Even Intense Religiosity Is Declining in the United States: Comment
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Level 5 by design analogy for non-clinical scholarship (academic commentary and methodological critique of prior observational work).
OpenAlex W2900749205 · doi:10.15195/v5.a29
What was done
The authors evaluated the analytical methods and conclusions of a 2017 study by Schnabel and Bock regarding trends in intense religion in the United States. The critique assessed the sensitivity of previous analytical models to slow temporal changes, evaluated a broader set of religious indicators, and examined the role of cohort differences in secularization trends.
What was found
The abstract reports no numerical data or specific statistical metrics. The authors state that intense religiosity in the United States is shrinking rather than remaining persistent, attributing the contrary conclusions of Schnabel and Bock to insensitive analytical strategies, an overly narrow selection of indicators, and inadequate accounting for cohort effects.
Why it matters
This critique challenges the argument that the United States is an exception to secularization theories, arguing that decline extends to deeply committed religious groups rather than being confined to moderately religious populations.
Limits
The abstract contains no quantitative metrics, confidence intervals, sample sizes, or dataset names. Because this is a methodological comment, the findings depend on the underlying data sources and analytical assumptions used to counter the original publication.
Cited by
- contradicts Data show that attendance at church and other religious gatherings has been on an upswing in recent years.