The Sarah Palin Effect--

h/t to AKMuckraker:






Rich, educated not necessarily less active in religion

In the United States, where Schieman gathered his data, that notion of a mature faith is often obscured by angry, populist, conservative politicians who claim religion and a personal God as part of their political platform, said Schieman. He found many Americans who claim no religious affiliation also believe in God.

“When you dig a bit deeper, a lot of those people were turned off actually by the association between politics and religion on the conservative side — the Sarah Palin effect,” he said.

Gregory Baum, McGill University professor emeritus of religious studies, was critical of Schieman’s research and methods.

“I don’t have enormous sympathy for this kind of expirical research,” the former peritus or theological expert at the Second Vatican Council wrote in an e-mail to The Catholic Register. Baum is one of the pioneers in the use of sociology to understand religion.

Religion is rarely a handicap in achieving high socio-economic status, said Baum.

“People who practise their religion and read religious texts very frequently, often climb on the social scale,” he said.

I don't actually have a lot of sympathy for this kind of research, either. But I will admit that my atheism and my liberalism seem to be connected--what is referred to here as "The Sarah Palin Effect" is for me, the "Jerry Falwell effect". For me, when I became conscious of the side of the "culture war" that the so-called "Moral Majority" was on, I decided that I was eternally on the opposite side. I'd like to think that that didn't ultimately inform my embrace of atheism--but I have a sneaking suspicion that it did. I realized I was not a believer or at least ambivalent about theism long ago--the comments of Falwell and Robertson after 9/11 cemented my position into vocal atheism. (In the same way they made me sign up for my ACLU card.)

And politicians like Sarah Palin only remind me of why I feel like I have to be vocal about the failings of what I now view as "irrationalism". There might be a "style" component in my choice to self-identify as atheist--but ultimately, I don't have any proof of a god. Period.

I could try to extrapolate how my class and education might also contribute to my p.o.v. But just as I decided that it was safer to link to the study regarding the correlation between higher IQ and atheism "without comment"--I'll not comment further on this one, accept to remind: Correlation is not causation. I only find this study interesting "for me" because it relates to my interests.