Consequences of Faking Faith While Ignoring Doubt
There has always been a general, unchallenged belief that religion is good for mental health. There is now a new report that begins to dispel this belief with respect to people who are engaged in an internal debate about whether they should stay in religion or leave it. The report compares people who dropped out of religion with those who stay religious and with those who have no religious affiliations. It concludes that stayers experience more depressive symptoms than any other group and that they experience a greater increase in depressive symptoms over time.
Although this report is not written from a Biblical or theological perspective, it affirms that leaving religion is a healthy thing to do for people who have doubts about their religion. It claims that mental health difficulties arise from unresolved doubts that some, perhaps all, religious people entertain at one time or another. It affirms that doubt about religion is a good thing as long as doubters take initiatives to discover the truth about religion.