İNANÇSIZLIK NEDİR? İNANÇSIZLIK KAVRAMI ÜZERİNE EMPRİK BİR ARAŞTIRMA

Year 2017, Issue: 4, 23 - 40, 04.12.2017

Kenan Sevinç , Tuğba Metinyurt Thomas J. Coleman

Abstract

İnançsızlık,
son zamanlarda din psikolojisi alanında ilgi çekmeye başlayan bir konudur. Bu
konuda yapılan araştırmaların sayısı artmaktadır. Fakat inançsızlık konusunda
yapılan araştırmalara bakıldığında, inançsızlığın ne olduğu ve kimin inançsız
olarak kabul edileceği hususunda bir muğlaklık olduğu görülmektedir.
İnançsızlar dinsiz midir yoksa maneviyatsız mı? Ateist olmak inançsız olmak
anlamına gelir mi? Bu çalışmada inançsızlık kavramı emprik olarak ele
alınmaktadır. Bu araştırma, 2014 yılında ABD’de, kendisini en az bir
inançsızlık biçimiyle tanımlayan 2548 kişinin katılımıyla gerçekleştirilmiştir.
Bulgular, inançsızların çoğunluğunun “Tanrı’ya inanmıyorum” dediğini
göstermiştir. İnançsızların %85,6’sı Tanrı’ya inanmamakta, fakat %12,3’ü
“Tanrı’ya inanmıyorum” demek yerine Tanrı’nın varlığının bilinemeyeceğini
düşünmektedir. İnançsızların %88,07’lik kesimi kendisini ateist olarak
tanımlamıştır. “Bir Tanrı’nın olup olmadığını bilmiyorum ve bunun bir yolu
olduğuna inanmıyorum” diyenlerin yalnızca %60,8’i kendisini agnostik olarak
tanımlarken, bu kişilerin %60,2’si kendisini aynı zamanda ateist olarak
isimlendirmiştir. Katılımcıların %87,8’i ne dindar ne spiritüeldir. Fakat
inançsızların %2,07’si dikey aşkınlık anlamında spiritüeldir. Bu çalışma, bir
kişinin inançsız olarak tanımlanabilmesi için üç temel gösterge olduğu sonucuna
ulaşmıştır: Tanrı’ya inancın olmaması, ne dindar ne de dikey aşkınlık anlamında
spiritüel olma ve kendini inançsız, ateist, agnostik veya benzer bir biçimle
tanımlama.

Keywords

İnançsızlık, ateizm, agnostisizm, dinsiz, maneviyatsız

WHAT IS NONBELIEF? AN EMPIRICAL RESEARCH ON THE CONCEPT OF NONBELIEF

Abstract

Nonbelief
is a topic recently began to attract interest in the field of psychology of
religion. The number of studies on this issue have started to rise. However,
when we look at researches on nonbelief, it seems to have ambiguity on what is
nonbelief, and who is considered as nonbelievers. Are nonbelievers nonreligious
or nonspiritual? Does being an atheist mean to be a nonbeliever? In this study,
we aim to empirically examine the concept of nonbelief. The current study was
carried out with 2548 participants who -identify themselves with at least one
type of nonbelief in the United States in 2014. The findings indicate that the
majority of nonbelievers are estimated to say "I do not believe in
God", namely 85.6% of the nonbelievers do not believe in God and 12.3%
think the existence of God cannot be known; 88.07% identified themselves as
atheists; 60.8% of nonbelievers who say “I don’t know whether there is a God
and I don’t believe there is any way to find out” self-labeled themselves as
agnostic, while 60.2% of them self-labeled themselves as atheist at the same
time; 87.8% of them are nonreligious-nonspiritual; 2.07% of them are spiritual
in terms of vertical transcendence. The current study concludes that there are
three main indicators to consider in order to identify an individual as a
nonbeliever: absence of belief in God, being nonreligious-nonspiritual in the
sense of vertical transcendence, and self-declaration as nonbeliever, atheist,
and agnostic or else.

Keywords

Nonbelief, atheism, agnosticism, nonreligious, nonspiritual

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