Keep the Faith

Religion and mental health need not be adversaries. One speaks the language of spirit, the other of science. But both seek the same thing: healing

- By George John IS A RETIRED BRITISH CONSULTANT PSYCHIATRIST, ORIGINALLY FROM INDIA

"Non nobis solum nati sumus." (Not for ourselves alone are we born) -Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman philosopher

FROM time immemorial, two fundamental forces have shaped the inner lives of human beings: the yearning for meaning and the need for solace. Faith and religion have responded to these ancient cries, offering explanations for suffering, rituals for hope, and a vision of something beyond the transient bruises of this world. Alongside mental health, though more formally studied in recent centuries, has always been a mirror of the human condition, reflecting our capacity for joy, despair, resilience, and breakdown.

The intersection of these two domains, faith and mental health, is both tender and tumultuous. Sometimes, religion has been a balm; at other times, a burden. But before we judge too quickly, we must first ask: Why does religion exist at all?

Anthropologists and evolutionary psychologists offer various explanations. Some argue that religion developed as an adaptive mechanism to foster social cohesion, moral order, and group survival. Others point to the human brain's tendency to seek patterns and attribute agency, leading to beliefs in gods, spirits, or destiny.

But perhaps the most compelling explanation is existential: religion exists because suffering exists. Where science explains the how, religion addresses the why; it offers context to chaos and meaning amid mortality.

The Austrian psychiatrist, Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor, put it poignantly: "Those who have a 'why' to live, can bear almost any 'how'." In his book Man's Search for Meaning, he observed that human beings are not driven merely by pleasure or power, but by a deep and abiding quest for meaning. Religion, then, is not escapism, but a structured response to the absurdity of suffering.