Lesson video

Hello there, my young scholars of religion.

My name is Ms. Marx and I'm going to be your religious education teacher today.

Today we're going to be exploring the work of Professor Linda Woodhead and the Understanding Unbelief Project to explore a category of people within the census of England or Wales who are classed as the "nones." These are people who said they had no religious belief while they weren't affiliated with any religion.

We're going to explore them in understanding what it might mean to be an agnostic.

And this is someone who says, "We cannot know if there's a God or not," or perhaps they haven't decided yet.

And so we're going to use the tools of social science quite a lot in this lesson as we interrogate this data together, and look at the work of Linda Woodhead and the Understanding Unbelief Project.

So when you're ready, let's go.

So by the end of this lesson, you'll be able to explain why some of the "nones" may be agnostics and use survey data to better understand this.

So let's start with our key terms. Agnosticism, the belief that it's unknown or unknowable whether any deities exist.

Nones, individuals who identify as no religion.

A term explored in-depth by Linda Woodhead.

The Understanding Unbelief Project, a global study used to assess agnosticism and related beliefs through using survey data.

So look out for those in today's lesson.

So our lesson today will have two sections, agnosticism and what do agnostics believe.

So let's start with our first section, agnosticism.

The census of England and Wales has a voluntary question which asks, "What is your religion?" And here's the results from the most recent one in 2021.

The results of 2021 show that 37.

2% of the population self-report as no religion.

So we can see that as the kind of second largest group after Christian here, no religion, 37.

2%.

And Linda Woodhead refers to this group as the "nones." Professor Linda Woodhead is the head of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at King's College London.

And she's an academic who studied the "nones" in great detail.

She studies the place of religion in modern British society and refers to the "nones" as the "new normal" for the UK.

And alongside the census and Social Attitude Survey, she's completed her own research into the "nones." Now, one thing that's interesting from the census data from England and Wales, is that some people who wanted to record that their agnostic, atheist, or humanist.

had to choose "other religion" and write it in.

So for social scientists, they're very interested in how that phrasing has happened in the census questioning.

But even so, 32,000 people chose to tick "other religion" and wrote agnostic, 14,000 people chose to tick "other religion" and wrote atheist, and 10,000 people chose to tick "other religion" and wrote humanist, although we wouldn't necessarily call these three worldviews religious worldviews, they'd be non-religious.

What could be an issue with expecting agnostics, atheists, or humanists to select other religion on the census? Pause the video and have a think, and you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, we wouldn't call these three worldviews religious worldviews, because they don't have a belief in God, which might be something that you would say would make something a religious worldview.

So it's of great interest that people still chose to tick "other religion" to write this in.

But it does mean we don't necessarily have a really clear picture of everyone who is agnostic, atheist, or humanist within the country.

So Linda Woodhead surveyed the "nones" to sort of try and understand a bit more what their position was on the existence of God.

And when she surveyed the "nones" in her research in 2014, she asked them to sort of put themselves on a scale from "Yes, there's definitely a God or a higher power," down to "No, there's definitely not," and then also allow people to say they just didn't know.

And we've got here 18.

5% of people who said they didn't know.

We've got a range of the other belief positions here, but that's quite a large minority.

There are people who said they didn't know.

So we've got that large minority of almost 20% here, saying that they didn't know.

They definitely didn't know whether there was a God or not.

It could be that they'd say it's impossible to know or they just hadn't decided that they didn't know.

But because this is a scale rather than sort of two extremes, we've also got this other group of around 34% of people saying there probably was a God or there probably wasn't a God.

So they're not firmly in belief either way.

So we could potentially say that around a fifth of the people surveyed, were agnostic, or almost a fifth, by saying they didn't know if there was a God or not.

But then a further 34% show the uncertainty around the existence of God or a higher power.

So the "nones" aren't necessarily a group that say there's definitely no God.

We've got a range of beliefs here.

Some saying they just don't know, and some saying there probably is or probably isn't, but it's not super definite there, is it? Let's do a quick check before we move on.

All the people who self-reported they have no religion said they were agnostics.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a go, we'll see you done in a moment.

Well done.

It's false, isn't it? There's a range of views on the existence of God within the "nones," particularly in Linda Woodhead's research.

Well done.

So we've used this term agnosticism quite a bit.

Let's unpack it a bit more to really understand what it means.

And it comes from Greek, And we've got in the middle here a purple section "gnostic." We're gonna understand this a little bit more.

Gnostic comes from the word gnosis, which is a Greek word meaning knowledge.

