age and believe - or how to interpret data wrong...

[LaCroix]

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/04/18/ ... -with-age/

U Of C Study: Belief In God Increases With Age

April 18, 2012 10:39 AM

CHICAGO (CBS) — The older you are, the more likely you are to believe in God, according to a new University of Chicago study.

As WBBM Newsradio’s Bernie Tafoya reports, researchers from the National Opinion Research Center at the U of C mined data from three surveys conducted in 30 countries between 1991 and 2008 for the study “Belief about God across Time and Countries.”

They found that 43 percent of those 68 or older are certain that there is a God, while only 23 percent of those 27 and under are similarly certain. The numbers vastly favored God in the United States, where 54 percent of those younger than 28, and 66 percent of those older than 68, said they believed in God.

The researchers surmise older people are more likely to believe in God because of a growing realization that death is not too far off, relatively speaking.

Dr. Tom W. Smith says belief in God also varies from country to country.

“In (the former) East Germany, down to barely 10 percent of people having a strong belief in God, to Chile or the Philippines, other countries, with over 90 percent of people being certain that God exists,” he said.

The study found that atheism is strongest in northern European countries, such as those in Scandinavia and the former Soviet republics and Eastern bloc countries – with the exception of Poland.

The Philippines had the highest rate of belief in God of all, with 94 percent.

In the United States, 81 percent of survey respondents said they believe in God. A total of 68 percent of respondents agreed with the belief that God is concerned with people in a personal way.

The study found that by most measures, belief in God is declining worldwide. But it is increasing in Russia, Slovenia and Israel, the survey said.

Urgh...

We have lots of old people who believe in god, but only few young ones - logic demands that this means that you become a believer when you feel death closing in...

Disregard the fact that these old people grew up in a time where everyone believed in god and these young people just don't believe, anymore. If they had questioned the SAME people 40 years later, then I'd love to see their conclusions.

The scientist doth want a certain result too much, methinks.

[Serafina]

Especially since they probably had lot's of data that contradicted that notion - for example, IIRC, religious belief in the former GDR is mostly something of the very old (70+ who grew up before the GDR) or the relatively young (younger than ~25, who grew up thereafter).

[B5B7]

CHICAGO (CBS) — The older you are, the more likely you are to believe in God, according to a new University of Chicago study.

The Philippines had the highest rate of belief in God of all, with 94 percent.

In the United States, 81 percent of survey respondents said they believe in God.

If the opening conclusion was correct, then that would imply that the populations of USA and especially Philippines, consists mainly of elderly people.
Of course, what the latter figures really show is that the god meme is taught and acquired young in these two nations.

[LaCroix]

CHICAGO (CBS) — The older you are, the more likely you are to believe in God, according to a new University of Chicago study.

The Philippines had the highest rate of belief in God of all, with 94 percent.

In the United States, 81 percent of survey respondents said they believe in God.

If the opening conclusion was correct, then that would imply that the populations of USA and especially Philippines, consists mainly of elderly people.
Of course, what the latter figures really show is that the god meme is taught and acquired young in these two nations.

This figure includes the people between 27 and 68, as well as the people who believe, but not strongly...
It means that there are only 6% atheists in the Philippines, and about 19% in the States.

[Skgoa]

would it have been that much more difficult to add the question "when did you start believing in god" to the survey? or might that have ruined the desired outcome?

[Alferd Packer]

I recall a study from some years back that says, by and large, your religious beliefs don't change as you get older. 'ang on, let me go check.

Ah yes, it was a Barna study, and they found that young people, if they become *gasp* atheist or agnostic, are unlikely to go back to Christianity as they get older. The essential takeaway was that Christianity was the typical experience, but there was a fundamental shift occuring in the religious composition of younger generations. Unfortunately, the original link is broken, as it was from five years ago. Let me see if I can actually find a working one.

[B5B7]

It is quite possible that there are societies where, either in absolute numbers or in % terms, more of the old people believe in "God" than the younger people do. But this does not mean that people become believers as they get older; all it means is that when these elderly people were young a greater % of them (the then young) then believed, and they carried that with them into old age.
Of course there also can be societies where the opposite is true - less older people believe than the young, as they have outgrown the propaganda inflicted on the young in that society by special religious interests who have great temporal power in regard to education, etc.
In reality many people move from belief to disbelief as they grow older, while some others may become (more ardent) believers.

[Ziggy Stardust]

While there IS a phenomenon where people in the 15-30 age range will become professedly agnostic or atheistic, only to return to their religious beliefs in old age, this is almost always a case of them having been raised religiously as a child, and "turning" from it as a form of rebellion (though at their core their beliefs were unaffected).

[Haruko]

It's important to add that American religiosity is unusually high among developed countries, but below average globally (click link for neat map):

http://www.gallup.com/poll/114211/Alaba ... ommon.aspx

Look at the contrast with the Philippines.