How does a college education affect one's religious beliefs? Given that college
is a period of intellectual engagement and exploration, many scholars have
believed that a college education weakens one's religious beliefs. In 1977
researchers David Caplowitz and Fred Sherrow wrote that college is "a breeding
ground for apostasy." In 1983 sociologist James Hunter claimed that it was a
"well-established fact" that education, even Christian education,
"secularizes."
However, the secularizing effect of higher education
has come into question in the past decade with new research suggesting that
young adults who never enrolled in college are currently the least religious
Americans.
In a study published in 2007 by the Social Science Research Council, sociologists Mark
D. Regnerus and Jeremy E. Uecker reported on religious service attendance and
religious dis-affiliation among young adults. According to their analysis of
data collected by the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health:
- While 64 percent of those currently enrolled in a traditional four-year institution reported a decline in religious service attendance, 76 percent of those who never enrolled in college reported a decline.
- Twenty percent of those who did not attend college renounced all religious affiliation, whereas only 13 percent of four-year college students did the same.
But behind this hard data lie rich stories of
religious and spiritual transformation in college. HuffPost Religion put out a call to our community
to ask how their religious and spiritual outlook changed during their college
years. Click through the slideshow on the
website to see their responses.
If you are a college student or a recent graduate we
want to hear from you. Tell us how your religious and spiritual outlook has
changed in college. Did you increase in your understanding of your own religious
practice? Did you lose your faith? Did you convert to another religion? Submit a
100-word response to religion@huffingtonpost.com along with your headshot and
the name of your school, and we might feature your response on our website.
To learn more about the
religious engagement of American undergraduates, visit this website.
