Who Believes in God--and Why?
Many say their own faith is based in reason, but others' beliefs are grounded in emotion.
By Michael Shermer
Why do you believe in God? I have been asking people this question for most of my adult life. In 1998, Frank Sulloway and I presented the query in a more official format—along with the question “Why do you think other people believe in God?”—in a survey given to ten thousand Americans. Just a few of the answers we received:
- A 22-year-old male law student with moderate religious convictions (a self-rated five on a nine-point scale), who was raised by very religious parents and who today calls himself a deist, writes, “I believe in a creator because there seems to be no other possible explanation for the existence of the universe,” yet other “people believe in God to give their lives purpose and meaning.”
- A 43-year-old male computer scientist and Catholic with very strong religious convictions (a nine on the nine-point scale) “had a personal conversion experience, where I had direct contact with God. This conversion experience, and ongoing contacts in prayer, form the only basis for my faith.” Other people believe in God, however “because of (a) their upbringing, (b) the comfort of the church, and (c) a hope for this contact.”
- A 36-year-old male journalist and evangelical Christian with a self-rated eight in religious conviction writes: “I believe in God because to me there is ample evidence for the existence of an intelligent designer of the universe.” Yet, “others accept God out of a purely emotional need for comfort throughout their life and use little of their intellectual capacity to examine the faith to which they adhere.”
- A 40-year-old female Catholic nurse with very strong religious convictions (a nine on the nine-point scale) says that “I believe in God because of the example of my spiritual teacher who believes in God and has unconditional love for people and gives so completely of himself for the good of others. And since I have followed this path, I now treat others so much better.” On the other hand, she writes that “I think people initially believe in God because of their parents and unless they start on their own path— where they put a lot of effort into their spiritual part of their life—they continue to believe out of fear.”
When Sulloway and I noticed the difference between why people believe in God and why they think other people believe in God, we decided to undertake an extensive analysis of all the written answers people provided in our survey. In addition, we inquired about family demographics, religious background, personality characteristics, and other factors that contribute to religious belief and skepticism. We discovered that the seven strongest predictors of belief in God are:
1. being raised in a religious manner
2. parents’ religiosity
3. lower levels of education
4. being female
5. a large family
6. lack of conflict with parents
7. being younger
In sum, being female and raised by religious parents in a large family appears to make one more religious, whereas being male, educated, in conflict with one’s parents, and older appears to make one less religious. As people become older and more educated, they encounter other belief systems that lead them to see the connection between various personal and social influences and religious beliefs. This helps explain the differences we observed in reasons people give for their own beliefs versus the reasons they attribute to other people’s beliefs.
From the responses we received in a preliminary survey, we created a taxonomy of eleven categories of reasons people give for their own and others’ beliefs. The five most common answers given to the question Why do you believe in God?:
1. The good design / natural beauty / perfection / complexity of the world or universe (28.6%)
2. The experience of God in everyday life (20.6%)
3. Belief in God is comforting, relieving, consoling, and gives meaning and purpose to life (10.3%) 4. The Bible says so (9.8%)
5. Just because / faith / the need to believe in something (8.2%)
And the six most common answers given to the question Why do you think other people believe in God?:
1. Belief in God is comforting, relieving, consoling, and gives meaning and purpose to life (26.3%) 2. Religious people have been raised to believe in God (22.4%)
3. The experience of God in everyday life (16.2%)
4. Just because / faith / the need to believe in something (13.0%)
5. Fear death and the unknown (9.1%)
6. The good design / natural beauty / perfection / complexity of the world or universe (6.0%)
Notice that the intellectually based reasons offered for belief in God—”the good design of the universe” and “the experience of God in everyday life”—which occupied first and second place when people were describing their own beliefs dropped to sixth and third place, respectively, when they were describing the beliefs of others. Indeed, when reflecting on others’ beliefs, the two most common reasons cited were emotion-based (and fear-averse!): personal comfort (“comforting, relieving, consoling”) and social comfort (“raised to believe”).
