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ATHEISM, AGNOSTICISM, AND NONBELIEF: A QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF TYPE AND NARRATIVE By Christopher Frank Silver Ralph W Hood Jr Jim Tucker Professor Professor (Co-Chair) (Co-Chair) Valerie C. Rutledge David Rausch Professor Assistant Professor (Committee Member) (Committee Member) Anthony J. Lease A. Jerald Ainsworth Dean of the College of Health, Education Dean of the Graduate School and Professional Studies ATHEISM, AGNOSTICISM, AND NONBELIEF: A QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF TYPE AND NARRATIVE By Christopher Frank Silver A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Chattanooga, Tennessee August 2013 ii Copyright © 2013 By Christopher Frank Silver All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Extensive research has been conducted in exploration of the American religious landscape, however recently has social science research started to explore Nonbelief in any detail. Research on Nonbelief has been limited as most research focuses on the popularity of the religious “nones” or the complexities of alternative faith expressions such as spirituality. Research has been limited in exploring the complexity of Nonbelief or how non-believers would identify themselves. Most research assumes nonbelievers are a monolithic group with no variation such as Atheism or Agnosticism. Through two studies, one qualitative and one quantitative, this study explored identity of Nonbelief. Study one (the qualitative study) discovered that individuals have shared definitional agreement but use different words to describe the different types of Nonbelief. Moreover, social tension and life narrative play a role in shaping one’s ontological worldview. Through thematic coding, a typology of six different types of Nonbelief was observed. Those are Academic Atheists, Activist Atheist/Agnostics, Seeker Agnostics, Antitheists, Nontheists, and the Ritual Atheists. Study two explored the empirical aspects of these types related to the NEO Domain, RYFF Psychological Well-Being, Narcissism Personality Inventory, Multidimensional Anger Inventory, Dogmatism, and intersections related to religious and spiritual ontology. The research team observed that empirical measures can show significant differences and measure domain uniqueness. Study two iv seems to suggest there are unique as well as high and low scored empirical characteristics between each of the measures when comparing the different types of Nonbelief. v DEDICATION To my wife Laura and my son Jamison, your love and support gives me the motivation to push through even the most difficult of times. Laura you bring out the best in me. To Ralph W Hood Jr. whose un-relentless support and motivation helped me to actualize my ability beyond an uneducated simple southerner. To my parents Frank and June Silver whose support of me from childhood to adulthood must have certainly been challenging and difficult to raise such a stubborn and arrogant child. To my brother Shawn whose dreams of going to college will never be realized because of the challenges of his Autism. May my work and dedication to academia at least give you some sense of pride and strength that a part of you (your brother) excels in academia. Shawn you deserve a doctoral degree simply for overcoming so much in your life. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A dissertation is a moment in time, a ritual transformation from one life to the next. No person is an island and certainly, that is not the case here. This product is the culmination of help and assistance of a variety of people within academia and beyond. I would first like to thank Dr. Ralph W. Hood Jr. for his advisory, theoretical, and methodological support in this endeavor. Without his help, there would simply be no dissertation. I would like to thank Dr. Jim Tucker for his advisory approach. Dr. Tucker is not only an assertive and brilliant man but his style of advisement and profound insight was very conducive to me producing this product. I would like to thank Dr. David Rausch for his support and guidance navigating me through my doctoral and dissertation process. Dr. Rausch, you stand as an example to me of someone who successfully transversed the professional/academic divide. I would like to thank Dr. Valerie Rutledge whose technical writing and keen sense of grammatical content and syntax continually pushes me to strive to be a better writer. I would also like to say thank you to Thomas Coleman III. I have never met such an energetic and focused undergraduate in my life. Your help with recruitment and during the research process certainly speaks to the level of scholar you will be. I would like to say thank you to the psychology department at UTC for their continued support of my academic aspirations. Individuals such as David Ross, Paul Watson, Rich Metzger, Amye Warren, and others inspired me to be an academic in the first place. I would like to say thank to Matthew Durham for edits and vii feedback. Your wisdom in writing is profound. Finally thank you to Brandon Jones, Allen Terry Karlsson for your input as well. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iv DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................. vii LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ xii LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTERS I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 1 Non-belief and Examples of Leadership ....................................................................... 5 Ambiguous Use of Defining Terms .............................................................................. 6 Common Discussions in Atheism ................................................................................. 9 Statement of the Problem ............................................................................................ 22 Research Questions ..................................................................................................... 25 II. BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ............................................................ 38 Socio-Historical Trends in Non-belief in God ............................................................ 39 The Secularization Phenomena and Sociology of Religion ........................................ 45 The Theory of Secularization According to Steve Bruce ........................................... 50 Market share and religious adherents – The Stark and Finke perspective .................. 55 Secularization versus the market share model ............................................................ 59 Apostasy and Exit ....................................................................................................... 61 Psychological Implications of Non-Belief .................................................................. 65 Data Trends in Non-Belief .......................................................................................... 71 III. STUDY ONE QUALITATIVE EXPLORATION OF NONBELIEF ........................ 81 In Exploration of a Theory .......................................................................................... 81 Paradigms of Inquiry ..................................................................................... 82 Study One – Qualitative Exploration of Nonbelief ..................................................... 87 Method ........................................................................................................... 87 Recruitment and Sampling of Geographic Regions ............................. 87 ix Participants ........................................................................................... 90 Materials and Procedure ................................................................................ 92 Results ........................................................................................................... 97 Narrative Concerns with Identity. ........................................................ 97 The Narrative Experience of Jenee ...................................................... 98 The Narrative Experience of Tuan ....................................................... 99 Islam and Heather ............................................................................... 101 Thomas – Catholicism and Anti-religion ........................................... 103 Joey and Secular Activism ................................................................. 106 Frequency Trends in Themes ...................................................................... 110 Typology of Nonbelief ................................................................................ 114 Intellectual Atheist / Agnostic (IAA) ................................................. 115 Activist Atheist / Agnostic (AAA) ..................................................... 116 Seeker-Agnostic (SA) ......................................................................... 117 Anti-Theist .........................................................................................
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