So if you've ever wondered why there's that silent K at the start of knowledge, which is how I remember how to spell it, then it's because it's a kinda hangover from gnosis, which is where this word agnosticism comes from.

So if gnosticism or gnosis means knowledge, when we put the A at the beginning of many words that come from Greek, it flips it to the opposite, it's called a negative A.

Or it's the prefix A, makes it to be a lack of it or the opposite of it.

You might know the word theist, someone who believes in God, and an atheist believes there's no God because of that negative A.

Or if something's atypical, it's not very typical.

If someone's amoral, they're not very moral.

So we've got agnosticism.

So it's a lack of or the opposite to knowledge.

So agnosticism usually refers to the belief we cannot know if there's a God or a higher power, it's not possible to know.

Or when someone is not sure whether there is a God or a higher power or not.

Now there can be many reasons why someone is an agnostic.

They might believe it's unknowable.

They might say "We cannot know." Some people might say, "Well, no, when we die, that's when I'll know for sure.

I cannot know now.

There's no way in this known universe for me to definitely know either way whether there's a God or not." Others might say, "Well, okay, there's evidence for both sides that there could be a God or a higher power, and there is not a God or a higher power and it's kind of equaled out and I can't decide between the two of them." Some might say, "I've just got an open mind about this.

I'm not gonna make my mind up either way because I want to be open to all different types of worldviews, religious or not." Some people just can't decide.

They simply cannot decide whether there is a God or not or a higher power.

Some might choose to be agnostic as a rejection of organised religion.

Maybe for them it's a way to not be part of a religion or religious beliefs, and so they're taking a position of agnosticism.

But maybe they don't feel they affiliate with atheism as a worldview.

Some may say they just haven't got that personal connection to a God or a higher power.

They haven't felt something so they're just not sure if that God or higher power is there.

So let's see from a few agnostics how they self-reported in the census.

So Alex is asking Zahra, "How did you self-report in the census, Zahra, and why?" And Zahra says, "I'm not sure if there's a God or not, so I ticked 'no religion' on the census in 2021.

I don't follow any religions or have any religious beliefs so that's seemed the best option for me.

To be honest, I don't really think about the existence of God very much as I like to focus more on my friends and family and the world around us." Why might Zahra not identify as an agnostic then? Pause the video and have a think, and you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Perhaps for Zahra, she just doesn't really think about it much.

She doesn't feel she has to have a position on the existence of God, so she wouldn't necessarily label herself as agnostic if that's something where someone has kind of considered and thought about this in great deal.

So Izzy's asking Mark now, "How did you self-report in the census, Mark, and why?" And Mark says, "My husband, Simon, is a Christian and so we talk a lot about religion in our house.

But after thinking carefully about the existence of God, I decided it was impossible to know if there's a God or not.

So agnostics seems the best label for me.

I ticked 'other religion' and wrote agnostics into the census because of this." Thank you, Mark.

Why did Mark choose "other religion" on the census? Pause the video and have a think, and you could talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, he chose "other religions" so that he could write in agnostic, and perhaps he feels more confident giving himself the label agnostic because he's talked and thought a lot about religion with his husband, Simon, who's a Christian.

Thank you, Mark.

So now Alex is asking Joe, "How did you self-report on the census, Joe, and why?" And Joe says, "I'm not religious but I do think of myself as a spiritual person.

I ticked 'no religion' on the census as I don't identify with any religious organisation.

There are ideas and practises which I take from religions though, I practise yoga each day and I believe there are some forces for good looking out for us in the world, but I wouldn't call that God." Why might some religious ideas appeal to Joe as an agnostic then? Pause the video and have a go, we'll see what you've come up with in a moment.

Well, maybe Joe likes the sense of picking and choosing the things that work for her without having to follow a particular religious organisation or follow particular religious teachings.

Let's do a practise task to see what we've learned.

You're going to explain why both Izzy and Alex's statements can both be true.

And Izzy says, "Agnostics believe there is no way of knowing if God exists or not." And Alex says, "Agnostics are not sure if they believe in God or not." Pause the video and have a go, and we'll see what you've come up with in a moment.

Well done.

So good thinking there.

I asked you to explain why both Izzy and Alex statements could be true.

And their statements were, Izzy says, "Agnostics believe there's no way of knowing if God exists or not." And Alex says, "Agnostics are not sure if they believe in God or not." And you could have said, "Izzy and Alex are both right because agnostic means without a belief.

This could mean that someone believes we will not know on this earth if there's a God or not, but it could mean they're just not sure and perhaps they haven't thought much about it." Well done.

So on to our second section then.

What do agnostics believe? Social scientists are academics and people who may investigate religions and religious people.