Sulloway and I believe that these results are evidence of an intellectual attribution bias, in which people consider their own beliefs as being rationally motivated, whereas they see the beliefs of others as being emotionally driven. By analogy, one’s commitment to a political belief is generally attributed to a rational decision (“I am for gun control because statistics show that crime decreases when gun ownership decreases”), whereas another person’s opinion on the same subject is attributed to need or emotional reasons (“he is for gun control because he is a bleeding-heart liberal”). This intellectual attribution bias appears to be equal opportunity on the subject of God. The apparent good design of the universe, and the perceived action of a higher intelligence in daily activities, are powerful intellectual justifications for belief. But we readily attribute other people’s belief in God to their emotional needs and how they were raised.
4 comments:
Very interesting findings, and conclusions. I thought the seven predictors of "belief in God" really fascinating, even though a lot of them are so obvious. Still, it is not a question one really thinks about long enough to ever formulate any opinion on. I must be an anomaly. I still believe in "God" [per se] albeit not the traditional concept of the sort of cosmic personal Yoda In The Sky, and yet I don't fit into a lot of the seven characteristics there.
Polls.
My main interest in them tends to focus on what the numbers are really trying to show us and how accurate the sampling.
Am I right to conclude that this one concentrates on the chasms that exist between my belief and what I believe yours to be?
Since we live in a scientific age, it would be little surprise that most take the intellectual path to “explain” their belief structures.
That is to say, the 28+% who believe because of “design” or “complexity” of the world (observable, measurable phenomena) stand on a little firmer footing in a technological, scientific culture than the one who offers a metaphysical, mystical reason such as, “Just because” or “Because I talk with Him and He talks with me…”
The range of rationale points first to the overwhelming array of reasons we offer that we THINK we believe. I emphasize the word "think" because I wonder if we really KNOW why we believe (or don't believe) on any given day.
For one thing, most people's faith fluctuates.
(See? There I am doing the exact same thing as the people in the poll…assuming I know about the waivering faiths of the multitudes…)
I say this, though, because I feel that we really have no idea of the depth, force or source of many influences in our life.
And when it comes right down to it --- aren't most of our transcendent beliefs supposed to be beyond any rational "explanation" anyhow?
Still, what I find intriguing is the idea that we think we can offer any kind of solid analysis of OTHERS' motives for believing.
At the very least, the data suggests [to me] that we are actively engaged in considering others' views on what I would think would - ultimately - be a very personal, private matter.
Why do we care? (Not a sarcastic, but a genuine question.)
I wonder.
How much of what we end up shaping as our own creed has been gleaned from what others' think? or from what we THINK others think?
How influential are those others’ views on us? Either by rejection (as in, My belief is more rational than theirs...) or by acceptance -- rather than by hard fought independent examination.
In essence, I think I am asking why in HECK did I devour this post of yours -- if I myself weren’t just a bit interested in sizing up what I do or don’t believe with what OTHERS do or don’t believe?!
Alas, it's a tangled web.
One last thing: That list of predictors strongly suggests that it is largely out of our hands anyhow, doesn’t it?
How many of the seven do we really have any over control? Which are a matter of conscious choice? If it is true that people born to large families, females, with religious parents…blah blah blah…tend to believe…what does this fact do to the philosophy of free choice? Doesn't it skew that philosophy just a tad?
This was another in your series of very interesting posts; It’s nice having someone out in the blog world thoughtful enough to cull through the mounds of theological data being written today. Then you hand it off to me at no charge. Thanks so much.
By the way – read Studs Terkel’s "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" if you want some really interesting (and wild) firsthand accounts of belief…namely in faith and life after death.
Thanks again.
Anonymous...thanks for such a comprehensive comment. I will look into the book you mentioned. I look forward to future comments from you.
Interesting article Col Mo.
As for predictors of belief in God:
1. being raised in a religious manner
2. parents’ religiosity
3. lower levels of education
4. being female
5. a large family
6. lack of conflict with parents
7. being younger
I qualify for 1, 2, 5, 6 and 7.
5 out of 7 and I am close to agnostic as possible. Certainly not having any belief in a traditional God.
Maybe I am an anomoly in such a case? However, this list is logical.
Then there is the possibility that we are genetically inclined to believe or have faith.
Of course, that is if we truely exist at all...
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