However, it can be argued that affiliation is also an important factor when considering ways of expressing religious belief. Individual belief, such as praying at home, celebrating festivals and participating in ceremonies, and following certain religious codes such as the Ten Commandments, all represent the importance of one’s belief to them.
A total of 850 pupils attend the C of E School in which I am going to carry out my research, a vast majority of whom are Christians.
It could therefore be assumed that these pupils are practicing Christian’s i.e. regular church-goers or that they regularly attend a Holy Communion organised within the school as they are in fact attending a C of E School but I don’t think in reality this is actually the case. Although, criteria for acceptance into the school includes that pupils are regular church-goers and that they provide a reference from their religious leader.
As part of my background research I spoke to the teacher in charge of the holy communion service and whom is also the head of the RE department. Having spoken to her I discovered on average about 30 pupils attend Holy Communion, that is 3.5% of the total number of pupils, usually from years 7 to 10. Some are regulars in that they attend every time while others only occasionally or just the once. However, attendance does vary each time. All faiths are welcome and treated equally at the Holy Communion so although the vast majority are Christians, other faith pupils are not excluded from the service.
Grace Davie (1995) has described these situations of low attendance figures at religious services as ‘belief without belonging’. Although people believe in God and religion they don’t necessarily practice these beliefs by ‘belonging’ or attending church on a regular basis.
Religion is a private experience for many and consequently may not be reliably or scientifically measured.
This view is supported by Bellah’s (1976) study which suggests that religion has become privatised.
Religion has become restricted to private life due to the highly individualistic nature of today’s society and so more people are able to practice without having to attend church.
These views by Bellah and Davie can be used to explain why pupils attending a C of E school may not be religiously active. The pupils may believe in God, hence why they attend a C of E School but prefer to practice only at home in the space of their own privacy rather than together with their peers or perhaps they never practice at all.
A study carried out by the British Social Attitudes in 1992 showed that although church membership appears to be at a low, 69% of those surveyed believed in God.
This is another example of evidence which supports Davie’s idea of ‘belief without belonging’.
According to the 1998 British Social Attitudes survey 21% of those surveyed agreed to the statement ‘I know God exists and I have no doubt about it’, where as only 10% said they did not believe in God at all.
However, there is the possibility that a moral connotation is attached to such surveys as people may feel inclined to answer ‘yes’ whether they do believe in God or not.
In order to draw a conclusion on my aim and objectives and to explore Davie’s concept I will carry out informal interviews on three people whom I know have attended a Church of England school and have religious beliefs.
(Word count – 937)
Methodology
For my study I have decided to use semi-structured interviews to gather my data/evidence from which I will draw my conclusions. However, I will initially set out some questions to ask each interviewee but will allow them to openly express their views and thoughts without any restrictions and so the interview will be free-flowing.
I have decided to collect qualitative data, which will be high in validity. Data that is high in validity is authentic, accurate data which provides a statement of meanings people hold. There are various methods which create data high in validity; these include participant observation, personal documents and unstructured interviews, however, it is not possible to observe people’s belief and it would be very difficult to get access to personal documents.
From an interpretivist approach, the purpose of sociology is to discover the ways in which groups construct sets of meanings and the ways in which they understand their lives and environment. This means gathering data that offers these meanings and this has to be qualitative data in which research subjects explain their views in some depth.
The benefit of an unstructured as opposed to a formal approach to interviews is that it is focused on the search for the meanings social groups attach to events. By giving members of a group the opportunity to talk openly and freely, it is much more likely that their view will emerge than if they are given a list of pre-decided questions reflecting the researchers concerns. My research subjects will be able to explain their views when talking to me so that I fully understand them and their view point, unlike filling out a questionnaire, in which they may not be able to fully express their views.
By carrying out unstructured interviews, I will be able to gain an understanding of what ‘belief’ means to my research subjects and how then, if they do, express these beliefs through practice. Also, by doing an interview the chances of any misunderstandings are much lower than what they would be if the research subject was filling in a questionnaire as any question can be explained by the interviewer so that the respondent fully understands what is being asked and any response can be fully explained by the respondent so that the interviewer fully understands what is being said.
However, (from a positivist perspective) my data will be low in reliability as my chosen method is un-scientific and it is un-likely that the same results would be gathered from re-testing i.e. it is not replicable. The data may also vary considerably from each respondent which would then make it difficult to compare, but I am not looking to generalise, I am more concerned to get an insight into the meaning of people’s belief and practice.
Also, it is likely that there will be some interviewer bias which could influence responses. Respondents may lie or exaggerate the truth. It is possible that the respondents will claim to have a belief in God or that they practice their beliefs on a regular basis when in fact they may not do neither, because it is what they think I want to hear or because they think it is the more socially accepted response. To limit this I will try to reduce the formality of the interview as much as possible and try to make it more like a conversation between two people. I will also take a limited role within the conversation and so not lead it in a particular direction.
Ideally, to overcome the disadvantages associated with each method I would triangulate my research but this is not possible or practical within my time limit.
My sample will consist of three people, whom I will interview. My sampling technique will mainly be based on snowball sampling. I will initially interview someone that I know has a religious belief and attended a C of E school and then ask of them to refer me to someone in the same situation whom is wiling to talk to me. My sample could be described as a purposive sample as I am specifically looking for people who have some kind of religious belief and have attended a C of E school and so therefore it may be that it is unrepresentative. However, in order to discover what one’s belief means to them and to assess how they practice their belief one needs to have a belief. Therefore, for my study representativeness is not a key issue.
