College students who major in the social sciences and humanities are likely to become less religious, while those majoring in education are likely to become more religious.
But students majoring in biology and physical sciences remain just about as religious as they were when they started college.
Of course, the article itself is not really about a causal link between either religiosity and choice of major or the impact of college major on religiosity. The article is about a set of correlations, developed through a study of 26,200 people and, as one odd assumption, the choice of business as a "culturally neutral" major. Despite this, some fear-mongering headlines announced, for example, that the humanities lead to loss of religion.
In articulating the reasons for the decline of religiosity among various majors, the authors identify several culprits: science, "developmentalism" (by which they mean a belief in progress), and postmodernism (by which they mean a belief that everything is relative). As quoted in the press release, Miles Kimball says:
Our results suggest that it is Postmodernism, not science, that is the bête noir of religiosity. One reason may be that the key ideas of Postmodernism are newer than the key scientific ideas that challenge religion. For example, religions have had 150 years to develop resistance or tolerance for the late-19th century idea of Evolution, but much less time to develop resistance or tolerance for the key ideas of Postmodernism, which gained great strength over the course of the 20th century.
Funded by the John Templeton Foundation, this work stands over against, for example, the notion that college is good for faith (see here) or points to the central importance of the religious engagement of American undergraduates (see a study funded in part by Teagle). Such efforts to examine the relation of particular disciplines to religiosity also link, perhaps, to various studies of faculty and faith that examine both correlations and possible causal relations (see here or here).
Religious Leaders of the Future?
Why do we care? Depending, of course, on your stance, religion can be seen as a potential savior of American society (not to mention individuals). In this regard, the Heritage Foundation has been adamant that religion is of critical importance to sustaining social stability. Others note that the spiritual lives of American undergraduates are both important to them (perhaps increasingly so), and nurturing that spirituality critical to higher education's public responsibility. (See AACU 2005 report here.) UCLA's HERI Institute has reported, too, that there is a positive relationship between students' spirituality and achievement. Still others, including those who commented on a recent description of this study at the Friendly Atheist site think all this important because, hey, atheism is a good thing and college majors may be a way to increase atheist demographics.
For all of these folks, whether you are a helicopter parent or not, a college student about to declare a major or not, it matters how education and religion are related -- it matters for our future. Today's undergraduates are, almost every higher education institution claims, tomorrow's leaders. As UCLA's HERI has noted, political engagement among first-year college students has hit a 40-year high. So: do we, or do we not, want religious leaders? If so, what sort of religious leaders? Turns out, college major (may) matter.
This article was first published at Religion Dispatches and is reprinted here with permission.
Susan Henking is Professor of Religious Studies at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY - coordinate colleges for women (William Smith) and men (Hobart College). Her work focuses on theories of religion as well as religion in relation to gender and sexuality. She is co-editor, with Gary David Comstock, of Que(e)rying Religion (1997) and, with William Parsons and Diane Jonte Pace, of Mourning Religion. She also writes on higher education. The views shared here are, of course, not those of her employer, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, but of Susan Henking.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In