Agnostics who accept God’s supposed love experience greater well-being

Abstract

ABSTRACT Contemporary philosophers have routinely claimed that agnostics, who lack belief that God exists, can nonetheless adopt alternative attitudes toward a supposed God that act as substitutes for belief, and may thereby reap benefits associated with theistic belief. This study tested this hypothesis empirically in an online sample of self-identified agnostics (N = 360). Previous findings that anxious attachment to God is negatively related to agnostics’ well-being while secure attachment to God is positively related to agnostics’ well-being were confirmed and extended. Anxious attachment to God predicted unique variance in life satisfaction, depression, and self-esteem in hierarchical regressions, while difference-in-means tests indicated that securely attached agnostics fared better than their insecurely attached counterparts for these variables. Two novel and more direct measures of agnostics’ acceptance or resistance of God’s supposed love also demonstrated significant associations with agnostics’ gratitude, life satisfaction, and self-esteem, even after controlling for God attachment.