Surprisingly, people who identify as spiritual tend to have worse mental health.
The Mental Health of the "Spiritual But Not Religious" | Psychology Today
Opinion
One gets the impression that the author has all the 'right' credentials to make it to Psychology Today but actually knows very little. Citing two studies with sample sizes of about 7000 subjects in England and the US respectively out of a global population of about 8 billion people, how can any intelligent person take these conclusions seriously?
14,000 is 0.000175% of 8 billion. And it's a skewed 0.000175%, not reflecting the global population.
This is partly why I left psychology soon after beginning my academic journey. The "studies" are almost always incredibly superficial.
To his credit, the author mentions some of the limits of correlation and difficulties in defining spirituality. But this is basic stuff that any attentive psych 101 student would know about.
He also suggests that the studies point to something significant, which to me seems questionable considering the scope of religion, spirituality, and so-called mental disorders, which themselves are taken by some as political 'constructs' rather than absolute realities. Need I remind you that homosexuality was a "disorder" before the APA decided otherwise?
Not that sociology or religious studies - the disciplines I moved toward - were any better than psychology. At the time of switching, I thought so. But looking back I see the university as a sometimes shady business and a potentially disgraceful scam if you are not wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove.
What's really needed are studies on corruption, espionage, and organized crime within the university itself. But alas, how far would anyone get if they pursued that?
Jusk ask Zuckerberg...
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