Once again, we're caught in that vexatious spot of confusing causation with correlation. This article summarizes research that tries a) defines two types of religious orientation and b) correlates those orientations to a prevalence of depressive symptoms.
Religious Orientation and Depression « Biotikos: "if people seek future growth and have more personal attachments to their religion, they are less likely to have depression. The results from both studies show that an intrinsic view of religion is related to lower depressive symptoms."If we're more outwardly focused (confusingly defined as intrinsic), we're less like to have depressive symptoms. If we're inwardly focused in our religious practices (extrinsic), our depressive symptoms are likely to increase. The study doesn't address the possibility that that the religious orientation is caused by, rather than causing, changes in our depressive symptoms.
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