The modern position of being spiritual but not religious feels like a reasonable middle ground: you keep the sense of meaning and transcendence without the dogma, the institution, or the obligations. It sounds like the best of both worlds.
The research suggests it’s closer to the worst.
Studies on American adults comparing atheists, agnostics, religiously nonaffiliated theists, and affiliated religious members found that physical and mental health were significantly worse for nonaffiliated theists (the “spiritual but not religious”) compared to both other secular groups and religious affiliates on most outcomes.
The reasons are instructive. What the research tantalizingly suggests is that “certainty of belief,” rather than the content of the belief itself, may be the key determinant of positive mental health. Uncertainty or inconsistency of belief, as sometimes witnessed in the spiritual but not religious, may actually be a risk factor for poor mental health.
This makes sense when you look at what religion actually provides. It isn’t primarily belief; it’s structure, community, shared ritual, and accountability. Religious involvement shapes behaviors, social networks, social support, and mental states in health-influencing ways. The rhythmic and emotional experiences punctuating religious life can be psychologically soothing. Private spirituality, being largely solitary and self-defined, replicates almost none of this.
Atheists, by contrast, appear to have the best mental health among the non-religious (comparable even to the highly religious). The atheist who has genuinely reckoned with a godless universe and built a life around clear values and real human relationships is on more solid ground than the person who has vague spiritual feelings without structure or community. The atheist has done the harder work. The SBNR person has kept a feeling of safety without any of the actual load-bearing architecture.
The lesson isn’t that religion is true. It’s that what religion does is real, and walking away from it without replacing those functions leaves a gap that spiritual feelings alone don’t fill.
References
See Also
What Religion Actually Provides: a deeper look at the specific functions religion serves
Intelligence as a Substitute for Religious Function: why some people can meet those functions without institutional religion