Phil Zuckerman did well in writing this book. Granted that it is not new or unique in its claims, it is good to see that some more research is being done on issues such as conversion and apostasy. This book gives a glimpse into the beliefs and journeys of "ordinary" atheists which is really needed since polemic atheists like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, etc. are simply not representative of the vast majority of atheists' attitudes, beliefs, and intensity. This book is a decent place to start for those who are interested in what triggers apostasy and what has made some who subscribed to one belief system abandon and switch for another. He interviews 87 people total (about half were raised in California and the rest are from other parts of the country or other parts of the world). Christian apostates are the main focus in the book, though others are mentioned. For many, atheism and agnosticism became their new belief system (I would argue "religion") since just as they left a few beliefs and behaviors they also gained quite a few to substitute or replace them. Its good for some to know that atheists and agnostics do not live empty lives that are void of content. They have beliefs like everyone else. In fact, atheists are simply not qualitatively different than theists.
This book is mainly about atheists and agnostics and how or why they ceased believing certain things they used to. It is clear that most of the abandonment of previous beliefs had very little to do with rigorous analysis of the best scientific and philosophical arguments and research. Instead, the core drives for the abandonment of their previous beliefs were subjective reasons such as biases, personal experiences and expectations, social or personal loss, and other subjective inclinations. This is pretty much in line with recent research on how people develop beliefs
The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies---How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths.
It appears that some of the apostates interviewed here had very strange habits or expectations in terms of prayer, divine interference, and compensation for their devotion and commitment to their "religions". It is also clear that many struggled in their departure and some experiences from their youth seemed to have had a major impact on their adulthood and apostasy.
I will note a few things from the main chapters:
Ch.1 - there is some discourse on people who had an exorcist mother and how that impacted them.
Ch. 2 - focuses on how some began to see inconsistencies between their beliefs and experiences in life.
Ch. 3 - focuses on misfortune such as loss of loved ones, trauma, unanswered prayers, injustice, divine karma failure (where many felt they did everything right to please God, expected God to repay them with good rewards, but instead had misfortune fall on them).
Ch. 4 - ex-Mormons and repercussions they experienced after dropping out ; gay issues and its influence on some of the apostates (apparently about 1/3 of the interviewees mentioned anti-gay views as a key ingredient in their apostasy).
Ch. 5 - focuses on sexual influences and experiences, usually in their youth, that were "crucial", but not always significant in their apostasy.
Ch. 6 - focuses on experiences of hypocrisy and immorality as an often cited contributor for apostasy. Exchanges with other cultures and worldviews and their impact are also discussed.
Ch. 7 - focuses mainly on two women that are exceptions to some studies expectations. They were poor, had problems like drug abuse, and suffered quite a bit; but though both used to believe in God, they no longer do and have gained some control in their lives.
Ch. 8 - focuses on mainly supporting ideas like people without god-beliefs can be very moral (he argues that they can be more moral than religious people on certain measures), they have a meaning in life, they can deal with death, they can feel liberation and autonomy, and notes things apostates sometimes lose when they abandon their previous worldviews. He discusses some negative stigmas that are often placed on atheists such as being angry, sociopathic, loveless, etc. Some of this is not far from the truth, but much of it is not reflective of the characteristics of ordinary atheists. Some of the atheists seemed to down play their previous beliefs a little too much that it leaves one with an impression that their previous experiences, as believers, were worse than they really were. Surely they stuck to their beliefs for a long time, so it cannot be that they really had experiences that were THAT bad, because if the experiences really were that horrific, then the apostasy would have occurred earlier. It sometimes these sounded like a couple that just had a really bad divorce - finger pointing and poor self-criticism.
Ch. 9 - focuses on the impact that the parents had on the apostates. Zuckerman notes that many had at least one parent who was not "religious" or at least indifferent to such topics. Interestingly, he notes that some want their own children to be "religiously" involved. Other parenting issues are discussed.
Ch. 10 - focuses on apostasy as a process involving many factors, not just one. Not all interviewees were atheists, some saw themselves as "spiritual", or even believing in God in their own way. Some factors or reasons influencing apostasy included:
* Parents - many had one parent as "religiously" involved and the other was not or indifferent. The lack of balance among both parents does impact the probability of apostasy.
* Education - exposure to other ideas may create competition for personal beliefs
* Misfortune - loss of loved ones or issues like divorce may push some to reconsider their beliefs
* Other Cultures and Religions - exposure to other ideas may provoke reconsiderations of their beliefs
* Friends and Acquaintances - sometimes speaking to others leads to deep discussions or questions that may provoke reconsiderations of their beliefs
* Politics - issues and moral inclinations in light of things like the "religious right" or liberalism
* Sex - desires of the flesh vs control of the desires
* Hell - conflicting with personal views
* Hypocrisy - with "religious" leaders, family, or acquaintances
Zuckerman notes that these "reasons are not necessarily causes" and correctly notes that most people who deal with these same factors are not apostates at all but are believers and remain believers. Usually these factors strengthen or at least are not enough to make most people abandon their beliefs.
---Some background data: In the Introduction, Zuckerman notes different types of apostasy in the introduction (shallow, deep, mild, transformative, early, late, etc). He also notes that the number of those who classify themselves as "Nones/No Religion/Unaffiliated" in religious identification surveys, such as ARIS, has increased from 8 % in 1990 to 15 % in 2008, however, it needs to be added that by 2001 the "Nones" had reached their biggest burst of 14.1% according to ARIS data. It has apparently leveled off since then. The major increase from 8 % in 1990 to 14.1 % in 2001 is due to people distancing themselves from the political image of the "religious right", not increase in "religious" skepticism or more atheists and agnostics, because the majority of "Nones" are simply "unchurched believers" (Fischer, Claude and Michael Hout. 2002. "Why More Americans Have No Religious Preference: Politics and Generations". American Sociological Review 67(2): 165-190). They are the ones that increased the "Nones/No Religion/Unaffiliated" demographic. From the time that books by the New Atheists got really popular, from 2001 to 2008, there was only a .9% increase in "Nones" (14.1% in 2001 to 15% in 2008) which is incredibly small for 7 years. Obviously not all of these were atheists and agnostics either.
The 2008 report from Pew Research Center confirms that 24% of the Nones/Unaffileted are atheists and 15% are agnostics. The rest of the Nones/Unaffiliated were essentially religious but unaffiliated. This trend will likely continue probably due to people distancing from stigmas related to politics as well.
Update 11/6/12 - In the new data from the Pew Research Center from October 2012, "Nones" have gone up to just under 20% of the American population. However, only 12% of the "Nones" are atheists, 17% are agnostic, and 68% believe in God (a universal spirit). The majority are still "unchurched believers". Overall atheists and agnostics make up 6% of the total US population.
--- Limitations in research is expected. For example, some of the studies Zuckerman cited in Ch. 7 with "religiosity" and dimensions of education levels were not as recent or as diverse as I hoped. For example, ARIS data from 2008 on people with post-graduate degrees shows that they are very similar demographically, in terms of religiosity, to the general American population and that religion and post-doctorate degrees are both independent variables meaning that religiosity and higher education do not affect each other as Enlightenment thinkers presumed (Kosmin, Barry. 2010. "Religion and the Intelligentsia: Post-graduate Educated Americans 1990-2008"). He notes that the empirical data does not support the hypothesis that those with the post-graduate degrees are more prone to have an Enlightenment mentality and be less religious. He notes, "The only sign of greater secularization is more support for the theory of human evolution but there is no evidence of a dominant "atheistic naturalism".
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