One of the most important questions we are trying to answer in The Nones Project is: Do non-religious people have feelings of self-worth and satisfaction that are similar to traditionally religious Americans? In many ways, this may be the most important issue to address when talking about the rising share of nones in the United States.
I've noticed a pattern whereby you tend to take people's answers on "how do you feel" type questions at face value. I'm a sociolinguist, and in my field we never do that with responses to surveys about language use and language attitudes. It's very easy to see that people respond more in terms of norms than in terms of actual behaviors and beliefs. It might be that religious people believe they're supposed to be happy whereas atheists don't. In fact, given all the smiley Christians out there, I suspect that's the case.
As I've mentioned before, Done is the default for Australians, and we are pretty happy, AFAICT. Of course, being in Australia helps in lots of ways - great climate, OK economy for most though not all, very low-key politics. Both zealous atheists and proselytising Christians are incredibly rare, unless you belong to a sect like JW or Trotskyism (which assumes atheism) where handing out the newspaper is more or less compulsory. Generally speaking, you are expected to keep your (dis)beliefs to yourself.
I don't think there is a God-shaped hole in the Aussie heart.
One other interesting thing to consider... "Dones" grew up breathing Christian air. Who knows how exactly that early shaping of self-worth and morals affects you for life, even if you ultimately reject their premise later on?
Can I assume that the Weekly+ Protestants and Catholics would score much higher on these metrics than the Dones and the less frequent attending Christians?
That information about the dissatisfied ZA's is going to be quite the starting point for when I see Hemant Mehta (Friendly Atheist) give a talk at the Ethical Society of St. Louis "When Our Heroes go Off the Rails".
Wow.. I’d really like to dig deeper on that last ZA graph.. What accounts for that distribution compared to the theists (or former theists).. How much is due to (physical not online) social network or other factors like life goals (ie bucket list)? And then flipping it all around, what is it about theists that makes them perform better on these metrics? Does a striving for community induce religious belief or the other way around?
Wildly helpful. As Tozer used to say, "Christians don't go around telling lies; we gather on Sundays to do that." So many overstated, unsupported opinions around this very topic.
If I can complicate it a little: when I completed dissertation research at Christian colleges, a hot topic in social research was networks (I was in a HED program). One of the strongest findings was that students who had the largest number of networks of support had not only the highest levels of achievement but also expressed much higher levels of life satisfaction and positive self-image.
Also, not all support networks function equally. While some fraternal orders clearly helped undergrads, others decreased likelihood of graduation within six years.
If faith communities have similar impacts, we can expect some unhealthy communities to have negative impacts (like several times the suicide rate for gay teens). Anecdotally, many Dones rejected all church participation after many years in very unhealthy ones - which we would expect to increase feelings of life satisfaction and self-image.
These results are also only part of the story: are people performing significantly better in faith communities because its members tend to value belonging to supportive networks? Do some participate in several while others have only church life, and how does that impact results? While data collection can't hope to track healthy vs. unhealthy church impacts on a large scale, it's important to acknowledge these differences when ministering to individuals and families.
I would like to see you compare this to activism. Are the Catholics and protestants more likely to be “kicking the can down the road and letting God take care of it”? Is there more concern for the “least of these” among those who have left organized religion? Is the possible increased happiness due to not feeling like this is my problem, God will take care of it?
Other studies (including some that Ryan has discussed previously) show that the opposite is true. Religious people are more likely to be involved in activism than the non-religious, with one exception: zealous atheists. See more here:
This is tied to the fact that education tracks with both activism and devout religiosity and devout atheism. So folks who go to church at least once a week are also likely to be going to volunteer in the community, and to have an advanced degree. (Ryan has written a lot about this phenomenon, too.)
But I find your assumption that Christians don't care about the poor weird. What buildings are soup kitchens for the homeless held in? What buildings have been claimed as a sanctuary against immigration enforcement? (Hint: there's a reason why we use the word "sanctuary" to describe it.) Many studies have shown that religious believers are more likely to give to charity and be involved in charitable volunteering than the non-religious, and that this also tracks with religious attendance, with frequent attenders giving the most time and money. For instance, see here: https://www.hoover.org/research/religious-faith-and-charitable-giving
What if you measured gratefulness instead of satisfaction? We live in a consumer culture that at a basic level feeds dissatisfaction. Would gratefulness show something different?
