Welcome back! This week, we’re finally going to be analysing the survey results to discover if there is indeed a link between one’s religion and their stance on the environment.
Firstly, I would like to say a big THANK YOU to those of you who participated in my survey! 🙂
I received a total of 131 responses (which blew my mind!), of which there were 18 Buddhists, 52 Christians, 3 Hindus, 9 Muslims, 9 Roman Catholics, 1 Sikh, 1 Taoist and 38 who do not subscribe to a religion.
Unfortunately, I was unable to gather a representative number of replies from Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists, despite attempts to seek out old friends and contacting the various NUS religious societies for help. Therefore, the survey results for religious respondents are skewed towards Christian responses. Most, if not all of the responses are from young adults aged 19-30 years old, explaining the higher proportion of people with no religion (29%) compared to the national census (18.5%). Additionally, as I am focusing on the four main religions in Singapore, I will only be comparing the results across those religions, but will perhaps look at the other religions’ answers individually.
Nevertheless, there are some interesting trends for us to look at!
Looking at the individual questions, I found that of the four main religions in Singapore, the most common answer from respondents across all religions for the extent to which the environment is discussed in their religion was at least a 7 out of 10 – which I would consider pretty promising! It is comforting to know that there is some discussion about the environment in religious spheres.
Now for the main question:
Did respondents feel that their religion affected their environmental stance?
From the results, 76 out of 93 people thought that their religion did have an effect on their environmental stance, but the effect is largely moderate, with nearly half of those responses indicating less than 7 on the scale of 10. Generally, those that indicated that they practice their religion to a greater extent (>6) are also more likely to indicate higher responses for environmental awareness, importance and personal meaning of the environment to self, and environmental-friendliness of lifestyle.
Contrastingly, for those who don’t subscribe to a religion, it was interesting that 81.6% responded that it had no bearing on their environmental stance. Of course, this is expected, as many other reasons influence one’s stance on the environment. However, of the remaining 18.4%, it is interesting to note that while most indicated that not having to subscribe to a religion’s view on the environment has led them to take a stronger stance, one respondent noted that perhaps not subscribing to a religion led them to be less driven to save it.
Nonetheless, while respondents that have a religion are more environmentally aware than those who do not, there was no significant difference between those who subscribe or not to a religion in the area of leading an environmentally-friendly lifestyle. Thus while we can conclude that there is some positive association between religiosity and environmental awareness, sadly it has not yet translated to greater action. 🙁
Wow, that was a long post, and I’m not even done! Hopefully, I will be able to work more interesting findings into future posts about the individual religions.
Have a good recess week!
-Dennis
(Cover photo: Aleksandar Pasaric from Pexels)
Hey Dennis!
This is an interesting post – that your survey showed that religious people (or young adults, given your sample population) are more environmentally aware is really surprising! Perhaps these people are more driven by their religious teachings to read up on environmental issues? I wasn’t aware that religious teachings included aspects of the environment, so that’s something new!
To be honest, I had hoped that one’s religion didn’t have any bearings on one’s level of environmental awareness, because regardless of whether we believe in a higher entity, I feel that it’s our responsibility as inhabitants of Earth to show concern for this planet and take it upon ourselves to at least know what’s happening to the environment. I guess that leads me to highlight the importance of the role of education in raising environmental awareness – which is what one of the speakers mentioned in their speech during the Climate Rally earlier today. The environment deserves a stronger emphasis in the curriculum of our civic education so that everyone, religious or not, is equally exposed to the reality of the environmental crisis today.
On another note, it’s sad to see that while religions may raise environmental awareness, they don’t really inspire believers to lead greener lifestyles. Do you know if religious organisations hold environmental events for their followers (say going for beach cleanups, holding walks in nature trails)? Perhaps these could spur believers into taking action!
Vera
Thanks for commenting again Vera! What you mentioned about people being driven by religious teachings to find out more about the environment is certainly true – in fact, there was a Roman Catholic respondent who mentioned that this is one way how religion has influenced his environmental stance. You can read Pope Francis’ message for the World Day of Prayer for Care of Creation here, where he raises issues of environmental concern and calls for Christians worldwide to not only pray for but also act on climate issues: https://zenit.org/articles/pope-francis-message-for-world-day-of-prayer-for-care-of-creation/. And indeed! Education on environmental issues is certainly important.
A religious organisation that does really incredible work in the area of raising awareness of environmental issues and tackling sustainable resource use is the Tzu Chi Foundation. Not only do they have 100,000 active volunteers worldwide helping with recycling efforts, they actively promote environmental vegetarianism and lifestyle change. You can read more about their efforts here: https://www.tzuchi.org.sg/en/our-missions/environmental-protection/
Have a good recess week!
-Dennis
Oooo that’s great to hear!! What Tzu Chi is doing is really heartening, and so is Pope Francis’ message! A common point I found in both links is the urgent need for society to start aiming for the long-term – if we were to continue with our ways intended for short-term benefits, we would really be driving in the last nail of the coffin of Earth. Cool that there’s similarity across different religions!
I like that the Pope mentions raising the awareness of political leaders since we do need action from above and not just on the individual level. That got me thinking though… I wonder if our leaders themselves are personally concerned about the environment, but are unable to implement policies and frameworks that can get Singapore to be more sustainable (e.g. decarbonisation) due to the constraints of the government role. As in, as individuals, they may care really strongly about the environment, but as a political figure, they have to (or are traditionally expected to) prioritise the nation’s economic growth over the environment. I’m just musing here haha
Vera
Indeed! Long-term thinking is what we should be doing – but often it’s not the case. :/
And I agree with what you said about leaders sandwiched between doing the ‘right thing’ and having to deal with political entanglement, but I wish that it wasn’t the case! Although, you gave me an idea… perhaps I should interview a politician who is also religious! Let me send some emails…
Hi Dennis,
I have a question.
It’s about this…
“while respondents that have a religion are more environmentally aware than those who do not…”
How did you assess “environmental awareness” ?
Hi Dr Coleman! Thank you for your question. 🙂 I will be releasing the questions I asked and reflecting on the methodology as you suggested in my next post – hopefully, it will answer your question!