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

Abstract

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.

The psychology of nonbelievers

“…In another study [69] atheists did not significantly differ from theists on 9 out of 13 possible sources of meaning in life (e.g., hobbies, nature) but atheists were slightly (r = -.13) more likely to state that their life lacked meaning, and reported more diverse sources of meaning than fit the researchers' coding scheme. Although some studies show that atheists as an undifferentiated group report lower presence of meaning in life [e.g., 69; 70], atheists also report less of a "need for meaning" [69], and they do not differ from theists in experiences of "crises of meaning" [70] or struggles with ultimate meaning and purpose [71]. When atheists are disaggregated into different worldview "types," some types closely resemble the religious [70].…”

Religious/Spiritual Struggles and Life Satisfaction among Young Roman Catholics: The Mediating Role of Gratitude

“…R/S struggles denote hypothetically challenging facets of R/S life (Sedlar et al 2018) and "occur when some aspects of R/S belief, practice, or experience become a focus of negative thoughts or emotions, concern, or conflicts" (Exline et al 2014b, p. 208). This phenomenon is also defined as the experience of pressure or confusion about the sacred, spiritual, or religious apprehensions that influence relationships with the Divine, others, and the self (Gutierrez et al 2017;Pargament et al 2005).…”

“…In some cases, troubled relationships with God lead to questioning His existence (Ellison and Lee 2010). Interpersonal R/S struggles implicate religious conflicts between an individual and religious institutions, community members, clergy, followers of other confessions, and/or unbelievers (Exline et al 2014a;Sedlar et al 2018;Zarzycka and Zietek 2018). According to Ellison and Lee (2010), not all religious groups are perceived as supportive networks.…”

“…Investigations point to a normative character of R/S struggles that constitute an important and expected part of human life (Exline et al 2014a(Exline et al , 2014bExline and Rose 2005;Magyar-Russell et al 2014;Sedlar et al 2018;Tobin and Slatcher 2016). In fact, some theologians maintain that religious doubts are inevitable and may play a beneficial role in personal spiritual growth (Ellison et al 2013).…”

“…Although the reasons for the age gap in religious commitment are complex and mostly related to different historical and socio-cultural factors, it is plausible to assume that such disparity may reflect struggles faced by the young generation on different levels of religious and spiritual life (Kwako Golo et al 2019). A significant body of literature (Sedlar et al 2018) has revealed that religious/spiritual (R/S) struggles are not uncommon and are strongly interconnected with greater health problems (McConnell et al 2006). People can struggle with their faith in response to trauma or stressful events (Currier et al 2018), a serious, life-threatening experience such as heart failure (Magyar-Russell et al 2014;Park et al 2011), different forms of cancer (Fitchett et al 2004;Sherman et al 2005), bereavement (Burke and Neimeyer 2014;Cowchock et al 2010;Neimeyer and Burke 2011), indicators of emotional distress (Exline and Rose 2005) such as anxiety (Zarzycka and Zietek 2018) and depression (Exline et al 2000;Murphy et al 2016), and a lower well-being or satisfaction with life (Wilt et al 2016;Zarzycka and Zietek 2018).…”