As it turns out, not surprisingly, the relationship between religion and education is complex. According to a new Pew Research study published Wednesday, “higher levels of education are linked with lower levels of religious commitment by some measures, such as belief in God, how often people pray and how important they say religion is to them” — except when it comes to Christianity. This is either due to lingering traditional Christian beliefs still being passed down from older generations, or, some even might say, the transcending, comprehensive power of the Christian faith — or both.
Embracing education; shunning religion as a priority
In general, the statistics showed what seems stereotypical about education and religion: The more you know, the less you believe. “Among all U.S. adults, college graduates are considerably less likely than those who have less education to say religion is ‘very important’ in their lives: Fewer than half of college graduates (46 percent) say this, compared with nearly six-in-ten of those with no more than a high school education (58 percent).” Not surprisingly, “when asked about their religious identity, college graduates are more likely than others to describe themselves as atheists or agnostics.”
However, that said, “Americans with college degrees are no less likely than others to report attending religious services on a weekly basis.” So college graduates might go to church because their Grandma says to, but they don’t actually embrace or practice most faiths. That this occurs in kids with higher education could be as a result of their newfound knowledge. Some collegiates, once they learn about Marx in philosophy class, are smug in their own lofty IQ. But there’s another likely explanation or two at play.
Universities have been slowly stripping their professors and curriculum of religion for many years, since before God and Man at Yale, and replacing them with the Richard Dawkins-type. This, from William F. Buckley Jr.’s classic, could have easily been written today:
“A professor of philosophy! Question: What is the 1) ethical, 2) philosophical, or 3) epistemological argument for requiring continued tolerance of ideas whose discrediting it is the purpose of education to effect? What ethical code (in the Bible? in Plato? Kant? Hume?) requires ‘honest respect’ for any divergent conviction?”
Indeed, since then, universities have been gradually cutting off complex yet fruitful discussion of religion or discouraging personal admittance of faith. So it’s no wonder people graduate from college and eschew the religion of their childhood (if they had one).
Christianity is the exception
There was one exception to this rule. According to the Pew study, “among those who do identify as Christians, college graduates tend to be about as religiously observant as those with less education – and in some cases more so. For instance, more than half of college-educated Christians say they attend religious services on a weekly basis (52 percent), compared with 45 percent of Christians with some college experience and 46 percent of Christians with a high school degree or less.”
Overall, 70 percent of Christians with college degrees have a high level of religious commitment. There are a few possible explanations for this.
One could just be that young adults who still embrace Christianity with fervor were brought up that way and never let go of their traditional childhood beliefs. (“Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6) As America has strong Christian roots — notice I did not call it a “Christian nation” — this would make some sense.
There’s also the possibility that, combined with childhood tradition, the comprehensive power many give to the Christian faith, the true church, withstands the pressures of atheistic or agnostic thought that prevails at most universities. While some professors and universities have collectively shunned Christianity, others have spent a lifetime proving its relevance, logic, and power.
This year’s Templeton Prize, a prestigious, $1.4 million prize for honoring faith publicly, was given to Christian philosopher Alvin Plantinga. Often referred to as “America’s leading orthodox Protestant philosopher of God,” Plantinga was instrumental in explaining free will as it relates to evil and theism.
When it comes to Christianity among educated young people, God is not dead, and that’s not a bad thing.
Nicole Russell is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist in Washington, D.C., who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota. She was the 2010 recipient of the American Spectator’s Young Journalist Award.
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