Growing up godless: New book examines beliefs of non-religious children

The number of non-religious adults has risen steadily in western countries during recent decades. For many, a non-religious identity begins in childhood. Yet, little research focuses on the beliefs of non-religious children. 

Anna Strhan, a cultural sociologist at University of York in York, U.K., is co-author of the recently released Growing up Godless (Princeton University Press), which examines the beliefs of non-religious children in England. The book is based on interviews with children, aged seven to 10, their teachers and parents. 

Canadian Affairs reporter Meagan Gillmore spoke with Strhan about what non-religious children value and how schools and families help shape their non-religious identities. 

MG: What was the motivation behind this study, and then the book that has come out of it?

AS: We’ve seen quite a rapid shift in recent years towards growing numbers of the non-religious and declining Christian identification. Each generation is broadly less religious than the one before. 

That suggests the most significant things are taking place in childhood. Adults are not so much losing religion once they’re adults. It’s that their children are more non-religious than they were or their grandparents were. 

But there hadn’t really been any research with children who are non-religious: research into what’s happening in schools, what’s happening in their home lives, and also their values and beliefs. 

MG: How would children describe being non-religious? 

AS: When we asked them to talk about what they believed in and didn’t believe in, they would all talk about not believing in God. 

Some said they were uncertain, but the majority talked about not believing in God because they believed in science or because they thought the idea of God was implausible — and that was very much an understanding of God in Christian terms. 

When it came to their religious or non-religious identity, they were somewhat more uncertain about that. It tended to be something that was more defined in relation to relationships. 

For example, they would think about whether their parents or grandparents were religious or non-religious, and also in relation to things that they had learnt about in school. For instance, if they were learning about religious traditions, then they would think, ‘Well, I am not those things.’ 

MG: Is that different from the faith formation of somebody who would identify as religious?

AS: It was through schools that a lot of the children were thinking about being non-religious for the first time, because they were not talking much about religion at home. Parents weren’t actively socializing them into a secular or non-religious tradition. 

That would be in contrast with kids and families that I’ve worked with on other projects, where there might have been more active forms of religious socialization, practices like prayer or reading a text together at home or attending some supplementary religious education outside of school. 

In those contexts, those kids will often have a much more active, confident sense of their religious identity, whereas there’s more uncertainty surrounding non-religious identity. 

I would also say that there could be uncertainty surrounding Christian identity for some of the kids, too. I wouldn’t say the uncertainty is just related to being non-religious. That uncertainty for some Christian children, I think, is more related to when there isn’t very active socialization going on at home from the parents to try and bring their child up within a particular faith. 

MG: How did the children’s definitions of being non-religious contrast with how their parents would describe it?

AS: The parents had had more engagement with religion, and therefore they were often more critical of religion. They spoke about religion as often being hypocritical, at odds with gender equality or equality in relation to sexual orientation. 

Some of the parents were quite explicit about how their own experience of religion — as somehow stifling their freedom or autonomy in their own upbringings — had really intensified their desire to inculcate a sense of autonomy for their children. 

The children, in contrast, seem to see religion as much more an aspect of social identity that ought to be respected and celebrated. They would talk about religious diversity and equality and respect for religious identities in the same way as they talk about the importance of respecting difference in relation to ethnicity or racial equality, gender, sexual orientation, disability. 

MG: How would these children describe what their non-religious values were? 

AS: There was a strong belief in the idea of equality in relation to gender, but also religion, race, ethnicity. The way that they spoke about their relationships with their parents, they felt that they should have a right to choose things, to have their own freedoms. 

That related to one of the other core principles that they held: individual autonomy. They felt it was really important that people should be free to express who they were. 

They felt that people should have freedom to determine their own ultimate commitment, their own religious or non-religious identities. It wasn’t just about freedom for them; it was about freedom for others. There was a strong sense of the value of authenticity, being true to yourself. 

When we asked them about what mattered to them, they all spoke about relationships mattering very deeply: amongst family members, pets, friends. Their concerns were very much rooted in worldly concerns, rather than transcendent concerns. 

MG: Moving to the future, what are the implications of what you found? 

AS: It’s not certain where these children will be heading. You’d expect that probably many will continue holding on to this humanist form where they continue to believe in ideals of equality and respect for diversity. 

But it’s open to question, what’s going to happen as they move into their teenage years, whether the majority of them will stick with this or if a number of them are going to be drawn into those movements that react against these values. 

Because this generation has been raised without the Christian socialization that many of their parents have received, there’s maybe more openness, potentially, to different forms of alternative spiritualities … astrology, tarot, yoga, meditation and the ways those get bound up as part of wellness discourses. 

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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