Does Psychology of Religion Exist?

Abstract

Religious behavior is a “significant behavior.” A Gallup survey in the mid-1990s in England showed that traditional belief in God was 67%, i.e., over 33 million, with 52% believing in heaven, i.e., over 26 million (Gallup, March 1996). The National Census of 2001 reported that just over three-quarters of the UK population professed some form of religious belief. More than 7 out of 10 people said that their religion was “Christian” (72%; cf. Tab. 1 below). After Christianity, Islam was the most common faith with nearly 3% describing their religion as Muslim (1.6 million; cf. Tab. 1 below). In total, 76.8% associated themselves with some form of religion, that is, just over 45 million people in the UK. It is noteworthy that while the “Census religion question” was a voluntary question, over 92% of those completing the questionnaire chose to answer it. (National Statistics, 2004, http://www.statistics.gov.uk/default.asp). Below is Table 1 showing the National Census results for religious practice in the UK. Asurvey of the population of the United States in 2001 showed that 57% of those surveyed stated that religion was “very important” in their lives (Gallup, May 2001). And in March 2004 a similar survey showed that “religion is very important to about 6 in 10 Americans, and that about 6 in 10 Americans attend church on a semiregular basis” (Gallup, March, 2004). Estimates in April 2004 suggest that the population of the United States is in the region of just under 293 million people, therefore, religious behavior is a “significant behavior” to just over 176 Million people in the United States. The world population is estimated at 6473 million, with world religious practice (Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Oriental, and other religions) estimated at 83%, i.e., just under 5400 million people (Gallup, 1996). Even though religious behavior is deeply rooted within human beings, profoundly affects human behavior, and is of great significance to the human race it is not treated as such within the science of behavior. This can be seen to be the case, firstly, from a random study of 23 UK Psychology Department* Web sites, prospectuses, and academic staff members’ interest and areas of research. Working up from the University of Southampton in the south of England to the University of Aberdeen in the north of Scotland, only four departments made any reference to religion. While Lancaster University, Bangor University, Belfast Queens University, and Edinburgh University made some sort of reference to psychology of religion, after further examination it became clear that these were not core psychology subjects taught to undergraduates. From this it is suggested that psychology’s “religious reticence” would be considered at least a little surprising to the billions of people for whom religious belief is a “core experience” and “core practice” and even the most crucial part of their human existence. Those outside the Psychology Departments might have expected that the universality of religious behavior and the sway it holds over so many peoples’ lives and over so much of life would have led it to figure more prominently within a discipline that purports to be the science of behavior. While one may speak of the psychology of religion as if it were a branch of psychology this may be an academic misnomer. To speak of the psychology of religion in terms of it being a “branch” or “subject” within the psychological discipline leads to quite the wrong assumption as there appears to be no department of psychology of religion; no chair, and no lecturer in psychology of religion; and little to no formally taught courses called the psychology of religion. Despite this, there is an extensive psychology of religion literature. There are many books devoted to the subject and there are several psychology journals devoted entirely to its analysis. The in-