CANADIANS who believe in God are more likely to value forgiveness, generosity, kindness, patience and honesty than those who do not believe in God. That is the latest finding by sociologist Reginald Bibby, drawn from his 2005 survey of 1,600 Canadians.

In an October 8 release, Bibby compared the responses of the 49 percent who said they believe in the existence of a higher power with the responses of the seven percent who said they did not believe.

Both groups were asked if they considered 12 values as “very important.” In every case, a higher percentage of theists than atheists answered yes. The gap ranged from five percent on honesty and 23 percent on family life, to 30 percent on generosity, 32 percent on forgiveness and 33 percent on patience.

University of Manitoba historian Gerry Bowler told BCCN he is not surprised by Bibby’s findings. The 20th century “tried atheist morality on a huge scale,” he said, and the result was the gulags of the Soviet Union, the re-education camps of China and the concentration camps of Nazi Germany.

Bowler also agreed with Bibby’s conclusion that there is no ready alternative to the teachings of religious groups. “There are gaping holes where the church used to be,” he said.

The problem is not just the disappearance of churches, but also the disappearance of Boy Scouts and service clubs which used to teach these values because “the leaders were the kinds of people who went to churches.”

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It is difficult to see the media replacing the churches as a teacher of positive values, said Bowler. Contemporary music, he maintained, often teaches ideas directly opposite to virtues.

Television “seldom challenges traditional virtues, but often subverts them.” Schools, he asserted, often promote  “values that Christians are uncomfortable with.”

On the other hand, the situation is far from hopeless, said Bowler. The “civil genteel society” that was the dominant ideal in England and North America from the mid-1700s to the 1960s was itself an innovation, he said.

A broad-based movement led largely by Christian moralists fought slavery, prostitution, child labour, animal cruelty and violence, and promoted literacy and kindness; but it took a century to establish a genteel society in the face of fierce opposition from the corrupt ruling classes.

The forces of corruption may have seized power again in the last half-century, said Bowler, but “it doesn’t take very much to change a social climate” – as the environmental movement has recently proven. In fact, he said, with aids like the internet, “social change is much faster than it used to be.”

Churches need to regain their perspective and preach the lost virtues, he said. Christians need to enter the media and “make virtue attractive.”  Believers, he added,  could find allies in non-religious people who realize that the future of their children is at stake.

– Jim Coggins

November 2007