshiat, because people usually aren't gonna be all telling the Man "Hells yeah fools, I be chiefin' like a mofo" for some damn survey.

This made me laugh my ass off. Not totally sure why.

I was a religious teen, so I'm really getting a kick out of these replies.

/Seriously, I was.
//Never smoked pot or did any drugs, either
///But not because of religious reasons

Now a new national study by two Brigham Young University sociologists finds that religious involvement makes teens half as likely to admit that they use marijuana.

FTFY

Why smoke pot when you're already high on the opiate of the masses?

Churchill2004 [TotalFark] Quote 2008-10-11 04:06:42 PM
It doesn't surprise me at all that the Jesus-nut kids are less likely to smoke pot. They're also less likely to drink, have sex, or generally enjoy life otherwise act like irresponsible, loser dumbasses.


FTFY

Theirs is a good news/bad news story. The good news is that they are more likely to be responsible and therefore less likely to become beggars of handouts from taxpayers. The bad news is that they're more likely to be begged for money by a bunch of stoner, loser, lazy assholes.

Fluffy_the_cactus: I was a religious teen, so I'm really getting a kick out of these replies.

/Seriously, I was.
//Never smoked pot or did any drugs, either
///But not because of religious reasons

I tried to do drugs but I never really fit in with the others. I was the only one who had to take his amphetamines crushed up in jelly.

/Seriously.

If marijuana was good enough for the early church and used throughout Jesus' day as one of the most treasured of substances along with incense, who am I to say it is bad? It just another lost Christian tradition. I am still mad they dumped the skull and crossbones for a cross or a vagina put on its side and pretending it is a fish.

The irony is that religious parents are the ones who put their equally uptight kids in DARE, give them weekly urinalysis, and are still scared to death that they will become sex-crazed heroin junkies.

The odds against which are right up there with their kids being hit by meteors.

"Curbs it by half"?

So, is that like, divides it by half? 'Cause that would mean it's doubled.

and here I was expecting "Religion is the opiate of the masses" to show up.

/no need to pay for it when your pastor/priest/whatever passes it out for free.

And is there any reason why they would actually want to halve their usage? Will that make them better or more productive people? Will that make them happier? "Halve your pot usage so you can drink more legal toxins and legally sign up to die in an optional war and legally watch your elected officials make a travesty your government."

VonAether Quote 2008-10-11 07:24:28 PM
"Curbs it by half"?

So, is that like, divides it by half? 'Cause that would mean it's doubled.


I encourage you to rethink what the numbers really mean because right now, you sound pretty clueless.

/ apparently more schooling is necessary

No wonder.
They can save on marijuana by using incense instead.

VonAether: "Curbs it by half"?

So, is that like, divides it by half? 'Cause that would mean it's doubled.

Dude. That is awesome. I can hear my own head now.

libbynomore2: VonAether Quote 2008-10-11 07:24:28 PM
"Curbs it by half"?

So, is that like, divides it by half? 'Cause that would mean it's doubled.


I encourage you to rethink what the numbers really mean because right now, you sound pretty clueless.

/ apparently more schooling is necessary

x / (1/2) = 2x

but yeah, curbs is lessens, not divides. So what libby said

I can't see what the problem with this is. I mean, back in Jesus' day, people got stoned all the time!

How do they know they haven't got it backwards and smoking weed makes you half as likely to be religious?

Smoking pot is not immoral. It's not a crime either by any standard definition of what constitutes crime (harm to people or property); prohibition creates/invents crimes out of things that are not crimes.

But being disingenuous and pretending to believe in absurd, silly stories about Jesus and his father in order to have a Sunday social life is. Being disingenuous is deceit and is immoral.

bachdog Quote 2008-10-11 07:29:09 PM
And is there any reason why they would actually want to halve their usage? Will that make them better or more productive people? Will that make them happier? "Halve your pot usage so you can drink more legal toxins and legally sign up to die in an optional war and legally watch your elected officials make a travesty your government."


Much FAIL in this one.

/Pot makes you stupid
//bachdog clearly a pothead
//great example for kids not to even bother with it

/ cracks "Introduction to Elementary Sociology"

Let's see here... "Correlation, NOT equal, causation?" Well that can't be right!

Of course the sort of boring person that loves Jesus a whole huggy bunch is less likely to smoke up, but religiosity doesn't "curb" squat. Try it for yourself - get a bunch of stoners in a room, and preach to them until you are blue in the face, see how much that curbs anything.

This pisses him off on at least two levels.

Rastafarians beg to differ.

IrieTom: Rastafarians beg to differ.

You know what they mean, those non-heathen religions.

libbynomore2: I encourage you to rethink what the numbers really mean because right now, you sound pretty clueless.

/ apparently more schooling is necessary

Yeah, thanks, 97% in math my final year.

I was being facetious. It's Fark. I can do that.

libbynomore2: bachdog Quote 2008-10-11 07:29:09 PM
And is there any reason why they would actually want to halve their usage? Will that make them better or more productive people? Will that make them happier? "Halve your pot usage so you can drink more legal toxins and legally sign up to die in an optional war and legally watch your elected officials make a travesty your government."


Much FAIL in this one.

/Pot makes you stupid
//bachdog clearly a pothead
//great example for kids not to even bother with it

Not smoking pot has clearly made you no fun and an asshole. Carl Sagan smoked weed and I guarantee he was smarter than you, so are pot users all geniuses? Or could it be that individual circumstances vary based on the individuals involved? Nah, that'd require too much thinking for you.

libbynomore2: Much FAIL in this one.

/Pot makes you stupid
//bachdog clearly a pothead
//great example for kids not to even bother with it

Watching you troll is like trying to watch a Wayans brothers "comedy". At first, it's funny because it's so lame, but then it just gets painful.

VonAether: Yeah, thanks, 97% in math my final year

has anyone ccmmented that the study was done by students at a religious school no bias there

libbynomore2:
Much FAIL in this one.

/Pot makes you stupid
//bachdog clearly a pothead
//great example for kids not to even bother with it

What does "makes you stupid" mean? You've been repeating that to yourself since you could talk. Alcohol kills brain and liver cells, most people know that without even looking it up. Does alcohol qualify for "making you stupid?" If so, why is it legal while pot is not legal?

Just shut up with your self-righteous nonsense. I'm not making anyone do what they wouldn't do normally themselves, you paranoid idiot. Oooh think of the poor childrens!!! Pot isn't keeping half of them from finishing high school. Poor parenting and poor attitudes are.

Give extra money at church tomorrow and pretend it makes you a good person.

Yeah, but teen marijuana use curbs religiosity by more than half. So marijuana is obviously more effective than religion.

QED