Omniscient
The Effect of Education on Religion: Evidence from Compulsory Schooling Laws
Daniel Hungerman
NBER Working Paper, April 2011
Abstract:
For over a century, social scientists have debated how educational attainment impacts religious belief. In this paper, I use Canadian compulsory schooling laws to identify the relationship between completed schooling and later religiosity. I find that higher levels of education lead to lower levels of religious participation later in life. An additional year of education leads to a 4-percentage-point decline in the likelihood that an individual identifies with any religious tradition; the estimates suggest that increases in schooling can explain most of the large rise in non-affiliation in Canada in recent decades.
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Mean Gods Make Good People: Different Views of God Predict Cheating Behavior
Azim Shariff & Ara Norenzayan
International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, Spring 2011, Pages 85-96
Abstract:
Fear of supernatural punishment may serve as a deterrent to counternormative behavior, even in anonymous situations free from human social monitoring. The authors conducted two studies to test this hypothesis, examining the relationship between cheating behavior in an anonymous setting and views of God as loving and compassionate, or as an angry and punishing agent. Overall levels of religious devotion or belief in God did not directly predict cheating. However, viewing God as a more punishing, less loving figure was reliably associated with lower levels of cheating. This relationship remained after controlling for relevant personality dimensions, ethnicity, religious affiliation, and gender.
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Does God Make It Real? Children's Belief in Religious Stories From the Judeo-Christian Tradition
Victoria Cox Vaden & Jacqueline Woolley
Child Development, forthcoming
Abstract:
Four- to 6-year-old children (N = 131) heard religious or nonreligious stories and were questioned about their belief in the reality of the story characters and events. Children had low to moderate levels of belief in the characters and events. Children in the religious story condition had higher levels of belief in the reality of the characters and events than did children in the nonreligious condition; this relation strengthened with age. Children who used God as an explanation for the events showed higher levels of belief in the factuality of those events. Story familiarity and family religiosity also affected children's responses. The authors conclude that God's involvement in a story influences children's belief in the reality of the characters and events in that story.
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Religion and prosocial behaviour: A field test
Philip Grossman & Matthew Parrett
Applied Economics Letters, April 2011, Pages 523-526
Abstract:
Religious people are thought to be more prosocial than nonreligious people. Laboratory studies of this using ultimatum, dictator, public goods and trust games have produced mixed results, which could be due to lack of context. This article examines the relationship between religion and prosocial behaviour using data from a context-rich, naturally occurring field experiment that closely resembles the dictator game - tipping in restaurants. Customers were surveyed as they left a set of restaurants in Richmond, Virginia, in the summers of 2002 and 2003. Our findings reveal no evidence of religious prosociality.
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Exporting Christianity: Governance and Doctrine in the Globalization of US Denominations
Gordon Hanson & Chong Xiang
NBER Working Paper, April 2011
Abstract:
In this paper we build a model of market competition among religious denominations, using a framework that involves incomplete contracts and the production of club goods. We treat denominations akin to multinational enterprises, which decide which countries to enter based on local market conditions and their own "productivity." The model yields predictions for how a denomination's religious doctrine and governance structure affect its ability to attract adherents. We test these predictions using data on the foreign operations of US Protestant denominations in 2005 from the World Christian Database. Consistent with the model, we find that (1) denominations with stricter religious doctrine attract more adherents in countries in which the risk of natural disaster or disease outbreak is greater and in which government provision of health services is weaker, and (2) denominations with a decentralized governance structure attract more adherents in countries in which the productivity of pastor effort is higher. These findings shed light on factors determining the composition of religion within countries, helping account for the rise of new Protestant denominations in recent decades.
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Samantha Vice
Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, April 2011, Pages 169-184
Abstract:
Our attitude towards cynicism is ambivalent: On the one hand we condemn it as a character failing and a trend that is undermining political and social life; on the other hand, we are often impressed by the apparent realism and honesty of the cynic. My aim in this paper is to offer an account of cynicism that can explain both our attraction and aversion. After defending a particular conception of cynicism, I argue that most of the work in explaining the fault of cynicism can be done by referring not to the cynic's beliefs about humanity, but to the attitude cultivated as a response to that belief. This attitude is hostile to the virtues of faith, hope and charity, upon which relationships and our sense of moral community depend. In conclusion, I suggest that holding the cynical belief is itself immoral, and that cynicism is disrespectful and destructive of morality.
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Economic Inequality, Relative Power, and Religiosity
Frederick Solt, Philip Habel & Tobin Grant
Social Science Quarterly, forthcoming
Objective: What effect does the extent of economic inequality within a country have on the religiosity of the people who live there? As inequality increases, does religion serve primarily as a source of comfort for the deprived and impoverished or as a tool of social control for the rich and powerful?
