Religion in the atheistic worldview (according to the materials of a qualitative research)

Abstract

The author presents an analysis of an empirical research concerning religion in the worldview of atheists, representatives of today’s youth. She focuses on the results obtained from studying their values and conceptions, emotional attitudes towards religion displayed by atheists and their behavior in religious context. The findings of the research have shown that the values that characterize the representatives of the group under study are subjective and nominative; that their conceptions of religion are characterized by superficiality and lack of system; that their emotional attitude can be defined as self-distancing and equanimity. The behavior of many atheists is predetermined by some kind of religious experience in the past, from which they would like to distance themselves. Among today’s young people, there are those who identify themselves as atheists, but their attitude towards religion is spontaneous and fragmentary, based on an experience of superficial religious enculturation.

Keywords

• religion
• atheists
• values
• conceptions
• emotions
• behavior