age and religion

Question 1

DAVID VOAS and ALASDAIR CROCKETT - three reasons older people are more likely to attend religious services

Answer 1

1. the ageing effect:
   - people turn to religion as they get older
   - as we approach death, we naturally become more concerned about spiritual matters and the afterlife etc
2. secularisation:
   - as religion declines in importance, each generation becomes less religious than the one before it
3. the era effect:
   - people may be more religious because of the events they have lived through, such as war or rapid social change

Question 2

ELISABETH ARWECK AND JAMES BECKFORD - collapse of religious socialisation

Answer 2

• ARWECK AND BECKFORD blame the ageing church population on the ‘virtual collapse of religious socialisation’ after the 1960s
• for example, sunday schools have all but disappeared
• also, parents who share the same faith only have 50/50 chance of raising their child to be a churchgoer
• when they are of different faiths, the chances fall to one in four