College is bad for faith - or maybe not

College is bad for faith - or maybe not

by A Person Published on November 9th, 2009, 9:08 pm Rift: Religion

It's common knowledge that many churches lose their youth when they go to college, but which areas of study are more effective at removing childhood faith?

I expected the answers to be something like biology, geology, physics at the top, medicine, dentistry in the middle and the social sciences at the bottom

However, according to a study by the University of Michigan it seems that

College students who major in the social sciences and humanities are likely to become less religious, while those majoring in education are likely to become more religious.

But students majoring in biology and physical sciences remain just about as religious as they were when they started college.

Education majors are clearly safe havens for the religious. Highly religious people seem to prefer education majors, tend to stay in that major, and tend to become more religious by the time they graduate.

I wonder what it is about education that encourages a belief in knowledge coming from an authority ... ?

[SouthernFriedInfidel]

Interesting stuff. Particularly this business of education majors becoming more religious. As you say, the business of strengthening the importance of authority as a source of knowledge probably has a lot to do with that. And that's a real shame, because one of the most important lessons that a teacher could possibly give his or her students is in critical thinking and self-directed learning.

IMO, that means the difference between (as the saying goes) giving someone a fish or teaching him HOW to fish.

[Liv]

It really is interesting because I come from a family of teachers.... and well, you know.... When I first got to college my secondary major was going to be childhood education.... though that faded real fast.....

[Serendipitous]

Just wondering how much personality, left-brained/right-brained, interest, skills, etc plays into this as well (if at all). It just seems those are things that contribute to why one chooses a specific major. My degree is in English with an incomplete minor in Philosophy, though I had considered Education as a major (along with Library Science).

When I quit going to church (post-college), one of my parents actually did say "I should never have let you go to college." Mind you, I think this was directed more towards the fact I went to a UCC college and my family is mostly Catholic. I guess my parents fit the findings of this study though. My mom's family is mostly educators and accountants. My dad's family is military and vocations.

I was agnostic when I started college. I would still be an atheist now regardless of major.