Does Education Destroy Faith?

There’s a fairly popular conspiracy theory amongst some Christians that universities and colleges are part of a giant liberal agenda to destroy faith and as a consequence, that following a path of higher education is a form of spiritual suicide.

But, the facts don’t seem to bare this out. Recently, there has been a growing number of stories about the rise in Christian activity on campuses around the world and particularly in the US. Add to this recent study (via Brad Boydston), those who attain a higher education are less likely to lose their faith than those who don’t.

On each of three issues, (Decline in Attending Services, Decline in Importance of Religion, Disaffiliation From Religion) those who did not attend college scored significantly higher than those who obtained a college degree. The summary of the article approaches my experience of seeing young adults struggle with faith in both church and chaplaincy work and the insights I hear from others with front-line experience (as opposed to the hot-air from pundits and pontificators).

Behavioral factors, he said, are a better way than college status to predict whether young adults will become less religious. Those who don’t have sex before marriage are also those who don’t experience as much of a drop in religious connection. Those who have smoked pot experience more of a drop. Those who increase alcohol consumption during their young adulthood experience more of a drop in religious connection.

Those who blame college for declining religious activity by students don’t understand that it is these factors, among others, that are the influence, Regnerus said. “This is about this period of the life course where freedom and choice become paramount,” he said. “What diminishes religiosity is freedom and choice, not intellectual engagement.

[tags] Faith [/tags]