Does religion bring more conflict than peace? A survey of Americans’ attitudes toward religion and conflict

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine Americans’ attitudes towards their disagreement with the statement that religion is more likely to reinforce conflict, especially violent conflict, than to promote peace before the September 11. Many studies showed that after 9/11 the opinion of the American people has radically changed about the potential for religion to be misused by some people for their own purposes. In this sense, we need to know Americans’ attitudes towards religion and conflict before 9/11. This is a new study clarifies the Americans’ attitudes about the issue before the 9/11 by utilizing General Social Survey (GSS) 1998 data. This article hypothesized that race, class, gender, age, marital status, political party affiliation, regional diversity, and religion make a difference in Americans’ attitudes regarding this issue. Logistic regression is used to test the hypotheses. This research shows that slightly more than half of American respondents (56%) disagree that religion brings more conflict than peace. This indicates that there is a tendency among Americans to believe that the overall effects of religion support the ideal of peace.