I have carried out a pilot study to test the questions I had prepared and to get some idea of the kind of responses I am likely to get. My pilot study helped to confirm the questions I will use in my actual study as I was unsure if all my questions would be properly understood and answerable.
My first two questions are straight forward and are simply to confirm that my interviewee has belief and the second to count how often they practice. The second question is designed to measure the importance of their belief to them according to traditional methods of measuring belief.
Initially I was unsure of my third question, which was to ask what their belief means to them because I thought it may be vague or difficult to understand. However, having done my pilot I gained confidence with this question as my respondent was able to answer it with a few hints such as how does your belief help you? And what does it provide for you?
This question allowed me to get direct responses for my first objective
My final question was to discover how my interviewees practice their beliefs. This question was answered with ease, although I provided a few examples such as home-prayer and following certain rules.
This question was designed to provide answers for my second objective.
(Word count – 973)
Evidence
I interviewed four people, all of which attended a Church of England school, to determine the extent to which they practice their religious beliefs. They were all females and between 17-19 years old. The age of my respondents was important because I am studying the extent to which teenagers ‘believe without belonging’. The gender of my respondent is also an important issue as this may affect the responses I get and therefore the validity of my results. The responses I obtained from each interviewee were similar in some ways to one another but were different in other ways. All respondents confirmed that they had a belief in god.
Interview 1
- Attends place of worship at least once a month
- Her belief in god guide’s her through life and helps her in times of need. Also knowing that there is a God gives her hope for a life after death
- Practices her beliefs by performing home prayer regularly- usually each morning. Also participates in all religious activities/ ceremonies
Interview 2
- Attends place of worship usually once a month, mainly on religious occasions and weddings
- Belief in God helps her to stay on the right path in life and provides guidance
- Practices her beliefs by trying to be a good person, abides by state law and behaves within them.
Interview 3
- Attends place of worship once in a few months
- Belief in God helps her in times of need, difficulty and stress. Provides comfort when she needs it and is reminded of her belief regularly when bad things happen.
- Practices her belief by simply believing in a God and also believes in reincarnation.
Interview 4
- Attends place of worship about 4/5 times a year
- Belief in God provides her with a way of life. Shapes her as a person and provides her with guidance as to how to live her life.
- Practices her belief by performing regular home-prayer, usually each day. Also follows the rules and guidelines of her faith.
I have highlighted the main points from each interview above. Having assessed my data I found that I have achieved my aim to a certain extent and have answered my objectives. There is a definite pattern in the attendance of places of worship as none of my respondents attended regularly; at the most it was about once a month. This confirms that although they have a belief in God they do not necessarily ‘belong’. These figures also coincide with the argument that low attendance figures do not necessarily mean people are less religious as discussed in the context. Although none of my respondents regularly attend a place of worship, 2 out 4 performed home-prayer on a regular basis, demonstrating their belief.
When asked what their belief means to them, the general response was that it provided them with support and guidance in life. One particular respondent said that their belief in God ‘shaped them as a person’ as it provided her with a way in which to live her life and contributed as a major factor to the things she does and doesn’t do. This also contributed to the ways in which she practiced her belief amongst other ways such as home prayer. This was particularly important to my study as it went against my aim which was to prove that people do not necessarily think it to be important to practice their beliefs as it is clear that this respondent does.
However, other respondents claimed to practice their beliefs by simply being ‘good’ people, such as abiding state law and working with society rather than against it. Also, although these respondents have a belief in God they do not strictly follow an established religion. This supports the idea that they ‘believe’ (as they have a belief in God) but they do not necessarily ‘belong’ to any particular religion. This may explain the general decline of established religion e.g. the disengagement of the church from the wider society. However, this can be disputed as figures show that Islam is the fastest growing religion in Britain.
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Evaluation
Aim
Despite having a belief in God to what extent do people practise these beliefs?
My objectives were:
1) To discover what their belief means to them as individuals
- To discover how they express their belief
Having carried out and analysed my research I realised that there is much evidence to support Davie’s theory of ‘believing without belonging’.
My research supports my initial aim as all my respondents had a ‘belief’ in God and were in a religious environment yet not all of them practiced their belief in God by performing home-prayer or regularly attending a place of worship or even by strictly following an established religion and so (according to Davie) do not belong.
From my data it is clear that having a belief provides support and hope for people and gives them some guidance in life. It is also clear that practicing belief does not necessarily mean having to attend church or any other place of worship or praying as it traditionally was, as some respondents said they practised their belief by being ‘good’ people.
My varying responses also show that religion has become privatised as everyone has a different view on what ‘belief’ is and how it should or can be practised and these views are personal to the individual.
Carrying out semi-structured interviews was the most appropriate method for the purpose of my study as it allowed me to gain an insight of my respondent’s beliefs. However, the small sample I studied does not give me an overview of the general though of teenagers. It was also difficult to get my respondents to open up to me completely and talk to me freely of their thoughts, possibly due to interviewer bias.
Further research could include carrying out more interviews and possibly asking more questions to get a greater insight, such as whether they believe strongly in any particular religion or just have a general belief in God.
Also, interviewing boys would allow for differences in gender and religious practice/belief to be investigated and identified as comparisons could be made between girls and boys.
Interviewing over a wider age group within the school e.g. from 13 to 16 year olds would enable differences between age groups to be identified and to see whether belief and practice alters with age or peer pressure.
(Word count – 386)
Bibliography
Books
- Sociology for A2 – Stephen Moore, Dave Aiken, Steve Chapman – Collins
- Religion in Britain since 1945 – Believing without Belonging – Grace Davie
- Themes and Perspectives - Haralambos and Holborn
Websites
