Reaching for a new sense of connection: soft atheism and ‘patch and make do’ spirituality amongst nonreligious European millennials

Abstract

This article draws on interviews with 67 nonreligious millennials across 25 European towns and cities, part of a research programme (Understanding Unbelief 1 ) which aims to map the global diversity of nonreligion. We contribute by examining the presence of paranormal, superstitious, magical, and supernatural (PSMS) beliefs and a sense of immanent moral structure to the world amongst a substantial minority (34%) of our interviewees. Beliefs relating to luck, fate and a sense of cosmic interconnection are widely distributed and often use a shared New Age-influenced vocabulary. Others vary by national context, for example relating to folklore in Romania and superstition in Poland. The prevalence is higher in Eastern than in Western Europe, and we discuss possible reasons for this. Many interviewees express discomfort or tension around a sense of inconsistency in holding these beliefs alongside a rationalist-materialist cognitive framework. We investigate how they articulate this tension, and consider explanations for the persistence of these beliefs, particularly in terms of their ongoing social and psychological role in the lives of many young nonreligious Europeans.

In Search of Authenticity: Humanist Weddings in the Polish Context

“…However, the fact that they were non-religious does not simply mean that they were atheists and that they filled their ceremony with explicit atheistic elements (see Rejowska 2021). Being non-religious can mean a whole spectrum of attitudes, from atheism and humanism to religious indifference, but it can also embrace some magical, spiritual, or superstitious beliefs (see Herbert and Bullock 2020). Importantly, what was common for all my research participants was the rejection of bureaucratic forms and institutions (not only religious but also civil).…”

Supernatural belief in ‘scientific’ worldviews? Investigating science-oriented Finns’ explanations for origins, death and suffering

“…In the regions of WEIRD cultures, several studies have also reported traditionally religious, paranormal or spiritual beliefs among (mainly minorities of) non-religious individuals, atheists and agnostics (Banerjee & Bloom, 2014;Bullivant et al, 2019;Lindeman et al, 2019;Visuri et al, 2022;cf. also Pew Research Center, 2012;van Mulukom et al, 2022;Herbert & Bullock, 2020). In addition to the traditionally religious and spiritual beliefs, however, we would expect that in more secular contexts, some people hold beliefs that resemble the religious and spiritual (supernatural) views but do not apply religious terminology (cf.…”

“…explaining the suffering of earthquake victims as both the result of inadequate infrastructure and as nature's way of 'eliminating the weakest individuals'(Haimila, 2016, p. 19), without specifying how these explanations interact.4 It should be noted that in prior work, the term 'supernatural belief' often overlaps with concepts such as belief in 'paranormal', 'extraordinary'(Drinkwater et al, 2020), 'magical', or even so-called 'superstitious' belief(Randall & Desrosiers, 1980;Stone et al, 2018). In psychology of religion, these are at times referred to as PSMS beliefs (paranormal, superstitious, magical and supernatural beliefs; seeLindeman & Aarnio, 2007;Lindeman & Svedholm, 2012; see alsoHerbert & Bullock, 2020). Some apply the concept of 'supernatural' belief as an umbrella term for PSMS beliefs(Schofield et al, 2018).…”

We have always been transreligious: An introduction to transreligiosity

“…It is a much more indeterminate zone, which can in potential equally transform into a religious or a nonreligious stance or be shared among them simultaneously, and not necessarily fervent in its manifestations, but not for that matter less socially significant. A nonreligious, even antireligious stance, for example, does not preclude metaphysical explorations, no matter how softly or ad hoc they might manifest themselves, precisely because what is conceived as religious, and ignored or opposed, is mainly adherence to an institutionalized version of it (see Herbert and Bullock, 2020). 'Indifference' is not necessarily a passive stance, neither an aggressive one, but active in partially ignoring and partially transgressing pure borders of what religion is and what is not, and of what is interreligiously separated.…”