Number of Views: 42
Amazing Conversions: Why Some Turn to Faith & Others Abandon Religion
Author:
Bob Altemeyer, Bruce Hunsberger
Publisher:
Prometheus Books
Date of Publication:
1997
ISBN:
1573921475
Rating:
10
Summary:
Brilliant… though I am biased (but the data for the book is not).
The authors of the book are interested in addressing two very specific questions: (1) Why do some people raised in extremely religious homes leave religion (Amazing Apostates or AAs)? (2) Why do some people raised in primarily secular homes join religions (Amazing Believers or ABs)? (see p. 12).
To answer these questions, the authors surveyed several thousand students at their corresponding universities in Canada. Their surveys provided scale measures that allowed the authors to locate enough individuals who fit the above descriptions (strong religious upbringing but now apostates or no religious upbringing but now religious). The authors screened over 4,000 students to find 58 AAs and 34 ABs (see pp. 26-27 and 29-30).
The reason the authors view these individuals as ‘amazing’ is because their behavior seems to run counter to the prevailing understanding of the influence of socialization. Generally speaking, those raised in homes where religion is highly emphasized remain religious while the bulk of apostates come from homes where their parents are either inactive or disinterested in religion (thus, the parents provide the first steps toward apostasy). The authors point out that socialization trends hold true for almost all religious groups, including Hindus, Jews, and Muslims (see p. 242). Thus, these ‘amazing’ individuals would seem, superficially, to run against the current of socialization.
In examining their two groups of ‘amazing’ individuals, the authors begin to discover that these individuals do not, in fact, run counter the current of socialization in their own lives, it’s just that the currents in their lives are in some ways unique (see p. 252). These unique currents become apparent when the authors present their findings, which include some minor differences between the groups: Men are more likely to be apostates than women but the opposite is true for ABs, more women join than men. Neither group showed a strong correlation with child birth order (arguing against some theories that postulate firstborns are more likely to follow their parents’ religion). AAs generally came from happier homes than ABs and were less likely to have experienced parental divorces (see p. 117). AAs began questioning religion earlier than ABs began investigating it (about age 13 for AAs; see pp. 113, ). AAs took about three years from when they began questioning to when they made the decision to leave; ABs generally converted in less than a year (see pp. 113 and 211).
Some of the more significant findings include: AAs felt their apostasy had cost them dearly, especially in terms of their relationships. In fact, AAs seldom attributed their apostasy to a general rebellion against their parents and instead attributed their social distance from their parents to their apostasy. Most AAs had good relationships with their parents prior to their apostasy (see p. 117). ABs, on the other hand, often came from troubled homes and were ‘hard pressed to find ways in which they had suffered from their turn to religion’. If relationships had suffered as a result of their conversion, it was generally because the ABs had cut individuals off to avoid their ‘negative’ influence (see p. 200). Despite the costs associated with their apostasy, AAs generally volunteered that what they had gained was worth the cost: “They were their own person now, they could stake out their own identity, they were freer, more open-minded, and they had been strong enough to do a very difficult thing” (p. 215). ABs, on the other hand, relished the exact opposite. Rather than feeling a sense of personal identity or strong self-will, ABs had come to understand that they were ‘weak without the Lord’ and relished the guidance, fellowship, and direction that religion provided them (see p. 215).
This leads to another significant finding. The authors also had their participants take a survey on Right Wing Authoritarianism (RWA), which is used as an indicator of how much an individual embraces authority. Not surprisingly, the AAs scored far below average on the scale while ABs scored far above average (see pp. 106 and 209). This is significant because “RWA scale scores have been widely and consistently linked to many “pre-fascist” behaviors, including aggression against quite a variety of victims, prejudice, supporting abuse of power by officials, hypocrisy, conformity, and dogmatism” (p. 209). There is also a strong correlation between high scores on the RWA scale and religious fundamentalism, which I will discuss below in greater detail.
In conjunction with being less authoritarian, AAs, when presented with the hypothetical situation of having a member of their former religion approach them and confide in them that they were questioning their beliefs, were unlikely to suggest that they would try to convince the individual to leave religion altogether (see p. 122). Most indicated that they would encourage the individual to explore all of the options open to them – including discussing their questions with family, friends, and religious leaders. ABs, on the other hand, when presented a similar situation of a secular individual examining religion were very likely to encourage them to utilize only pro-religious resources in their search for answers (see p. 203). This difference in approaches to indoctrination and religious proselytization also held true when AAs and ABs were asked how they would raise their children. AAs indicated they would allow their children to decide what they want to do religiously (see p. 123) while ABs would highly emphasize religion in the home.
