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Religiously/Spiritually Involved, but in Doubt or Disbelief—Why? Healthy?

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Abstract

The question of why atheists and agnostic theists attend religious services and pray (and what that might mean for their health) is examined through (1) a thematic analysis of commentaries, perspective pieces, and news articles from the popular literature, and (2) a critical review of scholarly research involving comparisons between religious and nonreligious individuals on a variety of health-related outcomes. Findings suggest that atheists and agnostic theists can take pleasure in attending religious services, and they may be driven to pray at times. In many cases, this was explained by their efforts to stay connected and avoid or manage conflict with family members. Despite a pattern of friction between nonbelievers and believers across the dataset, they predominantly agreed on the whys and wherefores of religious service attendance and the prospect that congregants could “bridge the worlds of belief and nonbelief.” The themes identified are intended to inform the development of qualitative interview protocols and survey instruments. Although health was not among the most salient themes in the narratives analyzed here, many of the reasons cited for religious service attendance and prayer can be tied to existing literature that has relevance for health. Atheists who experience dissonance between their self-perception and nonbelief in God—and agnostic theists who are prone to existential uncertainty and have only moderate faith—might experience poorer health outcomes. Recommendations focus on the need to (a) supplement secondary analyses of archival survey data with qualitative descriptions of belief systems within groups, and (b) move away from the adversarial stance taken by some of the authors of recently published studies on atheism, nonreligion, and health.

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Notes

  1. Atheism and agnosticism refer to separate philosophical positions of belief and knowledge. Belief-knowledge categories based on the GSS item ‘‘…which statement comes closest to expressing what you believe about God?” are as follows with the corresponding response choice(s) in parentheses: (1) Negative atheist (“I don’t believe in God”); (2) Agnostic atheist (“I don’t know whether there is a God, and I don’t believe there is any way to find out”); (3) Agnostic theist (“I find myself believing in God some of the time, but not at others’’ or ‘‘While I have doubts, I feel that I do believe in God’’); and (4) Gnostic theist (‘‘I know God exists and I have no doubts about it’’) (Speed 2017).

  2. Religion and spirituality reflect the “feelings, thoughts, experiences, and behaviors that arise from a search for the sacred” (Hill et al., 1998, p. 21). The terms are presented jointly here in an attempt to ensure that terminology is not overly restrictive. Although a comprehensive review of distinctions between religion and spirituality (see Zinnbauer et al., 1997) is beyond the scope of this paper, a very basic categorization suggests that individuals may be (1) religious-spiritual, (2) religious-not spiritual, (3) spiritual-not religious, or (4) not religious-not spiritual.

  3. Atheistic and agnostic church-leavers endorsed Introversion, Sensing, Thinking, and Perceiving; “Believers who didn’t belong” endorsed a preference for Introversion, Intuition, Thinking, and Perceiving.

  4. Agnostics have also reported poorer health than individuals with no religious preference (Hayward et al. 2016) and those who choose to forgo religious affiliation altogether (Mochon et al. 2011).

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  1. University of Michigan, North Campus Research Complex, 2800 Plymouth Road, Building 520, Office #1173, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-2800, USA

    Adam J. Mrdjenovich

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This research complies with The Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct of the American Psychological Association. Human subjects were not involved.

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Mrdjenovich, A.J. Religiously/Spiritually Involved, but in Doubt or Disbelief—Why? Healthy?. J Relig Health 58, 1488–1515 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-018-0711-2

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