At first glance, a study from Gallup released Monday seems a victory for atheists: Belief in God declines as education increases. Yet something more nuanced is taking place in academia because while belief in God declines, belief in a ‘universal spirit’ increases significantly during college.
Among Americans with a high school diploma or less, 88 percent believe in God, 8 percent believe in a “universal spirit or higher power” and 5 percent say they do not believe in either. For college graduates, belief in God is at 73 percent, but another 20 percent believe in a ‘universal spirit’ and only 6 percent say they do not believe in either.
The Gallup telephone survey of 1,017 American adults between May 8 and May 11 confirms the findings of a six-year study conducted at UCLA on spirituality in higher education released earlier this year. It found that while participation in religious services declines from 44 to 25 percent between students’ freshman and junior years, students also report nearly a 10 percent increase in “integrating spirituality” into their lives between those two years.
Charlotte Jones Carroll has served since 2001 at American University in Washington as a lay chaplain for the Unitarian Universalist church, a religion that she says “encourages seeking.”
“I think that college is a period of life where you’re seeking many things in the process of maturing,” Carroll said. “I think that having a sense that there’s something larger than ourselves but not necessarily wanting to be tied up to a particular set of rites and rituals is a very logical stage in one’s general intellectual seeking.”
Carroll said she is not surprised that college students explore spirituality rather than atheism.
“Well what does atheism have to offer? It’s by definition a zero. So if you’re curious, why wouldn’t you look into anything you could look into before you settled on the most negative one?"
Patrick Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society, a Catholic organization that works to strengthen the religious identity of Catholic colleges and universities in the United States, is among those not thrilled with the move away from traditional religion.
“We’re losing so much of the great thought and theology that has developed over centuries” when society emphasizes spirituality without the grounding of religion, Reilly said.
Reilly said two forces impact the religiosity of young adults. “In American society, we’ve relied much less on religious education so fewer young people and young adults are getting education in a particular faith.” Reilly added: “The education they are receiving at all levels is much more secularized than what was traditionally provided. Young people continue to have a sense of the divine but very little by way of religious formation.”
But Reilly said the survey did show that, “despite the increasing secularization of American culture,” Americans generally still recognize a higher power, which shows a tendency toward recognizing there is a God.
Among Americans with a high school diploma or less, 88 percent believe in God, 8 percent believe in a “universal spirit or higher power” and 5 percent say they do not believe in either. For college graduates, belief in God is at 73 percent, but another 20 percent believe in a ‘universal spirit’ and only 6 percent say they do not believe in either.
The Gallup telephone survey of 1,017 American adults between May 8 and May 11 confirms the findings of a six-year study conducted at UCLA on spirituality in higher education released earlier this year. It found that while participation in religious services declines from 44 to 25 percent between students’ freshman and junior years, students also report nearly a 10 percent increase in “integrating spirituality” into their lives between those two years.
Charlotte Jones Carroll has served since 2001 at American University in Washington as a lay chaplain for the Unitarian Universalist church, a religion that she says “encourages seeking.”
“I think that college is a period of life where you’re seeking many things in the process of maturing,” Carroll said. “I think that having a sense that there’s something larger than ourselves but not necessarily wanting to be tied up to a particular set of rites and rituals is a very logical stage in one’s general intellectual seeking.”
Carroll said she is not surprised that college students explore spirituality rather than atheism.
“Well what does atheism have to offer? It’s by definition a zero. So if you’re curious, why wouldn’t you look into anything you could look into before you settled on the most negative one?"
Patrick Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society, a Catholic organization that works to strengthen the religious identity of Catholic colleges and universities in the United States, is among those not thrilled with the move away from traditional religion.
“We’re losing so much of the great thought and theology that has developed over centuries” when society emphasizes spirituality without the grounding of religion, Reilly said.
Reilly said two forces impact the religiosity of young adults. “In American society, we’ve relied much less on religious education so fewer young people and young adults are getting education in a particular faith.” Reilly added: “The education they are receiving at all levels is much more secularized than what was traditionally provided. Young people continue to have a sense of the divine but very little by way of religious formation.”
But Reilly said the survey did show that, “despite the increasing secularization of American culture,” Americans generally still recognize a higher power, which shows a tendency toward recognizing there is a God.
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