Sources of Influence and Influences of Agency 161
come instead from cultural orientations fostered in dominant educational institutions.
When secular education makes an attempt to drive out religious belief and sanction
religious commitment, it may have an influence on religious preferences and choices.
However, religious preferences and religious organizations can counter secularizing in-
fluences by leading individuals away from antireligious education and by developing
alternative educational institutions (Darnell and Sherkat 1997; Rose 1990; Sherkat and
Darnell 1999). The transposition of religious values into the educational field prevents
secular education from dominating religious understandings and choices.
The separation of preferences (religious understandings) from choices (religious
commitments) helps make sense of how education may influence religious factors.
First, educational attainment is generally going to indicate exposure to secular educa-
tion. Primary and secondary educational institutions are not generally hostile toward
religion; however, in higher education, and in particular educational disciplines, anti-
religious sentiment is common, and religious orthodoxy is viewed in a negative light.
This is evident in the religious preferences and choices of educators. Stark and Finke
(2000) summarize consistent research over several decades showing that among college
professors, hard scientists – physicists, mathematicians, biologists, engineers, and so
on – tend to express orthodox religious beliefs and they attend church and maintain
religious affiliations. This evidences the compatibility of reason and faith. Yet, college
professors from the humanities and social sciences are much more prone to atheism,
and lack commitment to religious organizations. Scientific inquiry and discovery are
unlikely to confront faith, much less displace it. In contrast, secular philosophies and
cultural movements that dominate the humanities are often based on open hostility
to religious faith, and seek to root it out.
Not surprisingly, systematic research has found that educational attainment re-
duces preferences for orthodox religion, promotes atheism, and is linked to religious
disaffiliation (Hunsberger 1985; Johnson 1997; Sherkat 1998; Roof and McKinney 1987;
Wilson and Sherkat 1994; Wuthnow and Mellinger 1978). Interestingly, Johnson (1997)
finds that the effect of education on religious beliefs is less negative for Catholics, and
Greeley and Hout (1999) show that education has a positive impact on beliefs in life af-
ter death among Catholics. Cornwall (1989) shows that education has a positive impact
on commitment and church attendance among Mormons. In each case, this suggests
how religious education counters negative influences of secular education on religious
preferences and choices. More generally, Stolzenberg et al. (1995) show that education
has a positive impact on the probability of church membership. This finding likely
reflects the fact that more educated respondents are more able to maintain affiliations
with a variety of voluntary organizations, including religious ones (Wilson and Musick
1997).
Indeed, the relationship between educational attainment and religious understand-
ings is not unidirectional. Religious groups with strong belief systems recognize the
corrosive power of secular education and seek to insulate their members from these
social forces. In the West, Catholics have successfully met the challenge of Protestant
hegemony by forming their own educational institutions. Indeed, in the United States,
Catholic education was developed in an overt effort to counter the influence of Protes-
tant dominated public education. As public education became more secular and more
openly antireligious, conservative Protestant sects began to form their own school sys-
tems, or to advocate home schooling (Rose 1990). Most of all, conservative Protestant