Secularism and Spirituality in Psychological Inquiry

With the politico-religious scenarios going on in India, ‘secularism’ is something that has been highly debated in the media. But what about secular psychology? Is it necessary for psychology to be secular in practice and research? Read on to learn more about the psychological perspectives on secularism.

Read More: The Psychology behind faith

Introducing Secularism

Before we look at the psychological perspectives on secularism, it is important to understand what the term ‘secularism’ means. Secularism can be seen as a right of citizens to practice any religion freely. A secular state also ensures that this freedom to practice religion is not mixed with political happenings. Simply put, a secular state is independent of the influence of individual or collective religious practices and beliefs. In cases where religion and politics are mixed, this combination is thought to narrow individual freedoms, eventually destroying them, and resulting in what is called a dictatorship.

Background on religion

If religious segregation is not beneficial, at least politically speaking, why do people still follow religions? Religion and spirituality address an important theme for human life – the search for the sacred. Earlier, the terms religion and spirituality were used interchangeably. However, since the late 20th century, these two terms hold differences. Today, religion is associated with non-sacred goals like identity and belongingness and often involves rituals and behaviours considered holy.

Further, religion has a sociocultural orientation, whereas spirituality is more transcendental. Various psychological theories address the aforementioned question about why people are religious. These theories could broadly be categorized into three types – wish-fulfilment theories, intellectualist theories, and social functionalist theories.

1. Wish-fulfillment theories

The essential premise of wish-fulfilment theories is that religiousness is associated with feelings of insecurity and fear and that the function of religion is to provide a sense of safety and comfort from this fear and insecurity. This ability to allay fear has an evolutionary advantage to explore, conquer, overpower and replicate. On the other hand, religion uses the concept of an all-powerful Being to soothe and comfort its followers.

Read More: Psychology Behind Fear and Its Impact on People

2. Intellectualist theories

Intellectualist theories assert that the essential premise linking religiousness is the association with the need to understand and control the world. In this view, people see religions as systems that provide parameters to interpret, influence, and explain the world. People view these perspectives as related to, but different from, secular, everyday actions, and thoughts. This set of theories also posits religion as a natural phenomenon resulting from the evolution of various cognitive systems and adaptations.

3. Social functionalist theories

The essential premise of social functionalist theories is that religiousness is seen as a mechanism to regulate relationships and enhance group cooperation. This regulation has an evolutionary advantage, wherein it helps in the successful reproduction of genes.

How secularism came into play

With the evolution of humanity, our worldviews also developed and evolved. In addition to individual and collective evolution and development in cognition, emotion, moral values, interpersonal relationships, and psychosexual aspects, the evolution of ideas was also observed in religion and spirituality. One observation is the presence of less developed versus more developed worldviews, ranging from pre-secular animism through secular dualism to post-secular holism.

Individuals with a pre-secular animistic worldview believed in a powerful Being controlling the world and engaged in behaviours primarily driven by fear. Individuals with secular-dualist or modernist worldviews embraced rationality and held beliefs supported by science. In this worldview, individuals subjected every phenomenon, including humans, nature, and God, to investigation and analysis. This worldview resulted in a schism between organized religion and science.

Read More: The Powerful Connection Between Mental Health and Spirituality

Post-secular holism, or post-modernism, indicates tolerance and acknowledgement of multiple worldviews, along with the acceptance of both physical and metaphysical components of worldly life. Although these worldviews are successive, all three of them exist in parallel in our society today. These worldviews manifest their impact in all other aspects of an individual’s life and society as a whole. It is therefore important to consider how secularism and religion could affect psychological research and practice.

Problems with Secular Psychology

If we were to make psychology secular, here are some problems we might face:

1. Exclusion of religion: By practising secular psychology, we are implying that our psychological research and practice are independent of research. By saying so, we are arriving at incomplete conclusions, as we are ignoring the influence of religion- an important cultural factor affecting individual and collective behaviour.
2. The essence of religion is lost: In an attempt to standardize and/or operationalize religion to suit the needs of scientific research, the essence of religious experiences is drastically transformed and lost in some cases.
3. Fail to appreciate the pros of religion: Religious practices and beliefs hold significant and potentially useful spiritual and moral resources that could help psychologists recognize their clients’ experiences better. Insights from religion could also help in shaping ethical assumptions in theory and practice, enhancing client and participant outcomes.

Read More: Cultural Kaleidoscope: Learn about Cross-Cultural Psychology

To deal with these issues, it is necessary for us as practitioners and researchers to adopt a post-modernist worldview. By doing so, we are respecting the worldviews of our clients and participants while also being open to receiving valuable insights they might offer. In adopting a post-secular holistic worldview, we are acknowledging that humans are bio-psycho-social-spiritual beings and that religion also has the potential to contribute to the holistic development of individuals and society. Therefore, it is important not to practice or study psychological phenomena independent of religion.