News

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The Social Science of Secularity – Frank L. Pasquale writes up the study of non-religion to date and predicts a “coherent and enduring field of enquiry”

The Council for Secular Humanists has published a paper by Frank L. Pasquale, titled “The Social Science of Secularity”

Following a failure of irreligious studies to get off the ground in 1971, the purposeful study of the non-religious has again attempted flight and seems to be rocketing, as a subject in its own right, as much NSRN work can attest. This is a fact championed by Pasquale who gives the NSRN a good write up as an “innovative organisation”.

Pasquale gives a useful overview of the breadth of current research and the genesis of organisations such as the NSRN and CAR (Center for Atheist Research). He pays particular attention to key areas needing serious consideration from researchers, including the thorny issue of terminology, accurate description and characterisation. Other key areas include  health, pluralisation of world-views and all “will increasingly need to direct attention to the vast and apparently growing mass of “seculous,” “religular,” or “fuzzy” types in between”.

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CFP Closing for Panel Discussions at the EASR 2012

THE CALL FOR PANEL SESSION-PROPOSALS FOR EASR

Dear Colleagues, the possibility to submit panel session-proposals to the EASR annual conferense 2012 – Ends and beginningswill soon close down and we will instead open for individual abstract submission first week in February. We therefore kindly ask you who are interested in organising a panel to submit your proposals before the end of January.  From February others will be able to submit their abstracts to the open panel sessions you have submitted. 

To submit a panel proposal, please click the following link: 

Panel proposal and pre-registration 

The conference will be held at Södertörn University in Stockholm on August 23-26, 2012. 

We encourage you to submit proposals for both closed panel sessions (to which you invite the participating scholars) and open panel sessions (to which anyone can send in abstracts to be assessed by you).

For more information, please see the conference web-site: http://www.sh.se/EASR2012 

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Baggini, Heathen’s Progress New Post: You don’t have to be religious to pray … but it helps

Julian Baggini continues his conversation on the topic of religion and non-religion with his latest post You don’t have to be religious to pray … but it helps

'I do think that prayer, like many rituals, is something that the religious get some real benefits from that are just lost to us heathens.' Photograph: Rex Features

This week, Baggini muses on prayer.”I think many religious rituals are like this. They have real benefits, whether you buy into the belief system behind them or not. But if you try to separate them from the beliefs, they lose some of their potency and grip”

He argues that practice is why people believe and perhaps not vice versa and concludes that in ridding “ourselves” of religions, the heathen refuses to sacrifice reason, but may in the process pay the price of losing some of the benefits, in this case prayer, having to make do with less worthy substitutes.

If you are interested in this you can read more about Heathens’s Progress in the Guaridan CIF pages.

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The stuff of funerals: Material culture and commemoration for the non-religious of London

UCL anthropology department run a weekly Material, Visual and Digital Culture Research Seminar Series

Details: Mondays 5 pm- 6.30 pm, followed by drinks Daryll Forde Seminar Room, 2nd floor, 14 Taviton St.

The whole series looks great, but of particular interest is Dr. Matthew Engelke’s seminar on non-religious funerals, commemoration and funerals in London:

February 27: Mathew Engelke (LSE)
The stuff of funerals: Material culture and commemoration for the non-religious of London

More details on the UCL seminar site

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50 New Additions to the NSRN Bibliography

Now that things are slowly getting back to normal after the holiday season, we thought some extra reading might be in order.

The following items have been added to the NSRN’s bibliography today, and are mostly the result of suggestions from visitors to the website. A huge thanks to everyone who suggested items – please keep them coming.

The complete bibliography can  be viewed in a list organised by author surname or publication date.

