Atheism, agnosticism, and nonbelief

246 Pages·2013·2.7 MB·English

by  Christopher Frank Silver

ATHEISM, AGNOSTICISM, AND NONBELIEF:
A QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE
STUDY OF TYPE AND NARRATIVE

By

Christopher Frank Silver

Ralph W Hood Jr Jim Tucker
Professor Professor
(Co-Chair) (Co-Chair)

Valerie C. Rutledge David Rausch
Professor Assistant Professor
(Committee Member) (Committee Member)

Anthony J. Lease A. Jerald Ainsworth
Dean of the College of Health, Education Dean of the Graduate School
and Professional Studies
ATHEISM, AGNOSTICISM, AND NONBELIEF:
A QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE
STUDY OF TYPE AND NARRATIVE

By

Christopher Frank Silver

A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the University of
Tennessee at Chattanooga in Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of
Education

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Chattanooga, Tennessee

August 2013

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Copyright © 2013

By Christopher Frank Silver

All Rights Reserved

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ABSTRACT

Extensive research has been conducted in exploration of the American religious
landscape, however recently has social science research started to explore Nonbelief in
any detail. Research on Nonbelief has been limited as most research focuses on the
popularity of the religious “nones” or the complexities of alternative faith expressions
such as spirituality. Research has been limited in exploring the complexity of Nonbelief
or how non-believers would identify themselves. Most research assumes nonbelievers are
a monolithic group with no variation such as Atheism or Agnosticism. Through two
studies, one qualitative and one quantitative, this study explored identity of Nonbelief.
Study one (the qualitative study) discovered that individuals have shared definitional
agreement but use different words to describe the different types of Nonbelief. Moreover,
social tension and life narrative play a role in shaping one’s ontological worldview.
Through thematic coding, a typology of six different types of Nonbelief was observed.
Those are Academic Atheists, Activist Atheist/Agnostics, Seeker Agnostics, Antitheists,
Nontheists, and the Ritual Atheists. Study two explored the empirical aspects of these
types related to the NEO Domain, RYFF Psychological Well-Being, Narcissism
Personality Inventory, Multidimensional Anger Inventory, Dogmatism, and intersections
related to religious and spiritual ontology. The research team observed that empirical
measures can show significant differences and measure domain uniqueness. Study two
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seems to suggest there are unique as well as high and low scored empirical characteristics
between each of the measures when comparing the different types of Nonbelief.

