Education VS Religion
“It is one of the tasks of all great religions to accommodate devout faith with a modern, multicultural world. No children are born hating, and no children — anywhere — should be educated to hate other people” — Barack Obama
From the very moment a child is born, his or her education begins. At first, education is an informal process in which an infant watches others and imitates them. As the infant grows into a young child, the process of education becomes more formal. Schools become agents of change or conformity, teaching individuals to think outside of the family and the local norms into which they were born into.
But what about religion? Just like education, religion plays a major role in the socialization process. For centuries, humankind has sought to understand and explain the “meaning of life.” Religion, in one form or another, has been found in all human societies since these societies first appeared. It also serves as a filter for examining other issues in society and other components of a culture.
For over a century, social scientists have debated how educational attainment impacts religious belief. Education and religion represent two of the dominant institutions of human society. Each has been shown to have large impacts on a range of individual outcomes; for example, educational attainment has been linked to increases in civic participation, health and adult wages and religiosity has been linked to charitable giving, voting, lower levels of risky behavior and better health.
Both modern and developing societies have seen large gains in educational attainment in recent decades, and social scientists have frequently (and sometimes famously) predicted that such gains may impact religion. But there is little compelling evidence to substantiate or refute these claims.
It’s pretty much a given that the more educated someone becomes, the more likely they are to question their religious beliefs, stop going to church and even abandon their faith entirely.
Or is it?
A new UNL study challenges that age-old notion with findings that show education actually has a positive effect on Americans’ churchgoing habits, their devotional practices, their emphasis on religion in daily life and their support for religious leaders to weigh in on the issues of the day.
The study also revealed that education had a strong and positive effect on religious participation. With each additional year of education, the odds of attending religious services increased by 15 percent.
But that’s just one part of the story.
The recent double murder in Andhra where the couple got arrested for the murder of their two daughters is a classic example of how education doesn’t do much to help retrieve those blinded by religion. Everyone in the family were well educated but were drawn to extreme religious beliefs and occult practices so much so that they believed they could get rid of the evil by killing their daughters and that they would not die.
The recently acclaimed film “The Great Indian Kitchen” also draws light into the same. The very first frame of the movie says ‘Thanks Science’; a homage to all things rational. A light on the absurd irrationality of religion woven into customs and traditions.
The positive effect of education on sociability explains the positive education-religion relationship. The negative effect of education on religious belief causes more educated individuals to sort into less fervent religions, which explains the negative relationship between education and religion across denominations. Cross-country differences in the impact of education on religious belief can explain the large cross-country variation in the education-religion connection. These cross-country differences in the education-belief relationship can be explained by political factors (such as communism) which lead some countries to use state-controlled education to discredit religion.
It is therefore important to strike a good balance between the two and integrate them into our lives so as to to improve our quality of living and help us evolve into better individuals.
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