The Mysterious “Unaffiliated”

The Pew Forum has released the results of a complex and fascinating survey of American adults about whether, why and how they switch or stick with the religious affiliation of their childhood.

Most interesting to me, as someone raised unaffiliated, is the finding that a majority of those who were raised unaffiliated (54 percent) have since become affiliated with Evangelical Protestantism, Mainline Protestantism, Catholicism or some other non-Christian faith as adults. Meanwhile, only about 14 percent of those raised Christian, either Catholic or Protestant, have become altogether unaffiliated with an organized religion. And most (68 percent of those raised Catholic and 52 percent of those raised Protestant) have continued as adults with the particular denomination in which they were raised.

What does this mean? Well… I don’t know…

At first blush, it seems to contradict some of the recent assertions that religiosity is steadfastly declining in America. But this column in the New York Times went further and asserted that the survey results indicate humans must naturally crave ways for experiencing the divine and/or the group identity that comes from affiliation with one faith or another. That column, in turn, inspired this blog post which led to a torrent of comments theorizing about the extent to which the religiosity of human beings is (1) a product of culture or (2) a product of our neural wiring.

Here’s one interesting comment…

Here’s one interesting comment on the above-mentioned blog post from someone called “tecumseh”:

i gather the elements of religion are innate — we might have some sort of module that helps us detect agency, which religions exploit. but there’s no evidence that the drive to join a church is completely innate. in fact, there’s some evidence that it’s not. at least, if we’re dealing with east asians.

from the world values survey:

Japanese: 76% irreligious/atheist
South Koreans: 70% irreligious/atheist
China: 78% irreligious/atheist

maybe there’s some ‘human biodiversity’ (as the euphemism is) reasons for this, and us round eyes are going to be stuck with a religious population for sometime to come…

And here’s another comment from someone called “Danilo”:

What about wanting to be part of a cultural tradition? I grew up with atheist parents, but in some deep way I absorbed much of the Protestant denomination of my ancestors and community. Even though I don’t believe in the supernatural, let’s say, it is part of my identity. I do not experience a conflict between not being a believer and being a Protestant. Living in a Mediterranean Catholic country has given me an unexpected “cultural allergic reaction” at some moments which reveals how much my aesthetics and identity are linked to a certain tradition.

The political philosopher Seyla Benhabib says that “narrativity” or a “narrative construction of identity” is fundamental to the human condition. “We are storytelling animals” she says. I think what she means here is that the choices we make and the ways we interpret the world around us are anchored in traditions that we re-interpret or re-iterate in the new context, or else our identity is no longer alive. Christianity is an essential part of the Western “story” and the Protestant narrative in America have been a foundation for much of our principles and identity. So I am interested in the data on atheists who “turn to religion”. Are they turning towards supernatural transcendence or do they wish to be part of a community, part of a tradition?

- Jamie McElroy