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Deprivatization of Disbelief?: Non-Religiosity and Anti-Religiosity in 14 Western European Countries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 February 2013

Egbert Ribberink ,
Peter Achterberg  and
Dick Houtman
Egbert Ribberink*
Affiliation:
Erasmus University Rotterdam
Peter Achterberg*
Affiliation:
Erasmus University Rotterdam
Dick Houtman*
Affiliation:
Erasmus University Rotterdam
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Egbert Ribberink, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected]
Peter Achterberg, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected]
Dick Houtman, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

This article aims to move beyond media discourse about “new atheism” by mapping and explaining anti-religious zeal among the public at large in 14 Western European countries. We analyze data from the International Social Survey Program, Religion III, 2008, to test two theories about how country-level religiousness affects anti-religiosity and its social bases: a theory of rationalization and a theory of deprivatization of disbelief. Hypotheses derived from the former are contradicted, whereas those derived from the latter are largely confirmed. Anti-religiosity is strongest among disbelievers and among the higher educated in the most religious countries and among the older generations in today's most secularized countries.

Type
Articles
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , March 2013 , pp. 101 - 120
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2013 

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