Restauración de los ecosistemas y sus componentes post incendio a través del tiempo

As Phil Zuckerman has noted, the national context is likely to influence the shape of one’s non-reli- giosity. By comparing the narratives of American and Scandinavian respondents he has found out

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marked differences about how the non-religious individuals experience their rejection religion, their opinions regarding religion, and their beliefs and articulations about the non-existence of God. In Zuckerman’s sample, the Swedish and Danish respondents did not have much to say about how they came to their present non-religiosity, whereas the American respondents often described the event as dramatic, involving personal struggle, and something evoking plenty of reflection. The Scandinavian respondents held fairly positive opinions towards religion, whereas the Americans were critical. And whereas the Scandinavians were more likely to be agnostic about the existence of God, the Americans did not hesitate to affirm explicit atheism. I will consider the respondents of 351 this study regarding these and some other themes.

The interviews gave an opportunity to the respondents to elaborate on the development of their worldview. Were they always non-religious, or would it be more appropriate to talk about a process, or perhaps a deconversion? I decided to investigate these questions in detail. I found three different types of narratives: The first type was what I call a stable narrative: either leaving a vague or nomi- nal religiosity behind, or never having been religious. A second type involved deconversion from a religious disposition that was affirmed in adolescence or adulthood. And a third type had moved towards some kind of spirituality or religiosity.

Vague or no Religious Background: The most typical journey to the present worldview was much

like that of Zuckerman’s Scandinavian respondents: Many respondents were brought up in an envi- ronment, where religion was not explicitly denied, yet not strongly affirmed either. One or both of the parents might have been members of the church, and the individual might have been baptised, participated in the confirmation, engaged in occasional prayer, yet quite naturally just left it behind. It was usually not a big deal, rather a natural development, where the respondents just did not find any good reason to perpetuate beliefs in religious doctrines such as the existence of God, religious practices such as praying, or church membership. The following narrative was found to be quite typical:

Eeva grew up in a home that she describes as ‘nominally Christian’: she participated in the religion classes at school, underwent confirmation, and used to sometimes play music at the parish. She re- members wanting to disaffiliate from church at the age of 16.

I do not remember the reason...I do not remember it was anything radical...My mother did not agree because of what the neighbours would say and then I just forgot about it.

Later on in her early twenties she was studying in another city. When she came to pay a visit, she noticed that the administrative office of the local parish was still open, and she thought:

Now I go and disaffiliate from church...It was done in five minutes. I felt like yes, that is it.

Zuckerman 2012a: 8-19

Whereas the whole thing has never been a major topic in her life, now that her children go to school, where some teachers publicly affirm Christianity, she feels a need to defend her stance:

I am in fighting spirits now. A large number of children in that school have a similar background...I have considered making an official complaint.352

Two observations can be made. First, the pattern of giving up religion: Religion has played some role mostly due to social reasons, and giving it up is rather undramatic. Jens, identifying himself as an atheist since the age of 11, said:

Because supernatural things were discussed at home, as a child I believed it. Then it gradually dawned on me that they do not hold.353

Or Pekka, who understood at the age of five that he had been cheated about Santa Claus, gave up his belief in God as well. 354

Second, whereas on the individual level being non-religious may not be such a big deal, when one encounters discrimination or lack of respect, it becomes natural to defend one’s worldview. The respondents above have not experienced religion as something evil. At one point they just re- alised it did not make sense to them. Some respondents, however, did discuss negative personal en- counters with religion. Jukka remembers his mother raised him by regularly flogging him, because

the Bible says: One who spares the rod hates his child...she used to love me - by flogging.355 Jani grew up in a conservative Christian family where the father was a priest. He remembers the upbringing as strict: On Sundays, church attendance was obligatory, and his mother was not al- lowed to knit. He also saw a lot of hypocrisy, particularly in his father:

[He]...acted as spiritual leader, yet had extramarital relationships. Then the same person gives marital guidance and declares forgiveness.356

It would be tempting to attribute the alienation from religion to experiences like these. That is, however, not what the respondents report. In none of the above mentioned three narratives did the respondents mention personally being particularly religious at any point of their life.

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Harri explicitly states never believing in God. Rather than finding out at one point that religion 357 does not make much sense, it never made any sense. Kirsi, for instance, cannot clearly remember if she ever held a belief in a higher power. The earliest memories stemmed from the age of 9 or 10 when religious topics were discussed at school. She remembers thinking that none of it makes any sense. Later she participated in confirmation,

...because I thought I would get presents. But two days after confirmation I convinced even my mother to disaffiliate from church.358

This is similar to Lasse, who remembers identifying as an atheist at the age of ten. He says it may be possible that he might have believed in God in very young age, but

...as far as I can remember, I have never believed in God. It is absent from my life.359 These examples present what I consider to be the major theme regarding one’s journey to the present worldview. Religion may have been part of the cultural and familial background. Some may have been mildly religious in their adolescence. Some were never religious. The consistent theme is that religion was never experienced as personally important. Against this pattern I would like to present two minor themes that diverge from the above. The first one is deconversion from active religiosity, and the second one is developing interest in spirituality.

