by ANDY TIX
God may not be dead, but God does appear to be starting to fade, at least in the United States. And, it’s not just religiousness; for the first time, there is evidence that spirituality also may be starting to decline.
The latest report was released this week by Jean Twenge and colleagues. These scholars scrutinized data from the General Social Survey (GSS), a nationally representative sampling of over 58,000 American adults that can be used to examine social trends going back to 1974.
Consistent with other recent analyses, results showed that, by 2014, American adults were less likely to be religiously affiliated and to believe in God than they were previously. This study also breaks new ground in showing that Americans were less likely to attend religious services, pray, and report being spiritual. Millennials (aged 18-29) were especially likely to display these trends, with one out of every five reporting that they are “not spiritual at all.” The only exception to recent trends was an increased belief in the afterlife.
What explains this overall pattern of decline?
1. The rise of self
Twenge and colleagues connect these results to a rise in individualism in the United States. This cultural orientation generally seems to discourage involvement in groups and concerns beyond the self. In fact, Twenge et al. explain the increased belief in the afterlife as potentially being due to a kind of self-entitlement mentality that expects rewards without effort.
In a seminal article, Aaron Kay and colleagues similarly tie religious belief to the centrality of self. These authors argue that individuals typically affirm self-control to help them to cope with feelings of disorder, randomness, and uncertainty. This becomes difficult to sustain, however, when perception of self-control is threatened. During these times, control often is sought from external sources of control, such as God.
In one study, for instance, Kay and colleagues randomly assigned research participants to either write about a recent positive event in which (1) they possessed self-control or (2) did not possess self-control. Participants then were asked about the extent to which they believed in God. God was presented half of the time as controlling and half of the time as non-controlling (i.e., creating). Remarkably, individuals who were primed to think about their self-control were significantly less likely to believe in a controlling God (but not a creating God), compared with those who were primed to think about their lack of self-control. These results are consistent with Twenge et al.’s perspective that the centrality of the self plays a key role in determining religious belief.
2. Negative attitudes
An increase in negative attitudes about religiousness and spirituality may be another factor. There are many possible sources to these negative attitudes. For example, when religion is featured in the news – or publically discussed, in general – the tenor often is negative. Reports on the connection between Islam and extreme violence is one example, but it is not the only one.
As reported in the book, UnChristian, the Barna group has conducted nationally representative surveys asking 16-29 year-olds in the United States which adjectives they most associate with Christians and Christianity. Attitudes are strikingly negative, even among those respondents who are Christians themselves. In particular, the most common adjectives people use in these surveys to describe Christians and Christianity include “judgmental,” “hypocritical,” “too political,” and “antihomosexual.”
Psychology Today for more