—————–

  • Alicino, F. 2011. “The Collaborations-Relations Between Western (Secular) Law and Religious Nomoi Groups in Today’s Multicultural Context : The Cases of France and Canada.” Transition Studies Review 18 (2): 430-444.
  • Aston, Katie. 2011. Atheism Explained by Jonathan Lanman (NSRN Annual Lecture 2011). NSRN Events Report series [online]. NSRN, October 25. http://nsrn.net/events/events-reports.
  • Baker, Joseph O’Brian, and Buster Smith. 2009. “The Nones: Social Characteristics of the Religiously Unaffiliated.” Social Forces 87 (3): 1251-1263.
  • Bradley, Arthur, and Andrew Tate. 2010. The new atheist novel: fiction, philosophy and polemic after 9/11. Continuum International Publishing Group, April 11.
  • Bullivant, Stephen, and Lois Lee. 2012. “Interdisciplinary Studies of Non-religion and Secularity: The State of the Union.” Journal of Contemporary Religion 27 (1).
  • Caplow, T. 1998. “The Case of the Phantom Episcopalians.” American Sociological Review 63 (1): 112-113.
  • Chatterjee, Nandini. 2011. The Making of Indian Secularism: Empire, Law and Christianity, 1830-1960. Palgrave Macmillan, March 1.
  • Cragun, Ryan, Barry A. Kosmin, Ariela Keysar, Joseph H. Hammer, and Michael Nielsen. 2012. “On the Receiving End: Discrimination Toward the Non-Religious in the United States.” Journal of Contemporary Religion 27 (1).
  • Demerath, N. J., III, and Victor Thiessen. 1966. “On Spitting Against the Wind: Organizational Precariousness and American Irreligion.” American Journal of Sociology 71 (6): 674-687.
  • Ellison, Christopher G., and Darren E. Sherkat. 1995. “The ‘Semi -Involuntary Institution’ Revisited: Regional Differences in Church Participation Among Black Americans.” Social Forces 74.
  • Festinger, L. 1956. When Prophecy Fails. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  • Gorski, Philip S., and Ateş Altinordu. 2008. “After Secularization?” Annual Review of Sociology 34 (1): 55-85.
  • Gutkowski, Stacey. 2012. “The British Secular habitus and the War on Terror.” Journal of Contemporary Religion 27 (1).
  • Hadaway, C. Kirk, and Wade Clark Roof. 1979. “Those Who Stay Religious ‘Nones’ and Those Who Don’t: A Research Note.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 18 (2): 194-200.
  • Hadaway, C.K., and P.L. Marler. 1993. “All in the Family: Religious Mobility in America.” Review of Religious Research 35 (2): 97-116.
  • Hadaway, C.K., P.L. Marler, and M. Chaves. 1998. “Overreporting Church Attendance in America: Evidence That Demands the Same Verdict.” American Sociological Review 63 (1): 122-130.
  • Hout, Michael, and Andrew Greeley. 1998. “What Church Officials’ Reports Don’t Show: Another Look at Church Attendance Data.” American Sociological Review 63 (1): 113-119.
  • Hunter, Laura A. 2010. “Explaining Atheism: Testing the Secondary Compensator Model and Proposing an Alternative.” Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion 6.
  • Knott, Kim. 2010. “Theoretical and Methodological Resources for Breaking OPen the Secular and Exploring the Boundary between Religion and Non-religion.” Historia Religionum 2: 115-133.
  • Kraut, Benny. 1979. From Reform Judaism to Ethical Culture: The Religious Evolution of Felix Adler. New York: Hebrew Union College Press.
  • Lanman, Jonathan. 2011. “Thou Shalt Believe -: Or Not.” New Scientist.
  • ———. 2012. “The Importance of Religious Displays for Belief Acquisition and Secularization.” Journal of Contemporary Religion 27 (1).
  • Lee, Lois. 2012. “Research Note: Talking about a Revolution: Terminology for the New Field of Non-religion Studies.” Journal of Contemporary Religion 27 (1).
  • Lerner, Berel Dov. 1995. “Understanding a (Secular) Primitive Society.” Religious Studies 31: 303-309.
  • Lowis, M.J., A.J. Jewell, M.I. Jackson, and R. Merchant. 2011. “Religious and Secular Coping Methods Used by Older Adults : An Empirical Investigation.” Journal of Religion, Spirituality and Aging 23 (4): 279-303.
  • Luehrmann, S. 2011. Secularism Soviet Style: Teaching Atheism and Religion in a Volga Republic. Indiana: Indiana University Press.