And social scientists will use evidence to back up their claims about religion.

Whether or not you've got religious worldview, you can use social science as a tool to understand religion and worldviews through looking at how people live and behave.

In this lesson, we'll continue to use social science to look at agnosticism in the UK and beyond.

What tools could social scientists use to find this out? Pause the video and have a think, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, an important tool is going to be using surveys and self-reporting.

And we're going to look at an example of this with the Understanding Unbelief Project.

The Understanding Unbelief Project has studied agnosticism around the world in more depth through using surveys in the UK, USA, Denmark, Brazil, Japan, and China.

So they've chosen to focus on these particular societies to survey different forms of unbelief, one of them being agnosticism.

And rather than asking people to self-identify as agnostics, they measured the agnosticism to see if they agreed with a certain statement.

So as we saw already in the lesson, some people might have ticked that they were not religion and not necessarily say that they're agnostic, but they may be agnostic in their position as to whether there's a God or not.

So this statement was given as part of the survey and people ticked if they agreed with it or whether they chose the statement that matched their belief the most.

And this is the statement which measured their agnosticism.

"I don't know whether there is a God, and I don't believe there's any way to find out." So rather than asking people to say "I'm an agnostic," this Understanding Unbelief Project got people to say which statement they agreed with, and if they agreed with this statement, they were sort of marked down as agnostic.

Why do you think they did this in the Understanding Unbelief Project? Why do you think you get a different response from asking people if they're agnostic to actually asking them if they agreed with this statement or not.

Pause the video and have a think, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, the Project found the majority of people who agreed with the statement didn't actually identify as agnostic but used other labels.

So maybe this term agnostic is helpful for us to think about people who aren't sure if there's a God or not, but those people don't necessarily use the label for themselves.

They might use other labels.

So in Japan, only 2% of the people who agreed with that statement actually said that they were agnostic.

In Brazil, 27%, in the USA, 26, in the UK, 13, Denmark, 9, and China, 3.

So there's a range a bit but they're all fit underneath 30% there.

So the majority of people used other labels.

They didn't necessarily classify themselves as agnostic.

Even though they agreed with the statement that they were unsure about whether God exists and there's no way to know this, they didn't necessarily identify as an agnostic.

Let's do a quick check before we move on.

In the Understanding Unbelief Project, which term was used for this belief position? "I don't know whether there's a God, and I don't believe there's any way to find out." Pause the video and have a go, we'll see what you've come up within a moment.

Well done.

It's agnosticism or agnostic.

So the Understanding Unbelief Project was very interested in this group of people who agreed with that statement, so we would say they had an agnostic sort of faith position or belief position.

But we've seen here that many of them didn't use that label for themselves.

So they're very interested in this group of people and they had several findings about them.

One, the agnostics that they had as part of their survey shared common values with religious and non-religious people.

So whilst there might be different faith positions, there were very common values that were held.

Secondly, many agnostics actually identified with a religion.

So many of the agnostics surveyed identified with a religion even if they weren't sure about the existence of God.

And finally, not all of the agnostics were particularly secular in rejecting all supernatural beliefs even though they weren't sure about the existence of God or not.

So let's have a look at the data in a bit more detail.

Some agnostics identified as being religious.

Now this is obviously just a snapshot of countries, but it's very interesting to see that within those different countries, some agnostics identified as being religious even though they weren't sure about the existence of God or not.

Particularly, we've got Denmark here, 17% of them did.

But in Brazil 4%, China 3, Denmark 17, in Japan and the UK 9, and in the USA 8%.

And some of the religions included the people identified with were Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, and Jewish.

So even though they identified as being in those religions, they weren't sure about the existence of God or not.

So this is of great interest to social scientists.

When we think about how do we define what it means to be religious, or what it means to be part of religion, is it to do with those foundational beliefs and key beliefs that are there, or is it more to do with the practises or more to do with the sense of how someone feels in their identity? Let's have a look at a few case studies.

Alex is asking Sherri, "How do you identify, Sherri, and do you believe in God or a higher power?" And Sherri says, "I'm a secular Jew and Jewish cultural traditions are important to me even though I'm not sure if God exists or not.

I have many questions about God's existence, which has not yet been answered.

My Jewish identity is important to me, so identify as secular, agnostic, and a Jew." Thank you, Sherri.

Secondly, the Understanding Unbelief Project asked if those surveyed rejected certain supernatural beliefs which are listed below.

If they rejected these, they were classified as naturalists.

So naturalism is to do with the world and, you know, the earth and what we have around us, what we can see and what we can measure.

