A religious upbringing in childhood is linked to poorer mental and cognitive health in later life

Gee, who would think that giving your child Delusional Disorder would have negative consequences later in life?

Although my mom stigmatise pre-marital sex, thankfully my parents are quite chill in terms of religiosity. I have had initial pangs of cognitive dissonance, like most of those who questioned their beliefs, but my eventual dissociation has been relatively smooth. I'm aware that those who had more extreme religious upbringing find it difficult to escape, so to speak.

I remember reading a blog from a religious woman many years ago, in which she shared her experience of feeling guilty after having sex on her wedding night. Because throughout her entire life, sex had been vilified for her and when she consummated her marriage, she felt dirty and sinful. It took a long while for her to get over the guilt. Also, those who know about Chris Stuckmann, the movie critic, and his experience in Jehovah's Witness forbidding him to make any films for extreme religious reasons, which made him depress in his teenage years.

I know religion can be beneficial to some, but more often than not it is more cancerous to most people. There is a reason that religiosity is declining across the world save for some.

I 100% credit my loose screws to being forced into to religion for 18 years. The two years it took me to get the demons out of my head were also tumultuous, but the scars from religion cut deep and never, ever heal.

I believe it, I'm a wreck.

Why is it when people start having kids they often fall back into strict religious boundaries?

Like I knew a girl in college who spent the first two years in a drunken stupor and couldn’t be bothered to close her legs.

Now, she is the epitome of catholic mom.

Did she really change that much? Was it just some form of Rumspringa? Or is it because she has young kids, she needs to indoctrinate them like she was?

probably because they don't learn to mentally prepare and solve via internal dialogue. instead they're told the big sky daddy will solve all their problems if they just believe hard enough.

A new large-scale study of European adults suggests that, on average, being religiously educated as a child is associated with slightly poorer self-rated health after the age of 50. The research, published in the journal Social Science & Medicine, also indicates that this association is not uniform, varying significantly across different aspects of health and among different segments of the population.

Past research has produced a complex and sometimes contradictory picture regarding the connections between religiousness and health. Some studies indicate that religious involvement can offer health benefits, such as reduced suicide risk and fewer unhealthy behaviors. Other research points to negative associations, linking religious attendance with increased depression in some populations.

Whole thing was an interesting read thanks for sharing. I will say, the article pretty clearly doesn't support a "religion is poison" thesis. But rather a "religious upbringing is, on average, associated with poorer mental health later in life" with a whole bunch of additional asterisks and details, which is maybe a little more grounded of a way to interpret science generally speaking.

However, the model also identified a smaller portion of individuals for whom the association was positive, suggesting that for some, a religious upbringing was linked to better health outcomes. This variation highlights that an average finding does not tell the whole story.

Future research could build on these findings... ...More detailed measures of religious education could also help explain why the experience appears beneficial for some health domains but detrimental for others.

The original paper for those interested https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118210

Apparently they used a type of machine learning model to analyze the dataset. I'm not familiar enough to know if there are shortcomings to that approach (as one would expect with gen ai, but machine learning statistical analysis seems less likely to share those faults). Relevant context from the article:

The researchers employed an advanced statistical method known as a causal forest approach. This machine learning technique is particularly well-suited for identifying complex and non-linear patterns in large datasets.

Religion is the most destructive human invention.

It can be an effective social cohesion for juvenile societies, but has a use-by date that rivals raw milk.

Yeah fuck that. I'd love to see a study on the healthiest person vs income wealthiest with a breakdown in church attendance, including the pastor.

they tend towards conservatism, which worsens thier behaviour.

That explains all the hillbilly meth-head MAGA in Western North Carolina.

Same with a religious upbringing in adulthood.

Back when I believed in spirituality, I had terrible suicidal ideation because I was so desperate for the afterlife and the wonders it provides.

Sadly I know that neurology kinda debunks the afterlife.