Religion vs. Relationship

Academia, specifically Psychology, has traditionally held a negative view of religion in general. For example, Freud stated that while religion had made a significant contribution to culture in various ways, it also served the religious as a crutch in facing the harsh realities of life. Instead of dealing with problems in a rational manner, said Freud, those who hold a religious belief simply regress to childhood and long for the existence of a powerful father who unconsciously is projected into the form of a supernatural god who rescues his supplicants from tribulations of life. According to Freud, culture would advance in maturity by throwing off such irrationality and embracing science as a rational approach to solving life issues.

Freud’s critique of religion has been highly influential on Psychology. Up until the 1980s, many researchers avoided the study of religion and spirituality, as perhaps the subject seemed too ethereal, unscientific, or controversial. However, these views are quickly changing, as more and more researchers today are starting to recognize that religion can play a positive role in a person’s well-being, provide foundation in their life, and this can result in significantly better health overall.

A considerable body of research has demonstrated the link between religious beliefs and health. But in order to fully understand this link, it is important to explore the additional dimensions of religiosity: intrinsic and extrinsic. In light of Allport and Ross, those who are intrinsically motivated are genuinely committed in seeking a personal, meaningful relationship with God, while those who are extrinsically motivated use religion superficially as a means for personal gain, such as social status and social connectedness. In other words, “the extrinsically motivated person uses their religion, whereas the intrinsically motivated live their religion” (emphasis mine). Researchers are catching on that, by using Allport and Ross’ concept of intrinsic religion (IR) and extrinsic religion (ER), it mediates the apparent inconsistencies found within the literature in the association between religion and well-being.

Health comprises physical, mental, emotional, social, vocational, psychological, environmental, and spiritual components. However, systematic reviews of empirical literature indicate that religion represents understudied variables in health-related research. Health is multifaceted, and so, too, is well-being; it is seen as the outworking or reflection of the state of health. And in recent years, researchers have turned their attention to religiousness and their effects on individuals facing various stressors. There are well established findings that show an intrinsic orientation towards religion (i.e., living their religion) is associated with better health, while an extrinsic orientation (i.e., using their religion) is usually associated with poorer health.

For example, there is growing realization that the IR of end stage cancer patients and other individuals diagnosed with terminal illnesses can significantly affect their quality of life. Among patients with cancer and chronic heart failure, greater IR has been found to significantly correlate with less depression and anxiety. In studies examining the relationships among anxiety, depression, and IR in three groups of women (i.e., non-pregnancy, normal pregnancy, high-risk pregnancy on bed rest), all three of the groups demonstrated significant inverse relationships among IR with anxiety and depression. These findings emphasize the importance of developing interventions to raise women’s IR in order to improve the course of pregnancy, fetal development, and postpartum period. Research has shown that higher levels of IR are associated with lower levels of psychological distress variables such as depression, hopelessness, desire for hastened death, and suicidal ideation among severely ill patients receiving palliative care. And studies found that college students with greater levels of IR reported lower levels of suicidal ideation.

Further, a prospective study found that (ER) heart surgery patients had longer hospital stays than those with (IR). In studying cardiovascular health in older adults, those with ER were exposed to lab stressors and showed exaggerated cardiovascular reactivity relative to those with IR who were also exposed to lab stressors. Intrinsically motivated religious coping (e.g., seeking religious support, religious forgiveness, and purification) directly correlates with a better sense of well-being, improved mental and physical health, reduced mortality, lower depression, and lower anxiety. Older adults who are higher in IR were shown to be significantly lower in death anxiety. It's also been found that an IR orientation is negatively correlated with trait anxiety, while ER orientation is positively correlated. IR orientation shows great positive health outcomes that further deserve and are being researched.

Even further, research clearly shows that a protective association exists between religious beliefs and negative health outcomes among adolescents. For instance, adolescents who lack IR are much more likely to engage in at-risk behaviors such as unsafe sexual behavior, delinquency, substance abuse, and even suicide; a higher level in IR was a significant predictor of lower levels of hard drug use; and higher levels of IR have been found to positively correlate with self-esteem and negatively correlate with depression. These studies here highlight the positive influence that religion has with helping adolescents face common youthful problems, cultivating a belief that their lives have meaning and purpose. Now, this doesn't get all the way to exactly to what degree we have meaning and what exactly our purpose is, but it's a start to at least give foundational hope that those things actually exist.

It's universal that all people desire meaning and purpose in life, but they may use different bases from which to seek out these concerns. Let's look at those who don't believe in God, for instance. On the one hand, those who are more agnostic and evolution oriented have emphasized the ethical sense of duty to and cooperation with the community as a means to survival and meaningful life; they generally find value and purpose in what they believe improves the quality of life for humanity. On the other hand, those who are more theistic oriented emphasize this as well as belief in a loving Creator who imbued humanity with a divine nature that seeks out relationship to serve as a basis from which to gain a sense of self-worth, attendant purpose and meaning in life, and values that inform how life should be lived. In this latter group, many people find that their religious beliefs, traditions, and community help to frame these existential questions in a way that provides direction as well as solace and peace of mind.

Those leaning to the agnostic side of the aisle represent less than one out of every ten adults in America. And studies show that these religious skeptics are much less likely to have a clear sense of meaning and purpose in life and are even generally less interested in making a difference in the world. The Barna Group, who has conducted many such studies, for instance, finds that skeptics have increasingly replaced religious faith with a passion for healthy longevity and personal pleasure gained through world travel, sexual experiences, and obtaining knowledge. They concluded that they are substantially less focused on relationships and legacy than are others with IR, and that they tend to be less concerned about finding or pursuing a purpose in life because a majority of them believe life has no purpose beyond comfort and pleasure. Further, studies state that agnostics are less likely to feel at peace, are considerably less concerned about the moral condition of their country, and are also significantly less likely to say they are convinced they are right about things in life. The researchers in those studies, then, were able to conclude that one of the most significant differences between active-faith and no-faith Americans is the cultural disengagement and sense of independence exhibited by agnostics in many areas of life. Thus, faith in God for those with IR provide a foundation that gives life focus, a sense of direction, and so on. Are those, then, with an ER outlook on life similar to agnosticism when it comes to their overall well-being?

With that in mind, let's transition our way into a personal study I conducted. Below is a graph illustrating the results from a test I conducted with between 100 and 200 undergraduate college students in order to see what the most recent results would look like in regards to overall well-being in life -- not between agnostics and those who believe in God, but between believers who are more IR oriented (i.e., have a personal relationship with God, and generally take faith more seriously) and believers who are more ER oriented (i.e., those who admittedly have a shallow faith to the point of even using religion as a means of social gain, and generally do not take faith serious). As you can see below (taking into consideration, of course, that many who don't believe in God or simply have s shallow faith would never admit that their lives feel empty and such), those who are more IR oriented had significantly higher rates of overall well-being in life (which, as we've seen, we're finding out more and more that this also correlates directly with overall health).

There are those who use faith. Therefore, yes, Freud was correct in saying that faith is a mere crutch. But where he was dead wrong was in saying that about all religious people. For a faith that is lived-out and is held on to as tight as possible in times of good and in times of bad, it's not a temporary fix; an opium for the masses, per say. How fascinating it is to see direct evidence that a mere religion is drastically different than a relationship with God. In this sense, a relational faith is not a temporary crutch but, instead, is the very medicine that literally heals down to the marrow of our bones. And, speaking of bones, this is but the bare bones in a multitude of posts that could naturally flow. But, since my book discusses all of that information, and it's in the process of being published as I type this, let's conclude at a cliffhanger to what degree we have meaning and what exactly our universally shared purpose is in life.