One in 10 People Profess Non-Religious Beliefs

by Paul LeBlanc

According to research conducted by the Gallup Organization, nine out of 10 Americans identify with a specific religious tradition, with 90 percent of this group professing faith in some form of Christianity.

Statistics such as these are far from surprising, but they beg the question, what sort of people make up the remaining 10 percent of Americans who do not identify with a religious faith?

Professor Luke Galen, an associate professor of psychology at Grand Valley State University, set out to answer this question.

Working with the Center for Inquiry, a transnational organization comprised of secular-minded individuals, Galen conducted both a local and an international survey of the group’s members that sought to identify a profile of the non-religious demographic.

Galen presented the results of his surveys in a lecture, “Who Are You: Profiles of the Godless from the Non-Religious Identification Survey,” hosted by CFI at the Women’s City Club in Grand Rapids.

Galen first surveyed CFI members living in Michigan, along with church attendees at Kentwood Community Church and Fountain Street Church, both located in Grand Rapids.

He then surveyed CFI members from across the globe.

Galen noted he hoped to answer three questions about non-religious individuals: What are the non-religious like, how are they different from those who profess a religious faith and how are they viewed by the broader culture?

The surveys questioned individuals about a number of personal factors, including their level of education and their level of certainty about their religious views.

Galen, a CFI member himself, said his research enabled him to draw several general conclusions about the average non-religious individual.

”(Non-religious individuals) tend to be characterized as having more education and are predominately male,” Galen said. “They will often, but not always, have had a non-religious family background or one that did not emphasize religion.”

Galen went on to note non-religious individuals are more likely to be skeptical, regardless if the subject is religious related or not, and are more likely to have distinct views of the world.

In his lecture, Galen mentioned a perceived cultural stereotype of non-religious individuals as being “elitist” or arrogant.

Lena Spadacene, a junior at GVSU who attended the event, was hesitant to use the term “elitist,” but agreed non-religious individuals have a tendency to look down upon their religious counterparts.

“Elitist is a strong word,” Spadacene said. “I do have friends who, the second they find out someone is a believer, show a negative change in attitude toward that person. An atheist is more likely to write off a religious person as lacking intelligence.”

Spadacene identifies herself as “indifferent” toward religion, but said she tries to avoid offending religious individuals.

Despite Spadacene’s views on the subject, GVSU sophomore Kara Griffin, a self-identified non-denominational Christian, said she has a number of non-religious friends and family, but has never had any problems with them as a result of belief differences.

“I’ve never experienced anyone talking down to me,” Griffin said. “I have a lot of friends who do not believe in God, but this has never affected anything between us.”

According to the Michigan survey, 64 percent of CFI members were male, compared to 31 percent of churchgoers at Kentwood and Fountain Street churches.

When it came to certainty about religious beliefs, a majority, 55 percent, of churchgoers professed an absolutely certain belief in a god, while non-religious respondents were less likely, 40 percent, to be certain about the non-existence of a deity.

CFI members were also twice as likely as church attendees to have a graduate or doctorate degree.

Additionally, the survey judged non-religious respondents to be less agreeable, more spontaneous and more likely to be intellectually open minded when compared with religious respondents.

The results from the international survey mirrored those of the local survey, though they showed a more pronounced tilt toward specific demographics.

Of international CFI respondents, 74 percent were male with a majority having attained even higher levels of education than the average person.

Atheists made up 77 percent of international respondents, and 63 percent identified as “humanist,” followed by “agnostic” with 28 percent of respondents.

Paul LeBlanc
Grand Valley Lanthorn Staff Writer
1/31/2009