Atheists, Agnostics, and Apostates

Streib H, Klein C. Atheists, Agnostics, and Apostates. In: Kenneth I. P, Julie J. E, James W. J, eds. APA handbooks in psychology: APA Handbook of psychology, religion and spirituality: Vol 1. Washington D.C.: American Psychological Association; 2013: 713-728.In the scientific study of religion in general and the psychology of religion in particular, atheists and agnostics have received limited attention, while believers and converts have stood in the center of interest. More recently, however, more attention has been given to atheists and agnostics, and several researchers have recommended studying atheists and agnostics in their own right (Hood, Hill, & Spilka, 2009; Hunsberger & Altemeyer, 2006; Keysar, 2007; Kosmin & Keysar, 2007). This new interest may in part be due to indications of a considerable increase in the probability of religious nonaffiliation in the U.S. According to one recent study, this probability has risen “from between .06 and .08 in the 1970s and 1980s to almost .16 in 2006” (Schwadel, 2010, p. 318). Although the question of who are the “nones” (cf., Pasquale, 2007) should be approached with care, these groups of unaffiliates and disaffiliates likely include a number of atheists and agnostics. Most of the research in this area takes a static and synchronic approach, contrasting belief vs. unbelief or religiosity vs. atheism/agnosticism. We believe that a more dynamic approach is called for, one that views atheism and agnosticism as processes. From the perspective of a dynamic approach, it is also necessary to include apostasy in this discussion, because people who leave their faith are in the process of a developmental change, a migration in the religious field which may eventually lead to exiting the religious domain altogether. Therefore, the three terms in the title are interrelated and need to be studied in tandem. For a deeper understanding of atheists, agnostics, and people who deconvert eventually to atheist and agnostic beliefs, it is imperative to know their motivations, the predictors of their stance toward religion, and the effects of their religious approach on various outcomes. There are a number of particularly interesting questions about outcomes: Are the shifts to atheism, agnosticism and apostasy associated with an increase or a decrease in psychological well-being? How do these religious positions affect physical health? Do they lead to differences in preferences in the ways of coping with major life stressors? In this chapter, we address these questions, discuss the results from extant research, and suggest directions for future research. But we begin with a discussion of concepts and models, because some important questions have also been raised or re-opened on the theoretical level – questions that relate to the conceptualization of religion and spirituality in general