Secularisation in the US

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  • Secularisation in the US
    • For Secularisation
      • 40% of Americans claim they attend church BUT Hadaway et al found that whilst many people went to church, churches had much lower attendances than expected
      • Bruce argues that secularisation is happening from within, e.g Christian churches have had to compromise their beliefs in order to remain popular - it is now more about personal development rather than traditional beliefs
    • Against secularisation
      • Norris and Inglehart - Americans are more likely to be genuinely religious than european nations as they have less support from the welfare state and lack access to free healthcare which may make them feel less secure in their chances for survival
        • therefore Americans may have more need for religion than EU people who benefit more from welfare
      • Stark and Bainbridge argue that the study of secularisation is Eurocentric and does not apply to Europe and America equally
        • also argues that people are naturally religious and therefore demand some form of religion
        • argue that humans want big rewards for small costs, so humans make rational decisions on what benefits them the most
        • religion is unique because it can continue to provide supernatural rewards to people that other institutions cannot - believing in religion has small costs but barely any risks and great rewards (possibly)
        • secularisation theorists have fooled people into believing there was a golden age of religion in the past and it has declined - instead it flows through cycles and is only temporary as there are religious revivals we.g NAMs and NRMs

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