Das Opium des Bourgeoisie
A UNL sociologist mined the data from the General Social Survey (conducted by the UoC since 1972) to correlate education and "religion" on a large nationwide sample. Here are the findings:
- Education had a strong and positive effect on religious participation. With each additional year of education, the odds of attending religious services increased 15%.
- Increases in education were associated with reading the Bible. With each additional year of education, the odds of reading the Bible at least occasionally increased by 9%.
- Education was related to respondents' switching of religious affiliations. The odds of switching to a mainline Protestant denomination increased by 13% for each year of education.
- The more educated respondents were, the more likely they were to question the role of religion in secular society. Yet, they were against curbing the voices of religious leaders on societal issues and supported those leaders' rights to influence people's votes.
...The results suggest that highly educated Americans are not opposed to religion -- even religious leaders stating political opinions. But they are opposed to what may be perceived as religion being forced on secular society. http://newsroom.unl.edu/announce/todayatunl/452/2932
Such correlations are nothing new; see, for example, this 2001 NBER study finding essentially the same result, http://www.nber.org/papers/w8080
(education -> more attendance and shifts from the brimstone-and-fire sects to mainstream denominations). So, what is the rationalization of such observations by our militant atheists? Isn't it supposed to be otherwise? Here are hilarious improvisations of Ed Buckner, former president of the American Atheists:
...There are plenty of people who go to church who are not believers. They go for all sorts of reasons. They go for social reasons or (because) that’s what’s expected of them by their families or their peers. Sometimes they go so they can sell more insurance. As people become more educated, they move into the middle and upper middle class. And as they do so, they move into more establishment situations regarding the society, which means they join the churches that are the churches of the elite, or at least of the middle class.
...But Schwadel said respondents were discussing their actual beliefs, not just churchgoing habits. “What it all says to me is that religion matters to people of all education levels in the US. Depending on your level of education, you behave and believe differently.” So why the widespread perception that intellectuals are less religious, even largely irreligious? Academics are at least moderately less religious than the general public, Schwadel said. “When we see these trends, we tend to exaggerate them,” he said. “Most people see a trend and they think everyone’s like that.” http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/11/study-more-educated-tend-to-be-more-religious-by-some-measures/comment-page-1/
I love ad hoc rationales... It reminds me of the 1960s, when Democrat-voting American South switched Republican. Overnight, the salt of the earth, our deserving poor, the keepers of generational wisdom turned into the lynching mob of servile, stupid, uneducated rednecks. The mechanism for this transformation was left to imagination.
Here we have another curious transformation. Not long ago "religion" was defined as the opium for uneducated, docile classes keeping down their frustrated social aspirations and providing an outlet for voicing their sufferings. When the facts contradicting this picture are undeniable, without missing a beat, the former opium is cast as the instrument for social promotion of the bourgeoisie. Any explanation, however stretched, grotesque, or idiotic, is preferable to recognition of the simple truth: that liberation of the mind, as opposed to brainwashing, does not automatically produce atheists and had never been supposed to. Had they read Bacon or Voltaire, they would've realized that long ago, but militancy and education are poor companions...
- Education had a strong and positive effect on religious participation. With each additional year of education, the odds of attending religious services increased 15%.
- Increases in education were associated with reading the Bible. With each additional year of education, the odds of reading the Bible at least occasionally increased by 9%.
- Education was related to respondents' switching of religious affiliations. The odds of switching to a mainline Protestant denomination increased by 13% for each year of education.
- The more educated respondents were, the more likely they were to question the role of religion in secular society. Yet, they were against curbing the voices of religious leaders on societal issues and supported those leaders' rights to influence people's votes.
...The results suggest that highly educated Americans are not opposed to religion -- even religious leaders stating political opinions. But they are opposed to what may be perceived as religion being forced on secular society. http://newsroom.unl.edu/announce/todayatunl/452/2932
Such correlations are nothing new; see, for example, this 2001 NBER study finding essentially the same result, http://www.nber.org/papers/w8080
(education -> more attendance and shifts from the brimstone-and-fire sects to mainstream denominations). So, what is the rationalization of such observations by our militant atheists? Isn't it supposed to be otherwise? Here are hilarious improvisations of Ed Buckner, former president of the American Atheists:
...There are plenty of people who go to church who are not believers. They go for all sorts of reasons. They go for social reasons or (because) that’s what’s expected of them by their families or their peers. Sometimes they go so they can sell more insurance. As people become more educated, they move into the middle and upper middle class. And as they do so, they move into more establishment situations regarding the society, which means they join the churches that are the churches of the elite, or at least of the middle class.
...But Schwadel said respondents were discussing their actual beliefs, not just churchgoing habits. “What it all says to me is that religion matters to people of all education levels in the US. Depending on your level of education, you behave and believe differently.” So why the widespread perception that intellectuals are less religious, even largely irreligious? Academics are at least moderately less religious than the general public, Schwadel said. “When we see these trends, we tend to exaggerate them,” he said. “Most people see a trend and they think everyone’s like that.” http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/11/study-more-educated-tend-to-be-more-religious-by-some-measures/comment-page-1/
I love ad hoc rationales... It reminds me of the 1960s, when Democrat-voting American South switched Republican. Overnight, the salt of the earth, our deserving poor, the keepers of generational wisdom turned into the lynching mob of servile, stupid, uneducated rednecks. The mechanism for this transformation was left to imagination.
Here we have another curious transformation. Not long ago "religion" was defined as the opium for uneducated, docile classes keeping down their frustrated social aspirations and providing an outlet for voicing their sufferings. When the facts contradicting this picture are undeniable, without missing a beat, the former opium is cast as the instrument for social promotion of the bourgeoisie. Any explanation, however stretched, grotesque, or idiotic, is preferable to recognition of the simple truth: that liberation of the mind, as opposed to brainwashing, does not automatically produce atheists and had never been supposed to. Had they read Bacon or Voltaire, they would've realized that long ago, but militancy and education are poor companions...