Why Some People Turn to Religion and Others Dont

why would an atheist son become Christian fundamentalist and why would good Catholic girl suddenly find that she really is an atheist in this video will discuss the topic of why some people leave religion and why others become religious it's based on the studies of two renowned Canadian psychologists Robert Alem and Bruce hunsburger the study involved survey of 4,264 people from several Canadian universities and it explores the contrast of drastic changes in people's lives in relation to religion after the survey was conducted Scholars chose 25 people on each spectrum and held in-depth interviews with them the first group they called The Amazing apostates which involves those who grew up in religious household received strong religious education and had strong religious beliefs but later abandoned it the second group they called The Amazing Believers and this group encompasses those who were not religious but then decide to join religion the result demonstrated that amazing Believers and amazing apostates are significantly different groups of people for example while for those who deconverted from religion the process of deconversion was often lonely path that took many months or even years and the Moment of Truth often could happen in place no less than library for instance on the contrary those who converted to religion often have done it under the influence of their peers it also often could happen spontaneous ously perhaps somewhere in bars or at funeral where they would turn to religion not because reason gave them no choice but because conversion solved big emotional problems religion provided security Joy purpose self-discipline fellowship and love Aliah and hunsburger claim that the roots of the apostasy usually lie in the religious beliefs themselves not some hidden underlying cause quite often it has to do with the religious training people receive during their childhood so the amazing apostates are often those who were raised strictly religious but later they simply applied to religion what they were trained to apply to Geometry therefore the main triggers for skepticism for the amazing apostates were simply that biblical stories were just too hard to swallow and seemed unrealistic also they noticed lot of contradictions in the Bible the disagreements with the theory of evolution or conflict with science in general would also cause alarm moreover sexism in descript and the teachings about homosexuality being sin was also problem for the amazing apostates and lastly the problem of evil those were some of the main reasons why people eventually got skeptical about Christianity it is important to keep in mind that this study was conducted in the late 1990s and therefore took place before the era of the internet social media and the so-called atheist Awakening with the new atheist movement today we have more data and works on apostasy each of these studies focuses on specific group of apostates some focus on EX Mormons some on ex-muslims or non-believing Jews African Americans and other groups like non-believing clergy now alemi and hunsburger concluded while amazing apostasy is undoubtedly caused by many factors two general causes stand out at this point first the religious training itself produces strong valuing of Truth and integrity values children will not sacrifice for the family religion if it fails their test this means that the parents themselves while giving their children religious education taught them that no matter what and above all to Value the truth the most important thing is the truth therefore if at some point in time they come to the conclusion that their religion is not true then they will be likely to abandon it the second Factor they notice is that being bright May encourage some students to find flaws in their religion and make them more confident in their judgment that is the smarter the students are the more likely they are to ask provocative questions about their religion and when they come to certain conclusions they are more likely to trust their judgments and not just follow what Elders are saying as the authors concluded the amazing apostate simply applied to religion what he was trained to apply to geometry in other words in the case of the amazing apostates reason gave them no choice as former Pentecostal pastor Jerry dwit noticed people do not choose to be an atheist they realize they are so the amazing apostates almost always changed because they felt intellectually compelled to do so they found too many inconsistencies too many unproven too many implausibilities and also too much sexism and too much unfairness to base their lives any longer on what they came to see as pack of fables they had an unusual drive for the truth and personal Integrity interestingly Alem and hunsburger noticed that the amazing apostates were focusing and concerned more with the intellectual component of their religion and not so much with the emotional issues the problems that came up most often in the students Minds in the overall survey sample were emotional issues like what happens to us when we die the death of loved one or the problem of evil on the contrary the amazing apostates were not focusing on them instead the things that bothered them tended to arise in the Realms of ideas for example author was right the validity of the Bible ranked close to last among the questions asked by the overall sample and few reported spotting contradictory teachings basically the amazing apostates of the future were working from Different Page than most other teenagers were they were examining the truth of their religion this way authors claimed that they almost never abandon religion or faith for emotional reasons it has to do with Logic on the other hand alema and hunsburger noticed that that the amazing Believers appear to have accepted Christianity not because reason gave them no choice but because conversion solved big emotional problems religion provided security Joy purpose self-discipline fellowship and love when the emotional salvation was absent in The Amazing Believers so was dedication it means that the amazing Believers almost always converted for social reasons and not so much to actually learn about the religion it wasn't an intellectual drive or curiosity for example You've Lost Your close friend or relative this type of emotional stress might set you on religious track often it happens under the influence of someone in your circles in contrast the author state that almost none of the amazing apostates was converted by their peers or anyone else it is usually lonely individual's internal struggle with an attempt to find truth and understand their faith logically Marshall Brooks agrees he claims that Mormons leave church not because they were never true believers they were very dedicated Believers but in their attempt to defend the truth of their Doctrine they found unwillingly internal contradictions and inconsistencies in their religious history and tradition and only after trying for months or even years to get to the bottom of the truth they gradually and often with big regret come to realize that they simply can no longer believe in what seemed illogical to them some sociologists of religion such as Jesse Smith SU suest dividing this long and lonely process into four stages the first is the starting point where the person truly believes the second is the beginning of the questioning of said beliefs the third is when the person is coming to the realization of the untruthfulness of the religious beliefs and thus rejecting theism and the fourth is the coming out as an atheist which unfortunately is death sentence in some places around the world all right so the decision to join some religious organization often occurs on emotions under someone's direct influence from the outside and sometimes very spontaneously for instance you were invited to visit some church during period of emotional stress in your life or some other internal struggles you received their love and support and decided to join often it doesn't really matter to you whether there is truth here or not the main thing is that you feel good here you feel that it solves your specific emotional needs on the other Spectrum we have lonely individual who for long period of time wants to logically understand their belief system one more trigger for leaving religion might be caused by intolerance toward various groups Robert Putnam an American political scientist stated in an interview with PBS newsour that all Americans even among the most religious Americans young people are much much more tolerant of homosexuals and we can see in our data evidence that very strident anti-gay agenda drives kids away from Church another important cause can be seen in the change of environment for example according to Brooks many young Mormon males lose their faith during their mission while prz outside of their comfortable life within the community they are often challenged and confronted by smart people who question their faith and make them raise provocative questions that they never dared to ask before sometimes traveling and experiencing diversity getting to know people of different religions can serve as trigger to question your your own beliefs and finally Alem and huntsberger discussed the youthful Rebellion hypothesis According to which some suggest that apostasy simply happens due to general Rebellion or critical attitude toward authorities and social Customs the authors also analyze hypothesis related to bad relationships with parents unhappy household experiences and so on but eventually they came to the conclusion that these hypothesis cannot be verified they state in almost every instance the biggest problem the amazing apostates had with their parents arose over religion the roots of the apostasy usually lay in the religious beliefs themselves not some hidden underlying cause in other words most people will not give up their religion due to some emotional factors like hate towards their parents no the problem lies precisely in the truthfulness of the religious teaching want to thank Alex from the YouTube channel relig who was the main author on the script for this video Alex is PhD candidate and teaching assistant at the University of California his areas of specialization are in secularism atheism and apostasy if you're interested in watching more videos about the academic study of Religion and non-religion highly recommend that you check out his channel by clicking the link in the description