Higher Education Does Not Reduce Religious Beliefs

For many years, experts have been arguing that the more educated a person gets, the more likely they are to renounce religious beliefs, and move farther away from religion in general. However, a new scientific investigation proved that that is not always the case.

What the research did uncover was that more educated individuals – regardless of their affinity for religion – were more opposed to religious dogma influencing secular societies in general.

In other words, they agreed that everyone should keep their religion to themselves, and let society be set up on secular principles. The study was conducted by a team of investigators at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, in the United States.

Details of the new research effort were accepted for publication in an upcoming issue of the journal Review of Religious Research, PsychCentral reports. The work found that education has a positive effect on churchgoing habits and devotional practices in the United States.

For this study, experts looked at data covering thousands of respondents to the General Social Survey, a large-scale study being conducted on the demographic characteristics and attitudes of residents in the country towards a wide array of things.

The conclusion that emerged above all was that eduction in America is very likely to influence a person's religious beliefs and practices, but in a much more complex manner than originally suggested.

“Education influences strategies of action, and these strategies of action are relevant to some religious beliefs and activities, but not others,” explains the author of the new study, UNL sociologist Dr. Philip Schwadel.

“The effects of education on religion are not simple increases or decreases. In many ways, effects will vary, based on how you define religion,” the expert goes on to say.

One of the most interesting things that was made obvious following the study was that more educated Americans were more likely to step away from the idea that their particular religion is the one true faith of the world. Many educated Christians avoid interpreting the Bible as the literal word of the Creator.

“It’s clear that though the religious worldviews of the highly educated differ from the religious worldviews of those with little education, religion plays an important role in the lives of highly educated Americans,” Schwadel explains.

He is referring to the fact that even highly-educated Americans tend to think poorly of dropping religion altogether. They instead prefer to think of God as a superior force, but without all the strings that religion attaches to this idea.

“And religion remains relevant to Americans of all education levels,” Schwadel concludes.