A new advertising campaign, the first ever of its kind, has been launched by The Iona Institute with the message, ‘Here’s a little science. The practice of religion is good for you’.

The campaign will initially centre on Dublin city. It will consist of 110 bus shelter ads throughout the city and will run for a fortnight beginning this Monday.

The campaign has been launched to coincide with Easter.

Commenting on the launch, Iona Institute director, David Quinn said: “This campaign is unprecedented. Nothing like it has ever taken place in Ireland, or anywhere else that we know of. Its aim is to present a positive image of religion.”

He continued: “There are now a lot of scientific studies showing that religious practice has numerous beneficial effects. The aim of the campaign is to let people know about this.”

The campaign is based on a paper by well-known psychiatrist Professor Patricia Casey called ‘The Psycho-Social Benefits of Religious Practice’. This was commissioned by The Iona Institute and released last year.

The paper examines the various scientific studies done in this area and these show that religious practice is associated, on average, with:

– Lower levels of depression

– Lower levels of marital breakdown

– Lower levels of alcohol and drug abuse

– Lower levels of pregnancy among teenagers

– Faster recovery from bereavement

– Faster recovery from illness

– Longer life expectancy, etc.

The campaign will invite people to examine the evidence for themselves and will direct them to a dedicated website called www.religiouspractice.ie

David Quinn said: “If the campaign gets a good response, we hope to roll it out in other parts of the country in the next year or two.”

He added: “Religion has a very negative image at present. The campaign was first conceived four years ago when books like The God Delusion were best-sellers. We wanted to counter this negativity by pointing to the evidence that, on the whole, religious practice is beneficial both for individuals and for society.”

He emphasised the non-denominational nature of the campaign: “The message of this campaign is not specific to any one denomination, or even any one religion. It is a generic message and applies to all the mainstream religions.

“This is why we asked bishops from both the Catholic Church and from the Church of Ireland to write forewords to Professor Casey’s paper last year, namely Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and Bishop Ken Good.

The campaign is being funded by the St Stephen’s Green Trust.