  • MacKillop, I.D. 1986. The British Ethical Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Merino, Stephen M. 2012. “Irreligious Socialization? The Adult Religious Preferences of Individuals Raised with No Religion PDF Stephen M. Merino.” Secularism and Nonreligion 1: 1-16.
  • Mumford, Lorna. 2011. Atheism and Anthropology: Researching Atheism and Self-Searching Belief and Experience Workshop. NSRN Events Report series [online]. NSRN, December. http://www.nsrn.net/events/events-reports.
  • Orsi, R. 2005. Between heaven and earth: the religious worlds people make and the scholars who study them. Princeton, NJ and Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Parmeggiani, F. 2011. “Speaking of God : The Post-Secular Challenge for Italian Feminist Thought and Practices.” Annali D Italianistica 29: 417-430.
  • Presser, S., and M. Chaves. 2007. “Is Religious Service Attendance Declining?” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 46 (3): 417-423.
  • Quack, Johannes. 2012. “Organised Atheism in India: An Overview.” Journal of Contemporary Religion 27 (1).
  • Radest, Howard B. 1969. Toward Common Ground: The Story of the Ethical Societies in the United States. New York: Frederick Unger Publishing Co.
  • ———. 1990. The Devil and Secular Humanism: The Children of the Enlightenment. Westport, CT: Praeger.
  • Roof, W.C., and W. McKinney. 1987. American Mainline Religion: Its Changing Shape and Future. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
  • Sandomirsky, S., and J. Wilson. 1990. “Processes of Disaffiliation: Religious Mobility among Men and Women.” Social Forces 68: 1211-1229.
  • Schwadel, P. 2010. “Period and Cohort Effects on Religious Nonaffiliation and Religious Disaffiliation: A Research Note.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 49 (2): 311-319.
  • Stark, Rodney, Eva Hamberg, and Allen S. Miller. 2005. “Exploring Spirituality and Unchurched Religions in America, Sweden, and Japan.” Journal of Contemporary Religion 20 (1): 3-23.
  • Stolzenberg, R.M., M. Blair-Loy, and L.J. Waite. 1994. “Stolzenberg, R. M., Blair-Loy, M., & Waite, L. J. (1994). Religious Participation in Early Adulthood: Age and Family Life Cycle Effects on Church Membership. American Sociological Review, 60, 84-103.” American Sociological Review 60: 84-103.
  • Tamney, Joseph B., Shawn Powell, and Stephen Johnson. 1989. “Innovation Theory and Religious Nones.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 28 (2): 216-229.
  • Taylor, Charles. 1998. Modes of Secularism. In Secularism and its Critics: Themes in Politics, ed. Rajeev Bhargava, 32-53. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
  • Vargas, N. 2011. “Retrospective Accounts of Religious Disaffiliation in the United States: Stressors, Skepticism, and Political Factors.” Sociology of Religion (October 11). doi:10.1093/socrel/srr044. http://secularismandnonreligion.org/index.php/snr/article/view/5.
  • Veevers, J.E., and D.F. Cousineau. 1980. “The Heathen Canadians: Demographic Correlates of Nonbelief.” The Pacific Sociological Review 23 (2): 199-216.
  • Voas, David, and Siobhan McAndrew. 2012. “Three Puzzles of Non-religion in Britain.” Journal of Contemporary Religion 27 (1).
  • Welch, Michael R. 1978a. “Religious Non-Affiliates and Worldly Success.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 17 (1): 59-61.
  • ———. 1978b. “The Unchurched: Black Religious Non-Affiliates.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 17 (3): 289-293.
  • Wilson, J., and Darren E. Sherkat. 1994. “Returning to the Fold.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 33: 148-161.
  • Zuckerman, Phil. 2009. “Why are Danes and Swedes so Irreligious?” Nordic Journal of Religion and Society 22 (1).
  • ———. 2011. Faith No More: Why People Reject Religion. New York: Oxford University Press.
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Secularism and Nonreligion Journal: Article publication Vol. 1 January 2012

