Check out the results (or see some detailed data) of a national survey of 3,680 students by UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute [which] found that religious commitment runs strongest among fine arts, education and humanities majors and lowest among biology, history and sociology majors.
I found one excerpt fascinating: In addition, Astin found that arts and humanities majors were twice as likely to exhibit signs of “spiritual distress” questioning beliefs, struggling to understand evil, wrestling with religious upbringing as business or computer science students.
Still, Astin said it is premature to label all scientists or computer whizzes as spiritually hollow. Most of these academic disciplines simply don’t prompt or promote spiritual reflection, he said.
Implicit in there is the notion that students who don’t exhibit signs of “spiritual distress” can be supposed to be “spiritually hollow”. Interesting. I wonder how much of that is Astin’s real perspectve and how much of that is the byproduct of the interviewer’s line of questioning.
Also of note: Students who party frequently are more likely to stop attending religious services, and “spiritually committed” students generally earn higher grades.
Students who score high on measures of spiritual commitment generally are healthier, happier and more involved in community service.
Thanks to World Magazine blog for unearthing this link!
Very interesting to see that. I assumed Biology would be low with religious followers, but I wonder about other majors or more specific ones. do you have any other more specifc ones you could list off? Like engineering, business, etc.