Methods: This article examines these questions with two complementary analyses of inequality and religiosity: a multilevel analysis of countries around the world over two decades and a time-series analysis of the United States over a half-century.
Results: Economic inequality has a strong positive effect on the religiosity of all members of a society regardless of income.
Conclusions: These results support relative power theory, which maintains that greater inequality yields more religiosity by increasing the degree to which wealthy people are attracted to religion and have the power to shape the attitudes and beliefs of those with fewer means.
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The greying church: The impact of life expectancy on religiosity
Elissaios Papyrakis & Geethanjali Selvaretnam
International Journal of Social Economics, May 2011, Pages 438-452
Purpose: In recent years, there has been an expanding literature on the socio-economic determinants of religiosity. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this stream of the literature by studying the impact of life expectancy on religiosity through a theoretical decision-making framework, and by separately examining the decision of young and old individuals with respect to religious participation.
Design/methodology/approach: The paper analyses religiosity through a cost-benefit framework, where decisions at each point in time depend on expected social and spiritual benefits attached to religious adherence (both contemporaneously, as well as in the afterlife), the probability of entering heaven in the afterlife, as well as the costs of formal religion in terms of time allocated to religious activities. It provides the theoretical underpinnings for the negative correlation between life expectancy and religious attendance previously observed in empirical analysis.
Findings: The analysis reveals how increases in life expectancy encourage postponement of religious involvement, particularly in religion doctrines that do not necessarily link salvation (or afterlife benefits more broadly) to the timing of religiosity. This demonstrates that religious establishments should anticipate to attract older members, particularly in countries which have high life expectancy or expect significant increases in life expectancy, although current socio-economic benefits can counterbalance the negative impact of life expectancy on religiosity and hence encourage religious involvement.
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New Proofs for the Existence of God
Andrew Pinsent
Harvard Theological Review, April 2011, Pages 255-262
Abstract:
At a meeting in Leningrad in December 1948, Soviet astronomers affirmed the need to fight against the "reactionary-idealistic" theory of a "primeval atom." Support for this theory, later dubbed the "Big Bang" by one of its fiercest critics, would, the Soviets claimed, help clericalism. While such anxieties might seem astonishing today, they may have seemed plausible in the 1940s, especially since the theory had first been proposed by a Catholic priest, Father Georges Lemaître. Furthermore, while Lemaître himself was careful to avoid drawing theological inferences, the association of his theory with the religious doctrine of Creation, especially by Pope Pius XII in 1951, helped to motivate the search for alternative approaches such as the "steady-state" theory. In recent years, by contrast, the perception has been growing that the Big Bang theory has ceased to be offensive to atheist sensibilities. It is claimed that the Big Bang can now be accommodated safely within a self-sufficient system of natural causes, possibly by embedding the universe within an infinitely larger and eternal "multiverse." Indeed, just a few months ago, the media reported with enthusiasm the assertions made by Stephen Hawking in his latest book, that contemporary physics has solved the mysteries of the Big Bang making recourse to God obsolete.
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"Bad Men and Angels from Hell": The Discourse of Universalism in Early National Philadelphia
Janet Moore Lindman
Journal of the Early Republic, Summer 2011, Pages 259-282
Abstract:
In the winter of 1780, a disagreement over Universalism broke out in the Philadelphia Baptist Church. Led by their minister Elhanan Winchester, many church members adopted Universalism, while others resisted giving up their Calvinist belief in particular salvation. Opponents condemned this new tenet as perilous to orthodox Christianity; the salvation of all humans meant that even "bad men and angels from hell" would attain saving grace. The Anti-Universalists used discourse that played on fears of Catholicism, immorality and atheism to confront this threat. Winchester and the proponents of Universalism utilized democratic language to expand Protestant identity by advocating one religion for all. The inclusiveness of Universalism appealed to some of the Revolutionary generation who wished for an efficacious faith that was both rational and spiritual. Universalists endorsed a religion that fit the social and political context of the new nation. Their compassionate theology would benefit Americans by enhancing personal piety, promoting spiritual community, and uniting all Protestants. The argument over Universalism in Philadelphia started as a local event and became part of a national discussion about the nature of deliverance. The controversy spawned in Pennsylvania occurred in a locality familiar with religious interaction but intensified through the burgeoning print and denominational networks of the late eighteenth century. Instigated by an active laity, dissemination of this debate relied upon connections among denominational leaders. Though the rift over Universalism in the Philadelphia Baptist Church transpired at the micro level, it was linked to an ongoing religious dialogue among Protestants in the Atlantic world.