The first article published in Vol 1, January 2012, Stephen M. Merino, Irreligious Socialization? The Adult Religious Preferences of Individuals Raised with No Religion

ABSTRACT: Recent birth cohorts of Americans are more likely than previous cohorts to be raised outside of a religious tradition. In addition, those raised with no religion are increasingly likely to have no religion as adults. Despite their growing numbers, individuals raised with no religion have received little  attention from scholars. The adult religious preferences of these individuals provide researchers with a unique opportunity to test theories of religion and social change. Using General Social Survey data, I examine the adult religious preferences and beliefs of individuals raised with no religion. I provide evidence of a shift in socialization and social influences experienced by those who report growing up with no religion. Compared with earlier cohorts raised with no religion, more recent cohorts have had more secular upbringings and tend to be more secular, liberal, and wary of organized religion as adults. They are also more likely to have a religiously unaffiliated spouse, if they marry at all. Results from a logistic regression analysis indicate that these trends explain much of the cohort differences in the likelihood of remaining unaffiliated as an adult.

KEYWORDS: NONRELIGION, SOCIALIZATION, SOCIAL INFLUENCE

To see the latest publication please follow the link to the Secularism and Nonreligion Journal current issue

http://secularismandnonreligion.org/index.php/snr/issue/current

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‘Atheism and Non-religion’ Panel at SOCREL 2012

The draft programme for the 2012 Sociology of Religion Study Group of the British Sociological Association (SOCREL) – Religion and (In)Equalities – has recently been announced, and is available here.

The conference dates are 28-30 March 2012 at the University of Chester, UK. The entire programme looks thoroughly stimulating, and contains a number of papers which should be of interest to NSRN researchers.

Of particular relevance is the ‘Atheism and Non-Religion’ panel on 29 March at 09.00:

Spencer Bullivant
Atheist summer camps: Transitioning away from conceptions of disbelief to belief

Christopher R. Cotter
The inherent inequalities of the religion-nonreligion dichotomy: A narrative approach to individual (non-)religiosity

Lydia Reid
Religion and modernity

Janet Eccles & Rebecca Catto
Countercultural or mainstream? Some reflections from the Young Atheist Project

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Announcement and Thank You from the NSRN Directors

We are extremely excited to announce the publication of the Journal of Contemporary Religion  Vol. 27, No. 1 January 2012

Special Issue: Non-religion and Secularity

This special edition of the Journal of Contemporary  Religion is a publication resulting from the NSRN’s inaugural conference in Dec. 2009. At that time, work in progress vastly outweighed completed empirical work in the field – I’m happy to say, in fact, that, even as this area of work has expanded, this ratio is still the same: a sign of continued growth. But this collection presents some of the earliest-realised major research projects in the field, and is intended to highlight the diversity of possible approaches. Happy reading – and we look forward to any comments the collection/articles prompt in this space.

With thanks to Elisabeth Arweck, for her support of this project and for  the NSRN’s work in general. This is the first special edition in the history of the JCR and we were very honoured to be invited to develop it.

Best wishes

Lois and Stephen

You an view the issue when it is released or order the journal through the Taylor and Francis website

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Journal of Contemporary Religion: January 2012 Special Issue: Non-religion and Secularity

Lois Lee (NSRN Director), Jonathan Lanman and Stephen Bullivant (NSRN Director) - Contributors to the JCR Jan 2012 © 2011 St Mary’s University College, Twickenham

Journal of Contemporary Religion  Vol. 27, No. 1 January 2012

Special Issue: Non-religion and Secularity 

Peter B. Clarke: Tributes

Articles

Stephen Bullivant & Lois Lee – Interdisciplinary Studies of Non-religion and Secularity: The State of the Union

David Voas & Siobhan McAndrew – Three Puzzles of Non-religion in Britain

Jonathan A. Lanman – The Importance of Religious Displays for Belief Acquisition and Secularization

Johannes Quack – Organised Atheism in India: An Overview

Stacey Gutkowski – The British Secular habitus and the War on Terror

Ryan T. Cragun, Barry Kosmin, Ariela Keysar, Joseph H. Hammer & Michael Nielsen – On the Receiving End: Discrimination Toward the Non-Religious in the United States

Lois Lee – Research Note: Talking about a Revolution: Terminology for the New Field of Non-religion Studies

Plus Book Reviews and Book Notes

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British Social Attitudes Survey Reveals 50% of Britons have “No Religion”

The National Centre for Social Research has published its British Social Attitudes Survey 2011-2012. You can see the full report, authored by Lucy Lee, on the website of the “National Centre for Social Research”, which conducted the survey.

Table 12.1 Religious Affiliation Taken from the BSA survey 2011_12

The report demonstrates that the proportion of those who claim to be Christian [Church of England] is much lower at 20%, than suggested by the 2001 Census, which claimed 71.7% of people in England and Wales were identified as Christian. The second overwhelming finding was that 50% of the population claimed no religion, in comparison to the 14.5% stating no-religion in the 2001 Census. The other statistics remain fairly consistent, suggesting perhaps that many of the “nones” have migrated from the category of “Christian” or “Church of England” self-identification to having none. However, more data is needed before such hypothesis can be upheld so we eagerly await the Census Data 2011, but perhaps this show early signs of the success of the BHA Census 2011 campaign and others like it, which have bought identification as an issue to the fore.

The Census 2001 Key Statistics, Local Authorities in England and Wales can be found on the Office for National Statistics website.