I've noticed a pattern whereby you tend to take people's answers on "how do you feel" type questions at face value. I'm a sociolinguist, and in my field we never do that with responses to surveys about language use and language attitudes. It's very easy to see that people respond more in terms of norms than in terms of actual behaviors and beliefs. It might be that religious people believe they're supposed to be happy whereas atheists don't. In fact, given all the smiley Christians out there, I suspect that's the case.
As I've mentioned before, Done is the default for Australians, and we are pretty happy, AFAICT. Of course, being in Australia helps in lots of ways - great climate, OK economy for most though not all, very low-key politics. Both zealous atheists and proselytising Christians are incredibly rare, unless you belong to a sect like JW or Trotskyism (which assumes atheism) where handing out the newspaper is more or less compulsory. Generally speaking, you are expected to keep your (dis)beliefs to yourself.
I don't think there is a God-shaped hole in the Aussie heart.
One other interesting thing to consider... "Dones" grew up breathing Christian air. Who knows how exactly that early shaping of self-worth and morals affects you for life, even if you ultimately reject their premise later on?
Can I assume that the Weekly+ Protestants and Catholics would score much higher on these metrics than the Dones and the less frequent attending Christians?
Not only can you assume it, it's actually true:
Among weekly attending Christians, the well-being score is 76.5
Among Christians who attend less frequently it's 68.3.
That information about the dissatisfied ZA's is going to be quite the starting point for when I see Hemant Mehta (Friendly Atheist) give a talk at the Ethical Society of St. Louis "When Our Heroes go Off the Rails".
Wow.. I’d really like to dig deeper on that last ZA graph.. What accounts for that distribution compared to the theists (or former theists).. How much is due to (physical not online) social network or other factors like life goals (ie bucket list)? And then flipping it all around, what is it about theists that makes them perform better on these metrics? Does a striving for community induce religious belief or the other way around?
Wildly helpful. As Tozer used to say, "Christians don't go around telling lies; we gather on Sundays to do that." So many overstated, unsupported opinions around this very topic.
If I can complicate it a little: when I completed dissertation research at Christian colleges, a hot topic in social research was networks (I was in a HED program). One of the strongest findings was that students who had the largest number of networks of support had not only the highest levels of achievement but also expressed much higher levels of life satisfaction and positive self-image.
Also, not all support networks function equally. While some fraternal orders clearly helped undergrads, others decreased likelihood of graduation within six years.
If faith communities have similar impacts, we can expect some unhealthy communities to have negative impacts (like several times the suicide rate for gay teens). Anecdotally, many Dones rejected all church participation after many years in very unhealthy ones - which we would expect to increase feelings of life satisfaction and self-image.
These results are also only part of the story: are people performing significantly better in faith communities because its members tend to value belonging to supportive networks? Do some participate in several while others have only church life, and how does that impact results? While data collection can't hope to track healthy vs. unhealthy church impacts on a large scale, it's important to acknowledge these differences when ministering to individuals and families.
I would like to see you compare this to activism. Are the Catholics and protestants more likely to be “kicking the can down the road and letting God take care of it”? Is there more concern for the “least of these” among those who have left organized religion? Is the possible increased happiness due to not feeling like this is my problem, God will take care of it?
Other studies (including some that Ryan has discussed previously) show that the opposite is true. Religious people are more likely to be involved in activism than the non-religious, with one exception: zealous atheists. See more here:
https://www.graphsaboutreligion.com/p/no-one-participates-in-politics-more
This is tied to the fact that education tracks with both activism and devout religiosity and devout atheism. So folks who go to church at least once a week are also likely to be going to volunteer in the community, and to have an advanced degree. (Ryan has written a lot about this phenomenon, too.)
But I find your assumption that Christians don't care about the poor weird. What buildings are soup kitchens for the homeless held in? What buildings have been claimed as a sanctuary against immigration enforcement? (Hint: there's a reason why we use the word "sanctuary" to describe it.) Many studies have shown that religious believers are more likely to give to charity and be involved in charitable volunteering than the non-religious, and that this also tracks with religious attendance, with frequent attenders giving the most time and money. For instance, see here: https://www.hoover.org/research/religious-faith-and-charitable-giving
Why are the SBNRs among the dissatisfied? To listen to the "spiritual" demographic I would assume that they are the most bubbly about life.
What if you measured gratefulness instead of satisfaction? We live in a consumer culture that at a basic level feeds dissatisfaction. Would gratefulness show something different?