And supernatural is kind of above and beyond that or outside of that, so beyond the kind of natural world, so supernatural powers or beings.

A belief in God would be a supernatural being.

So these are different supernatural beliefs that people were asked if they rejected them or if they accepted them.

And so those beliefs that were asked about in this survey were, is there life after death, reincarnation, mystical powers, supernatural beings, karma, astrology, a universal life force, and other forces of good and evil.

So these are all things we would class as supernatural, so sort of beyond or outside of the natural world.

What do you think the results were for the number of atheists and agnostics who rejected these beliefs then? Do you think it would be similar or do you think there might be a difference? Pause the video and have a think, and you can talk to the person next to you or talk to me.

Well, the Understanding Unbelief Project for the countries that were surveyed found that 25% of the atheists rejected these eight beliefs, these eight supernatural beliefs, but only 8% of the agnostics.

So still for both groups, it's a minority, it's not the majority are rejecting all of these beliefs.

But we can see there's a significant difference between the atheist and the agnostics.

So, not necessarily do agnostics reject these different supernatural beliefs, they might hold some of these supernatural beliefs and wouldn't necessarily be classed as naturalists.

Let's look at another case study.

Izzy's asking Toby, "Do you reject all supernatural beliefs, Toby?" And Toby says, "I'm not sure what kind of supernatural power there is in the universe, but I believe there's something.

Maybe we're not meant to know.

I tried to send as much positive energy out into the universe and those around me, and believe this will help good things happen to me and others.

We can't say for sure that this is all there is." So here we've still got that sense that Toby's not sure either way, but he's kind of open to something being there and he believes there is some kind of powers, but he's not necessarily naming what it is or believing in its existence completely.

And finally, the Understanding Unbelief Project also ask people what made life meaningful.

What did they value? What did they think was important? And this way, the values between people who believed in God and those who did not or were unsure, could be compared.

How they answered differently about these values? And across all the countries surveyed, the values below ranked as most important for agnostics, and this is really similar for those who believed in God too.

So freedom, family, compassion, nature, science, friendship, inequality, were all very important values for the agnostics across those countries, and this is very similar for those who had a belief in God too.

So we can see that perhaps some of the values are similar, even if the faith position is different.

So for example, Farah, Alex is asking Farah, "Do you share values with religious people, Farah? And Farah says, "I was raised as a Muslim.

My family is still practising Muslims. I'm not sure what I believe about God or Allah now, but my family is very important to me.

I share the same values with them around compassion, equality, and friendship as I was taught as a child.

There are many values which we still share together." Let's do a quick check before we move on.

Which two statements are accurate about the Understanding Unbelief Projects findings about agnosticism? A, agnostics share many of the same values as religious people, B, all agnostics reject any supernatural beliefs, C, some agnostics self-identify as religious, and D, all agnostics were raised as agnostics by their family.

Which two of those are accurate? Pause the video and have a go, we'll see what you've come up with in a moment.

Well done.

A and C were accurate.

Agnostics share many of the same values as religious people and some agnostics self-identify as religious.

Well done.

So let's do another practise task to see what we've learned.

Izzy has made a statement about agnostics.

"Agnostics have nothing in common with religious people because they're not sure if God exists." Find three pieces of evidence from the Understanding Unbelief Project and the case studies to show that she has misunderstood.

So her statement again, "Agnostics have nothing in common with religious people because they're not sure if God exists." Pause the video and have a go, we'll see what you've come up with in a moment.

Well done.

So great thinking there.

Your response might look like this.

Izzy's statement was, "Agnostics have nothing in common with religious people because they're not sure if God exists." And your answer may include, "Three pieces of evidence from the Understanding Unbelief Project and case studies show that Izzy has misunderstood, and they are, One, the Understanding Unbelief Project showed that many people who are agnostic about God's existence, identified as religious.

Two, the Understanding unbelief Project showed that many agnostic people believed in some supernatural things, e.

g.

life after death.

And three, the Understanding Unbelief Projects show that agnostics shared many of the same values as religious people, e.

g.

the importance of family and friends." Well done.

So let's summarise everything we've learned then.

Linda Woodhead's exploration of the "nones" agnosticism.

Agnostics are people who aren't sure if there's a God or believe it's impossible to know.

Many people who say they have no religion, still have different beliefs.

They might be agnostic, atheist, spiritual, or even identify with a religion in some way.

The Understanding Unbelief Project found that people don't always label themselves as agnostic, even if their beliefs match the definition.

And agnostics often share similar values with religious people like kindness, fairness, and the importance of family.

So well done for your hard work today my young scholars of religion, and I hope to see you soon.

Buh-bye.