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DEDICATION

To my wife Laura and my son Jamison, your love and support gives me the
motivation to push through even the most difficult of times. Laura you bring out the best
in me. To Ralph W Hood Jr. whose un-relentless support and motivation helped me to
actualize my ability beyond an uneducated simple southerner. To my parents Frank and
June Silver whose support of me from childhood to adulthood must have certainly been
challenging and difficult to raise such a stubborn and arrogant child. To my brother
Shawn whose dreams of going to college will never be realized because of the challenges
of his Autism. May my work and dedication to academia at least give you some sense of
pride and strength that a part of you (your brother) excels in academia. Shawn you
deserve a doctoral degree simply for overcoming so much in your life.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A dissertation is a moment in time, a ritual transformation from one life to the
next. No person is an island and certainly, that is not the case here. This product is the
culmination of help and assistance of a variety of people within academia and beyond. I
would first like to thank Dr. Ralph W. Hood Jr. for his advisory, theoretical, and
methodological support in this endeavor. Without his help, there would simply be no
dissertation. I would like to thank Dr. Jim Tucker for his advisory approach. Dr. Tucker
is not only an assertive and brilliant man but his style of advisement and profound insight
was very conducive to me producing this product. I would like to thank Dr. David
Rausch for his support and guidance navigating me through my doctoral and dissertation
process. Dr. Rausch, you stand as an example to me of someone who successfully
transversed the professional/academic divide. I would like to thank Dr. Valerie Rutledge
whose technical writing and keen sense of grammatical content and syntax continually
pushes me to strive to be a better writer. I would also like to say thank you to Thomas
Coleman III. I have never met such an energetic and focused undergraduate in my life.
Your help with recruitment and during the research process certainly speaks to the level
of scholar you will be. I would like to say thank you to the psychology department at
UTC for their continued support of my academic aspirations. Individuals such as David
Ross, Paul Watson, Rich Metzger, Amye Warren, and others inspired me to be an
academic in the first place. I would like to say thank to Matthew Durham for edits and
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feedback. Your wisdom in writing is profound. Finally thank you to Brandon Jones,
Allen Terry Karlsson for your input as well.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iv
DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................. vii
LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ xii
LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... xiii
CHAPTERS
I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 1
Non-belief and Examples of Leadership ....................................................................... 5
Ambiguous Use of Defining Terms .............................................................................. 6
Common Discussions in Atheism ................................................................................. 9
Statement of the Problem ............................................................................................ 22
Research Questions ..................................................................................................... 25
II. BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ............................................................ 38
Socio-Historical Trends in Non-belief in God ............................................................ 39
The Secularization Phenomena and Sociology of Religion ........................................ 45
The Theory of Secularization According to Steve Bruce ........................................... 50
Market share and religious adherents – The Stark and Finke perspective .................. 55
Secularization versus the market share model ............................................................ 59
Apostasy and Exit ....................................................................................................... 61
Psychological Implications of Non-Belief .................................................................. 65
Data Trends in Non-Belief .......................................................................................... 71
III. STUDY ONE QUALITATIVE EXPLORATION OF NONBELIEF ........................ 81
In Exploration of a Theory .......................................................................................... 81
Paradigms of Inquiry ..................................................................................... 82
Study One – Qualitative Exploration of Nonbelief ..................................................... 87
Method ........................................................................................................... 87
Recruitment and Sampling of Geographic Regions ............................. 87
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Participants ........................................................................................... 90
Materials and Procedure ................................................................................ 92
Results ........................................................................................................... 97
Narrative Concerns with Identity. ........................................................ 97
The Narrative Experience of Jenee ...................................................... 98
The Narrative Experience of Tuan ....................................................... 99
Islam and Heather ............................................................................... 101
Thomas – Catholicism and Anti-religion ........................................... 103
Joey and Secular Activism ................................................................. 106
Frequency Trends in Themes ...................................................................... 110
Typology of Nonbelief ................................................................................ 114
Intellectual Atheist / Agnostic (IAA) ................................................. 115
Activist Atheist / Agnostic (AAA) ..................................................... 116
Seeker-Agnostic (SA) ......................................................................... 117
Anti-Theist .......................................................................................... 118
Non-Theist .......................................................................................... 119
Ritual Atheist/Agnostic (RAA) .......................................................... 119
Typology Description in Simplicity ............................................................ 120
Intellectual Atheist / Agnostic (IAA) ................................................. 121
Activist Atheist / Agnostic (AAA) ..................................................... 122
Seeker-Agnostic (SA) ......................................................................... 123
Anti-Theist .......................................................................................... 124
Non-Theist .......................................................................................... 124
Ritual Atheist/Agnostic (RAA) .......................................................... 125
Discussion ................................................................................................... 126
IV. STUDY TWO – EMPIRICAL CONFIRMATIONS OF TYPE .............................. 135
Method ...................................................................................................................... 135
Materials and Procedure .............................................................................. 139
Ethics and Participant Protection ................................................................ 142
Results ....................................................................................................................... 143
Discussion ................................................................................................................. 188
V. GLOBAL DISCUSSION AND PERSPECTIVES .................................................... 189
Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 199
Limitations ................................................................................................... 200
Future Research ........................................................................................... 201
WORK CITED................................................................................................................ 203
APPENDIX ..................................................................................................................... 211
A. INFORMED CONSENT LETTERS ......................................................................... 212
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