Deconversion: According to Keller and associates, deconversion can imply losing a formerly mean-

ingful religious experience, embedment in one’s previous community, criticising or doubting one’s previously held beliefs and practices, and disaffiliation from a community. Heinz Streib lists six 360 different trajectories of deconversion. Three trajectories are about migration within the religious field, where the individual exits a previously held religious affiliation to get involved with a new religious organisation. Two additional trajectories involve privately held religious beliefs and/or practices without a new religious affiliation, after a previously held religious affiliation is rejected. None of these trajectories fit into the respondents of this study, who exemplify a sixth trajectory: the secularising exit, involving termination of previously held religious beliefs and practices, and ter- mination of membership in organised religion. 361

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Keller, Klein, Hood and Streib 2013:119

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Streib 2012: 272. Streib’s definition of the secularising exit could be modified for the present purposes, as one of the

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respondents had maintained the previously held religious affiliation due to social reasons, despite relinquishing the be- liefs and practices and adopting a visible role in a non-religious organisation. The more appropriate formulation would be “termination of previously held religious beliefs and practices, often with a concomitant termination of membership in organised religion.” However, this respondent does not otherwise fit into the pattern described here, since the reli- gious beliefs were abandoned in the early childhood. I have decided to include only those cases where deconversion was about beliefs, practices and affiliation held in adolescence or adulthood.

Whereas most respondents talked about their childhood beliefs as equivalent to believing in Santa Claus, and about engaging in religious activities such as prayer or confirmation mostly out of social obligations, around 10% reported being religious in adolescence or adulthood. 362

Veli found inspiration for giving up religion by watching Richard Dawkins on Youtube, something he no longer does. In his youth he underwent confirmation, and continued evening prayer up to adulthood. He says it provided a nice feeling, and that it took a while to give up the habit. Elias 363 participated in a religious group together with his mother. The group held millenial beliefs, deified their leader, and discouraged their members from being actively involved in the society. He de- scribes his disillusionment as a gradual process. He first started doubting the leader due to inconsis- tencies in the teachings, then read critical texts on the internet published by ex-members, and finally started to consider:

...what if instead of all this supernatural this fellow is just a dude. And then suddenly all pieces fell in their places... I understood how everything would work by [understanding] this fellow being just a dude.

After this, Elias started to reconsider his beliefs. The process of coming to the present worldview was not easy. Particularly coming to terms with the idea of his mortality was difficult. Nowadays, however, he considers himself an atheist. 364

Jouni grew up in a family where both parents were religious. He describes the change in his world- view as a result of asking questions, and not receiving satisfying religious explanations:

...if for instance new heavens and earths are created where all people act according to the will of God...how would it be practically possible. They would either have to be zombies utterly governed by God, in which case free will, which Christians consider essential, would disappear. Or before creating the new heaven and earth, molecular changes would have to take place, to take away the part of brain capable of doing evil. Even then there would be no free will. So this is one of the basic questions, what is the mechanism. If something works, there has to be a mechanism how it works.

Jouni has found inspiration in the works of popular atheist authors: Dawkins, Harris, Dennett and Hitchens. At one point he could no longer accept something just because “that is the way it is”, even less “because that is what it reads.” 365

Whereas these examples tell us about leaving a faith behind, and in that sense share particular re- semblance with Zuckerman’s American respondents’ stories, there is something about the narrated stories during the investigation that differ markedly: The deconversion took place at one point, but there was usually nothing dramatic about it. The respondents who had been religious before, in the

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threshold to adulthood and even later in life, had some critical things to say about religion. Why would they otherwise have given it up? But overall the narratives did not indicate any marked nega- tivity. The respondents often considered religion analytically, finding some aspects of religion nice or useful, and others problematic. Leaving it behind did not seem to involve dramatic experiences in the way Zuckerman describes his American respondents who also tended to be critical in their comments about religion.

It is one thing not to criticise something that one is alienated from, but it is quite another to move towards something that would, at least in the religious studies sense, be considered a kind of reli- gion; and I will, thus, turn towards this now. So far we have seen examples about always being without or moving away from religion, yet some respondents seem to have moved towards a world- view that could be described as spiritual, or even religious, although not of an Abrahamic kind.

Moving towards Spirituality: For many, and often exemplified by Christianity, the polarity between

religion and non-religion is clear. Without specifying different religious traditions, it seems evident that the national situation has largely defined what religion as an object of differentiation means. Others, however, made distinctions: six respondents considered Buddhism acceptable while reject- ing Christianity, and some respondents went even further. While for two respondents Buddhist teachings made a lot of sense, there were two other respondents that even characterised their present worldview as some kind of Buddhism. Simo, a middle-aged physiotherapist, expressed that he 366 had a fearful relationship with Christianity due to being intimidated with ideas of sin and hell. He says Buddhist texts helped maintain his sanity. Kari, a freethinker, has moved several times from 367 one religious group to another. Now he is a member of a small non-Christian religious

organisation. Lahja, a mother in her early thirties, says she grew up in a non-religious at368 _-

mosphere. She informed that she was aware of the existence of religion, but could never understand it. At the age of 18 she became interested in New Age, and started reading books related to this. Now she practices yoga. She thinks it is possible to have a personal relationship with God, since “everyone is in a way god.” 369

Even though some respondents find inspiration in Buddhism and alternative spirituality, and a few actually identify themselves as religious - although not Christian - religious identification remains an exception: most of the respondents are prepared to respect the religious faith of others, and some are able to live in a relationship with a believer, yet it usually makes little sense to them personal370 _-

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The topic came up occasionally. The range of different options, aside from those who share their non-religious

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worldview with their spouse, is from not knowing about the beliefs of the spouse (FP1002) through being married to a church-member (JK1006, no information about the beliefs of the spouse) to dating a Christian (JK1059)

ly. At the same time, these individuals are unusually committed to being different from religion. It is not that they are indifferent to religion.

It is due to this commitment that I would like to explore a topic that repeatedly comes up in research on non-religion: when people answer surveys about their beliefs and identities, in many places in- cluding Finland, there are fewer self-identified atheists than those who say they do not believe in God. I would now want to explore what kinds of tags the respondents of this study use for self-iden- tification, and how they understand these identity tags.