Religious nonaffiliates who have high certainty in the existence of God or a higher power (theistic nones) have grown rapidly in size in the U.S. in the last 30 years, and are now the fourth largest American religious or secular category. This subgroup has been overlooked in prior research on religion, secularism, and health. We build on recent work on religion and health by distinguishing between atheists, agnostics, and nonaffliliated theists when examining the link between religious or secular identification and self-rated health. Specifically, we advance research on the heterogeneity of secular individuals and health by splitting nonaffiliated theists into two subgroups: those who report certainty in their beliefs about God or some higher power (i.e., theistic nones), and those who are less certain about their beliefs in God (i.e., doubting nones). We analyze 13 waves (1988–2018) of pooled data (N = 15,349) from the General Social Survey (GSS), a large, recurring, and nationally-representative sample of U.S. adults conducted on a periodic basis. Using the GSS, we assessed self-rated health across religious and secular categories in a well-controlled model. When compared with conservative Protestants, theistic nones and atheists had significantly higher levels of self-rated health, whereas agnostics and low-certainty nonaffiliated theists (doubting nones) did not report significantly higher levels of self-rated health. This study adds to previous research by differentiating between theistic and doubting nones among nonaffiliated theists in relation to overall health differences. The results suggest that the level of certainty in beliefs about God or a higher power are an important factor among religious nones for predicting health outcomes. These findings highlight the necessity of analyzing heterogenous subgroups within secular populations in studies of health and well-being.

中文翻译：

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美国宗教和世俗亚群之间的健康差异：来自一般社会调查的证据

在过去的 30 年中，对上帝或更高权力（有神论的无神论者）存在高度确定性的宗教非附属组织在美国的规模迅速增长，现在是美国第四大宗教或世俗类别。这个亚组在之前关于宗教、世俗主义和健康的研究中被忽视了。我们在检查宗教或世俗认同与自我评估健康之间的联系时，通过区分无神论者、不可知论者和非附属有神论者，以最近关于宗教和健康的工作为基础。具体来说，我们通过将非附属有神论者分为两个亚组来推进对世俗个体和健康异质性的研究：那些报告他们对上帝或某些更高权力的信念（即，有神论的无神论者）的确定性，以及那些对他们的信仰不太确定的人在上帝（即，怀疑没有）。我们分析了来自综合社会调查 (GSS) 的 13 波（1988-2018 年）汇总数据（N = 15,349），这是一项定期进行的大型、重复性和具有全国代表性的美国成年人样本。使用 GSS，我们在一个控制良好的模型中评估了宗教和世俗类别的自评健康状况。与保守的新教徒相比，有神论的无神论者和无神论者的自评健康水平显着更高，而不可知论者和低确定性的非附属有神论者（怀疑无神论者）并没有报告显着更高的自评健康水平。这项研究通过区分与整体健康差异相关的非附属有神论者之间的有神论者和怀疑论者之间的差异，增加了先前的研究。结果表明，对上帝或更高权力的信仰的确定性水平是预测健康结果的重要因素。这些发现强调了在健康和福祉研究中分析世俗人群中异质亚群的必要性。