Unbelievable?! Theistic/Epistemological Viewpoint Affects Religion-Health Relationship

Research suggests that Religion/Spirituality promotes a variety of positive health outcomes. However, despite reporting lower levels of Religion/Spirituality, non-believers report comparable levels of health to believers. The current study tested the hypothesis that Religion/Spirituality does not ha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of religion and health
Main Author: Speed, David (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V. [2017]
In: Journal of religion and health
Further subjects:B Happiness
B Theism
B Atheism
B Health
B General Social Survey
B Statistical moderation
B Agnosticism
B Gnosticism
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:Research suggests that Religion/Spirituality promotes a variety of positive health outcomes. However, despite reporting lower levels of Religion/Spirituality, non-believers report comparable levels of health to believers. The current study tested the hypothesis that Religion/Spirituality does not have a uniform effect on health for all persons, and tested theological/epistemological categories as moderators. Using the 2012 and 2014 General Social Survey (N = 2670), the relationship between Religion/Spirituality and happiness and self-rated health was investigated. Results indicated that Gnostic Theists experienced Religion/Spirituality more positively than their peers did; Agnostic Theists experienced Religion/Spirituality less positively than their peers did; and Negative Atheists experienced Religion/Spirituality less positively than their peers did. These findings suggested that Religion/Spirituality is not associated with salutary effects for all persons, and that whether a person believes in god(s) and how confident he/she was in god(s)’ existence, influenced his/her experience with Religion/Spirituality.
ISSN:1573-6571
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of religion and health
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10943-016-0271-2