While all of the above findings are certainly noteworthy, in my opinion the biggest and most significant findings of the study were the authors’ insights as to why these individuals ultimately converted/de-converted. What makes these insights particularly brilliant is that the authors find how socialization and other life factors played into the conversions. The authors present a convincing argument that two factors contribute to AAs leaving religion: (1) The emphasis their religion puts on searching for the truth; and (2) Inquisitive minds that have found excelling in finding the ‘right answers’ (especially in their secular studies) rewarding. The authors put it this way, “Consider this: for all their lives the AAs were told their religion was the true religion, and they had to live according to its teachings. Were they not then being implicitly told that truth was a more basic good than even their religious beliefs, that the beliefs were to be celebrated because they were the truth? Furthermore, all the training in avoiding sin and being a good person “on the inside” would have promoted integrity… If this teaching succeeded, it would produce someone who deeply valued the truth and had deep-down integrity. The religion would therefore create the basis for its own downfall, if it came up short in these departments. It may furthermore have added to its vulnerability by insisting that all of its teachings were the absolute truth. When the first teaching failed, in the mind of a devout believer, that put the whole system of beliefs at risk” (pp. 120-121). Thus, when the search for truth is coupled with a bright, inquisitive mind, it is not particularly surprising that the mind eventually turns on the source of the motivation – religion – and uses the tools it has learned from education to evaluate the source. If, in that investigation, the religion comes up short, apostasy is a likely result.
As for ABs, the motivation is entirely different, “If you want a one-word explanation of what started the fifteen ABs just mentioned down the road to religion, we would say it was fear. It struck from several directions: fear of what would happen to them if they did not overcome their problems, fear of death itself, fear of what might happen to them after they died. If you want a second-place cause, it would be loneliness, often accompanied by the depressing feeling that their life was empty” (p. 195). The authors point out that many of the ABs “had serious personal problems at the time they began to convert” (p. 194). Thus, their conversions, “…solved big emotional problems. Most of all, they were frightened; others battled loneliness and depression. Religion provided security, joy, purpose, self-discipline, fellowship, and love” (p. 212).
The authors ultimately conclude that these ‘amazing’ conversions are not so ‘amazing’ when the life experienes of the individuals are examined. Socialization and life forces combine to influence these individuals, resulting in apostates and believers who would otherwise seem incongruous given the prevailing trends in religious transmission.
Review:
I absolutely loved this book. It is remarkably insightful and the conclusions are well-developed and convincing.
There are a couple of minor problems. First, while I can understand the attraction of presenting these findings in an accessible format to maximize the readership, it results in the findings feeling a little less… authoritative. The writing style isn’t the standard, drab, jargon-laden, scientific prattle you often find in academic works. Instead, the authors include jokes and personable phrases (see p. 109 for an example) and forego the jargon for parsimony and simplicity. By no means does the format diminish the findings, but it does influence the over-all feel of the book, which is a little unfortunate.
The second problem is also a format issue. At least half of the book is made up of accounts of the interviews the authors conducted with the AAs and ABs. While these are interesting to read, I think the authors went overboard in how many they included. Three or four of these accounts from each group would have been more than sufficient as they became redundant after about that many. Instead, the authors include close to 20 full accounts from each group. It would have shortened the book if the bulk of the interviews were summarized and included in an appendix.
Finally, and this by no means detracts from the findings but is simply noteworthy, the findings are based on surveys and interviews conducted in Canada. Canada is, as illustrated by the quote from p. 20 below, more secular than the U.S. I don’t doubt that the findings are relevant for the U.S., but the study should probably be replicated on a more religious population (i.e. the U.S.) to explore any differences that may present themselves.
These points aside, there is a lot to like about this book. Having covered my most favorite insight above in the summary – that apostates leave seeking truth while believers arrive running from fear – I thought I’d discuss a few of the less significant but interesting findings here. One of these is that 63% of the AAs had been raised Catholic (pp. 108-109). This was likely the case because of the location of the studies, but, as the authors note, it is important because the religion of youth of the AAs had to have specific characteristics. In this case, Catholicism provided a rigid religious upbringing and espoused some particularly archaic notions (e.g. abortion is wrong, homosexuality is wrong, etc.). More liberal Christian religions are not going to provide the rigidity that results in AAs. The authors discuss this idea in detail on pp. 108 and 109. What I think would be interesting is to see if Catholicism is also a primary contributor of AAs in the U.S.
Another important insight of the book is to note where the ABs ended up (see p. 197). Most of them turned to fundamentalist religions, which falls in line with their high scores on the RWA scale as discussed above (see p. 238). This comes across as additional evidence for the bifurcation of religious belief in the U.S. – people are either becoming more fundamentalist or more liberal in their views with fewer and fewer people remaining in the middle. While this will undoubtedly reveal my biases, I have to admit I find the move toward fundamentalism to be a disturbing trend for numerous reasons. The authors clearly elucidate one of them, “In short, we would suggest, fundamentalism often appealed to these people precisely because it offered definite, simple, written down, absolute, fundamental teachings they could count on, instead of the ambiguous, often complicated, frequently argued and (to them) distressingly modifiable principles swirling in their home religions” (p. 252). What’s more, it is also the strongly socialized fundamentalists who fail to see just how indoctrinated they are, “So it is not surprising that the religiously most socialized students said that socialization is not all that decisive, because they do not grasp how decisive it has been in their lives. Their “learning” has been so thorough that they do not realize it has been thoroughly learned” (p. 243). The more I learn about religious fundamentalism, the more disturbing I find it.
In conclusion, I think all religious apostates should read this book then give a copy to their parents. Not only will it explain to their parents why they have left (though the explanation will likely not hold true for all apostates), it will also help apostates to realize that they are not alone in this world. I highly recommend this book!