Characteristics of religious doubts in young

• Main Author: Dušanić Srđan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Belgrade, Faculty of Philosophy, Institute of Psychology 2011-01-01
• Series: Psihološka Istraživanja
• Subjects: religious doubts; characteristics; youth
• Online Access: http://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/0352-7379/2011/0352-73791101047D.pdf

At the time of general popularity of religion it is certainly interesting to examine the degree of religious skepticism in young and the role of certain personality traits and family. The assumption was that religious doubt is higher in people with higher self-efficacy, liberalism, intellectualism and the experience of family trauma, and less pronounced dogmatism. The assumptions are set based on the results of certain international research (for example, Hunsberger and Altemeyer) and hence theoretical goal of the research is to check international findings in our region. The survey was conducted in the Republic of Srpska. The total sample comprised 352 respondents, 67% of whom were girls and 33% boys. The average age was 18. The most important scale, the scale of religious skepticism, had high reliability (Cronbach alpha 0.92). There were several open questions about the reasons and motives for religious doubts, and content analysis of these responses was performed. The results show that religious skepticism is not so high among the young and the average mean on a five-degree scale is M = 1.98. Greater values than the average were obtained for reasons relating to: disbelief in life after death, illnesses and traumas, suspicions because of conflicts between religious communities, imposing religion, death of close relatives, the position of women in religion, the rules that deny pleasure etc. About 37% of respondents said they had episodes of religious doubts. The results indicate possible simultaneous existence of religious attitudes and religious doubts. Significant predictors of religious doubts may be religious socialization, family trauma, gender. Content analysis of responses to open-ended questions indicated that death or illness figure as the most common causes of religious skepticism. The results are discussed and compared with the international ones. It is obvious that there is a need for further research of religious doubts. .