RT Article
T1 Aversion to and Understanding of God Talk in the Public Sphere: A Survey Experiment
JF Journal for the scientific study of religion
VO 56
IS 3
SP 459
OP 480
A1 Evans, John H.
LA English
YR 2017
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1669497941
AB "God talk" occurs when a member of the public gives religious reasons for a policy claim. The legitimacy of God talk is the subject of great debate among sociological and political theorists of the public sphere. There has never been an empirical study of the general public's views of the legitimacy of God talk itself. Using a vignette survey experiment, I find among the overall public that there is a statistically significant but extremely small degree of aversion to hearing God talk. Additionally, respondents claim to be able to understand God talk just as well as claims justified by science. Aversion to hearing and understanding God talk do differ by the religion of the respondent. I conclude with a discussion of how these results may influence theoretical debate about the public sphere.
K1 Public discourse
K1 Public Sphere
K1 Religion and science
DO 10.1111/jssr.12368