Questions You Should Never Ask an Atheist: Towards Better Measures of Nonreligion and Secularity

Ryan T Cragun

doi:10.5334/snr.122

Abstract

As interest in the nonreligious has grown, attention has turned to how to measure both the growth of and variation within the nonreligious. This interest has also revealed that prior measures of religiosity are often problematic. In this research note, I detail some of these problems. For instance, some measures fail to contrast nonreligiosity with religiosity. Other measures are double-barreled or one-and-a-half barreled, making them impossible for nonreligious individuals to answer. Finally, I note that how questions are worded can result in very different estimates of how many nonreligious people and atheists there are in a population.

Highlights

Social scientists have known that religiosity is multidimensional since the 1960s (Glock and Stark, 1966)
“Unbiased” Measures Can Still Bias Estimates An important lesson from the WIN/Gallup’s regular surveys on religion (Gallup) and World Values Survey (WVS) question is that scholars can build specific arguments about trends in religiosity by choosing carefully how they word the questions they ask
Even Pew, with its two part approach, reduces the possible response options as it groups belief in a ‘God’ with belief in ‘a universal spirit’— not a small oversight, as the General Social Survey (GSS) estimates that 12% of adults in the US believe not in a personal God but in a Higher Power of some kind

Summary

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Questions You Should Never Ask an Atheist: Towards Better Measures of Nonreligion and Secularity. As interest in the nonreligious has grown, attention has turned to how to measure both the growth of and variation within the nonreligious. This interest has revealed that prior measures of religiosity are often problematic. Some measures fail to contrast nonreligiosity with religiosity. Other measures are double-barreled or one-and-a-half barreled, making them impossible for nonreligious individuals to answer. I note that how questions are worded can result in very different estimates of how many nonreligious people and atheists there are in a population

Introduction

Limitations

Findings

Conclusion