c. 1997 Religion News Service
UNDATED _ More Americans than ever before _ 81 percent _ say they believe in an afterlife, according to a sociologist at the University of Chicago.
But the Rev. Andrew M. Greeley, a Roman Catholic priest and columnist for RNS, who presented his findings Saturday (Aug. 9) at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in Toronto, said the increase has little _ if anything _ to do with religious revival that some say is sweeping the nation.”Rather this increase is to be explained by the immigration of ethnics, especially Catholics and Jews, into a more devout society than the one from which they came, one in which high levels of religious practice are generated by a fiercely competitive marketplace,”Greeley said in his paper,”Pie in the Sky While You’re Alive: Life After Death and Supply Side Religion.” In other words, immigrants _ especially Catholics and Jews _ have been socialized into higher levels of religious beliefs.
According to the study, belief in life after death among American Protestants has remained constant at 80 percent throughout the 20th century.
But among Catholics, Jews and those with no religious affiliation, the story is quite different.
Over the century, belief in an afterlife among Catholics has grown from 65 percent to 84 percent, according to Greeley. Among Jews, the number has risen from 22 percent to 40 percent; while among those with no religious affiliation the number has increased from 31 percent to 50 percent.
Greeley’s finding are based on 15 surveys of more than 19,000 people conducted between 1973 and 1994.
In explaining his findings, Greeley noted that Catholics and Jews were largely immigrant populations in the early part of the century. He said belief in an afterlife grew among the children and grandchildren of immigrants, supporting his conclusion that becoming socialized to the U.S. religious environment was a factor in belief in the afterlife.”The more youthful cohorts _ those born after 1940 _ are more clearly more likely to accept life after death than those born before 1940 when they are at similar positions in the life cycle as measured by age,”he said.
People born in the 1960s are more likely to believe in life after death when they are in their 30s than those born in the 1950s. And those born in the 1950s are more likely to believe than those born in the 1940s when they were in their 30s, he said.”Each succeeding cohort therefore seems to be more likely to believe in life after death _ a shattering blow to those who think that religious belief in America is going down over time,”he said.
Greeley put his findings in the context of a current debate among religious experts between those who believe U.S. society is becoming more secular and those who favor the”supply side”theory.
In the latter, theorists argue that America, unlike some other countries, offers a”free market”of religions where people experience more competition from religious professionals seeking to respond their needs.
In his study, Greeley compared four immigrant groups _ German, Irish, Italian and Polish _ with those who stayed in Europe. He found that belief in life after death is more likely among German- and Irish-Americans than among those who still live in the”old country.” He said that first-generation Italian-Americans are less likely to believe in life after death than those who stayed in Europe, but by the third generation have surpassed them in belief. So, too, are third generation Poles higher than Poles who did not immigrate.
Greeley said the expectation of an afterlife may be”the most central of religious doctrines”because it asserts,”in the face of substantial evidence to the contrary, that there is purpose and grace in the human condition.”
MJP END ANDERSON
