Sociologist Reginal Bibby

BCCN: Did the findings surprise you, particularly on the questions where there was a wide gap?

Reginald Bibby: Yes. I initially expected the differences to be slight and perhaps inconsistent in the sense there would be no clear pattern. That was what was striking about the findings; they were consistent.

BCCN: The National Post story on your findings quoted atheist Justin Trottier saying the survey only demonstrates a verbal agreement with these values, but that the real question is the extent to which theists and atheists actually practice the values. Do you have any evidence on practice?

RB: Practice isn’t even the issue here. What we are looking at is aspirations re interpersonal life. The assumption I make is that for behaviour to take place, the aspirations or values have to be in place. Obviously, not everyone will come through. But holding the values seems to be an important and even indispensable condition for positive interpersonal behaviour.

BCCN: Trottier also said atheists would have ranked higher if you had asked about values such as critical thinking. Does this just prove your point that theists hold different values?

RB: I wasn’t probing that in the data release. We have data on a number of other values, including being rational.

BCCN: You told the National Post that even when non-believers highly value morality, it is often a lingering legacy from previous generations which held deeper religious views.

The farther one gets from ‘grandma,’ the less likely future generations will maintain those values. What will happen when grandma dies? Will future generations lose the lingering effect of  virtues?

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RB: We won’t know for a while. But obviously, there need to be some new sources of such values in place shortly in order for the influence to persist. [grandma’s] influence is dissipating, and the car is getting low on fuel.

The parents and grandparents who were active through the 1960s are getting old or are already gone.

BCCN: Is there any hope of reversing the trends? Is there any viable alternative to religious groups for the teaching of these values?

RB: Outside of religious groups, we are hard-pressed to know who is able and willing to step forward. So-called functional alternatives are extremely scarce.

BCCN: You are a sociological researcher, an academic. Does it concern you that Christians have claimed you as one of their own, as a sharer and promoter of their values?

RB: Not at all. Christian faith is very important to me. I do my work as a sociologist who aspires to have professional integrity. But faith is and always has been an important part of who I am.

BCCN: A letter to the editor in one of the newspapers evidently said that strong believers in religion also support war and intolerance of gays. How do those things square with the values believers say they hold?

RB: God believers obviously have varied attitudes on any number of special social and moral issues. Nonetheless, the inclination for them to value social compassion . . . is greater than that found among atheists. One has to remember that social compassion is clearly expressed in highly diverse ways.

BCCN: The survey lumps all religions together. Is this valid? Could there be minority religions that do not teach forgiveness, for instance?

RB: The analysis is simply reporting the total figures for theists and atheists, and reporting on the overall patterns.

Clearly there are subgroup variations. But that is a question for another day and another analysis.

November 2007