Religious Doubt and Health: Exploring the Potential Dark Side of Religion

Krause, Neal; Wulff, Keith

doi:10.2307/3712506

Cited by 136 publications

(127 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…They could feel that the world, though under divine control, is unjust and that their life ultimately is in the hands of a capricious deity. Viewed from this perspective, beliefs in divine control may exacerbate the adverse effects of recent traumatic life events on one's capacity for positive reappraisal coping (e.g., (Krause and Wulff 2004;Ellison and Lee 2010)). …”

Section: Potential Harms: Stress-exacerbating Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 99%

Kept in His Care: The Role of Perceived Divine Control in Positive Reappraisal Coping

DeAngelis

Ellison

2017

Religions

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A formidable body of literature suggests that numerous dimensions of religious involvement can facilitate productive coping. One common assumption in this field is that religious worldviews provide overarching frameworks of meaning by which to positively reinterpret stressors. The current study explicitly tests this assumption by examining whether perceived divine control-i.e., the notion that God controls the course and direction of one's life-buffers the adverse effects of recent traumatic life events on one's capacity for positive reappraisal coping. We analyze cross-sectional survey data from Vanderbilt University's Nashville Stress and Health Study (2011)(2012)(2013)(2014), a probability sample of non-Hispanic black and white adults aged 22 to 69 living in Davidson County, Tennessee (n = 1252). Findings from multivariate regression models confirm: (1) there was an inverse association between past-year traumatic life events and positive reappraisals; but (2) perceived divine control significantly attenuated this inverse association. Substantively, our findings suggest that people who believe God controls their life outcomes are better suited for positively reinterpreting traumatic experiences. Implications, limitations, and avenues for future research are discussed.

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Section: Potential Harms: Stress-exacerbating Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 99%

Kept in His Care: The Role of Perceived Divine Control in Positive Reappraisal Coping

DeAngelis

Ellison

2017

Religions

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“…Indeed, previous research suggests that general nonbeliever samples and Christians experience similar levels of doubt-related struggles (Exline et al 2014;Stauner et al 2016). Among believers, religious doubt is not an uncommon phenomenon, and it is linked to poorer mental health (Galek et al 2007;Krause 2003) and physical health (Krause and Wulff 2004) outcomes. However, analyses of a subset of the samples analyzed in the present study indicated that doubt struggles predict higher life satisfaction and lower levels of depression after controlling for other types of R/S struggles (with theists and atheists pooled as one sample; Exline et al 2014).…”

Section: Religious and Spiritual Strugglesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spiritual Struggles among Atheists: Links to Psychological Distress and Well-Being

et al. 2018

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Religious and spiritual struggles (R/S struggles)-tension or conflicts regarding religious or spiritual matters-have been robustly linked to greater psychological distress and lower well-being. Most research in this area has relied on samples consisting predominantly of participants who believe in god(s). Limited research has examined R/S struggles among atheists, generally conflating them with agnostics and other nontheists. This study investigated the prevalence of R/S struggles among atheists and compared atheists to theists in two samples (3978 undergraduates, 1048 Internet workers).Results of a multilevel model showed that atheists experience less demonic, doubt, divine, moral, and overall R/S struggles than theists, but similar levels of interpersonal and ultimate meaning struggles. Correlation and regression analyses among atheists demonstrated links between moral, ultimate meaning, and overall R/S struggles and greater distress (depression and anxiety symptoms) as well as lower well-being (life satisfaction and meaning in life). Even after controlling neuroticism, ultimate meaning struggles continued to predict lower well-being and higher distress across samples; moral struggles also predicted distress independently. This study demonstrates the relevance of R/S struggles to atheists and reinforces the applicability of previous results to atheist samples, but also highlights substantial differences between atheists and theists in certain R/S struggles.

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“…Doubts about the truth or value of one's religious beliefs have been linked to greater susceptibility to depressive symptoms (Krause & Wulff 2004). Religious doubt seems to exert the greatest effect on psychopathology at younger ages, and this influence erodes as individuals age (Galek et al 2007).…”

Section: Social Integrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Socio-religious Brain: A Developmental Model

Finkel¹,

Swartwout²,

Sosis³

2010

Social Brain, Distributed Mind

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Evolutionary approaches to religion and the social brain hypothesis are ripe for functional integration. One conceptual link for such integration lies in recognizing the artificially imposed distinction between religion and most other aspects of culture found in band-level societies. This chapter argues that throughout most of human evolution, religion has organized the patterns of belief and behaviour in which the social brain operates. Religious beliefs, myths, symbols and rituals are the means by which emotional bonding, enculturation and identification with an in-group occur. The chapter presents a developmental account of socio-religious enculturation in order to clarify the unique role religion plays in social cognition. It proposes that the particulars of religious systems are introduced and practised during childhood, sealed in adolescence, reinforced throughout reproductive adulthood and transmitted by post-reproductive adults.

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Religious Doubt and Health: Exploring the Potential Dark Side of Religion

Cited by 136 publications

References 23 publications

Kept in His Care: The Role of Perceived Divine Control in Positive Reappraisal Coping

Kept in His Care: The Role of Perceived Divine Control in Positive Reappraisal Coping

Spiritual Struggles among Atheists: Links to Psychological Distress and Well-Being

The Socio-religious Brain: A Developmental Model

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