May 10 2009
Defecting to faith?
MILITANT atheism may be on the warpath in the English-speaking world, but last week its advocates had to take on board some unwelcome news.
According to the latest American research, parents with no religious affiliation are losing the battle to indoctrinate their children. A majority of those surveyed who grew up in atheist or agnostic households, or where there was no particular religious attachment, later chose to join a religion.
The New York Times sees it as a retrograde step, labelling the process “defecting to faith” and noting that in comparison only 13 per cent of those raised as Protestants and 14 per cent of cradle Catholics later severed connections.
These unexpected findings come from a study, Faith in Flux, by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. It also reveals a high churn factor among denominations.
“Americans change religion early and often. In total about half of American adults have changed religious affiliation at least once during their lives. Most people who change their religion leave their childhood faith before age 24, and many of those who change religion do so more than once,” it says.
The survey says 4 per cent of the total US adult population now belongs to a religious group after being raised unaffiliated. The unaffiliated category has, paradoxically, gained the most members from the process of religious change, despite having one of the lowest retention rates of all the categories.
About 54 per cent of those reared in unaffiliated households have since got religion. Nearly 40 per cent have become Protestants, 22 per cent evangelicals, 13 per cent mainline and 4 per cent have joined one of the black churches. Six per cent converted to Catholicism and 9 per cent embraced some other faith.
Read more here.
[From me]
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Better a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to take warning. Ecclesiastes 4:13
This is encouraging news, perhaps the first from the Pew Forum. That source is usually quoted by atheists to show how religion is failing. I would like to link this from my blog later; I would also like to update my blogroll soon, and add Confessions to it if that’s all right. I’ve discovered some very good blogs on SBC Voices.
Clark’s last blog post..Mother’s Day Sermon
It doesn’t look to me like anyone actually read the survey. Only 22% of the people in the unaffilliated category identified themselves as atheists or agnostics. Of the rest, many prayed and attended church regularly. It is not clear how many of those who became affilliated did so as a result of actually finding faith as opposed to simply finding a church that they liked.
Vinny’s last blog post..Michael Medved and the Indians
Sounds like we got mountains to move!
[...] to Kevin’s article here, with more stats and [...]
Wow, that’s a really badly written article. I have to wonder if they intentionally misrepresented the findings of the poll.
From the article:
“According to the latest American research, parents with no religious affiliation are losing the battle to indoctrinate their children. A majority of those surveyed who grew up in atheist or agnostic households, or where there was no particular religious attachment, later chose to join a religion.”
From the poll itself:
“The group that has grown the most in recent years due to religious change is the unaffiliated population. Two-thirds of former Catholics who have become unaffiliated and half of former Protestants who have become unaffiliated say they left their childhood faith because they stopped believing in its teachings, and roughly four-in-ten say they became unaffiliated because they do not believe in God or the teachings of most religions.”
11% of people raised as Catholics or Protestants are now Unaffiliated compared to 4% of people who were raised Unaffiliated who are now Catholic or Protestant.
I have to wonder whether the author of that article was grossly incompetent or whether they were being deliberately misleading.
(apologies if this appears twice; it didn’t show when I submitted it)
Wow, that’s a really badly written article. I have to wonder if they intentionally misrepresented the findings of the poll.
From the article:
“According to the latest American research, parents with no religious affiliation are losing the battle to indoctrinate their children. A majority of those surveyed who grew up in atheist or agnostic households, or where there was no particular religious attachment, later chose to join a religion.”
From the poll itself:
“The group that has grown the most in recent years due to religious change is the unaffiliated population. Two-thirds of former Catholics who have become unaffiliated and half of former Protestants who have become unaffiliated say they left their childhood faith because they stopped believing in its teachings, and roughly four-in-ten say they became unaffiliated because they do not believe in God or the teachings of most religions.”
11% of people raised as Catholics or Protestants are now Unaffiliated compared to 4% of people who were raised Unaffiliated who are now Catholic or Protestant.
I have to wonder whether the author of that article was grossly incompetent or whether they were being deliberately misleading.
Damian,
Thanks for your perspective. Unfortunately your comment was in my SPAM folder. Have a great day and I always respect your views