Belief in a vengeful God linked to mental disorders –study

A study published in the April edition of Journal of Religion & Health reveals that belief in an angry, sinner-smiting God is associated with the development of a variety of mental illnesses.

 

According to The Raw Story, Nava Silton, Assistant Psychology Professor at Marymount Manhattan College, conducted the study by examining data gathered from the Baylor Religion Survey of US Adults of 2010. Viewing this data through the lens of Evolutionary Threat Assessment System Theory, she was able to see the associations between beliefs and anxiety disorders like paranoia, social dysfunction, obsession and compulsion. Evolutionary Threat Assessment

 

According to Evolutionary Threat Assessment System Theory, dysfunctions in the brain’s perception of threats in the parts of the brain specifically evolved to detect those threats may lead to the development of anxiety disorders.

 

She categorized the data into three types of believers: those who perceive God as forgiving and loving, those who view him as angry and punishing, and those who see him in the gray area in between.

 

Silton discovered that those who believed in a loving God possessed positive psychological traits, “almost protecting against psychopathology,” she said.

 

On the other hand, there seems to be a relation between mental disorders and a belief in an angry God who is just itching to send sinners to hell.

 

“If you look at the previous research, they’ve connected it to depression and all sorts of other psychiatric disorders,” said Silton. “We were looking at social phobia, obsession, compulsion, paranoia and a lot of features of anxiety disorders.” Correlational, not causal

 

Silton stressed that her study does not prove such negative beliefs cause the problematic symptoms; it only shows that there is a link between them. “We are not looking at causal findings here,” she explained. “We are looking at correlational findings. That means we’re not saying belief caused psychiatric symptoms, but we see relationships between beliefs and these psychiatric symptoms.”

 

Silton expressed a desire to ask more in-depth questions in future follow-up studies, specifically “to look into what else belief systems might be related to.”

 

“We’d like to look more specifically at depression and eating disorders,” she added. “Do different beliefs in God relate to eating disorder symptoms? So, (we want to be) looking beyond just anxiety disorders.”

 

Previous Studies

 

Many studies have already explored religion’s link to psychotic delusions and, on the other side of the spectrum, better mental health. One such study, a 2004 US survey on religion and health, was conducted by a team of researchers led by Kevin Flannelly. This study has shown that it is not the religion itself that can cause problems, but the type of God a person believes in, according to the Epiphenom website.

 

Belief in a loving and intimate God is associated with fewer occurrences psychoses, whereas belief in a judgmental God is associated with the opposite. Similarly, there is an apparent relationship between mental health and beliefs about the afterlife.

 

A happier, more peaceful afterlife is linked to better mental health. A more negative perception of life after death is related to poorer mental health.

 

Flannelly echoes Silton in his belief that a dysfunction in the parts of the brain designed to alert one to threats is closely tied to mental health problems.

 

Both Silton’s and Flannelly's studies provide further evidence that positive beliefs about God are linked to less psychoses, particularly anxiety-related psychoses. — TJD, GMA News