Other attitudinal variables

Satisfaction with household finances and views on wealth had similar relationships with the third “evil” statement. In both cases the most positive group registered the highest degree of agreement. The relationships were weak and with regards to the views on wealth, limited to 2006.

4.8 Religiosity

Variables analysed in this category include the importance of religion, membership of a religious organisation, religious attendance (of a church or other religious organisation), importance of God and self-reported religiosity. Only “importance of God” revealed relationships with the relevant statements on evil during the crosstabulations. Univariate analysis did however provide interesting information on religiosity in general.

At first glance it might appear that religion has declined in importance in South Africa (Table 4.12). Indeed, the proportion of people who think religion is very important has decreased from 70% to 57%. However, the proportion of South Africans for whom religion is important in general (either very or rather important) is still extremely high: 85%-90%. The proportion of people who think religion is not important (10%-15%) has not increased significantly. It

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would therefore seem that for some people religion has become less important, but not at all unimportant.

Table 4.12 Importance of religion

How important is religion in your life? 2006 2013 Very important

Rather important Not very important Not at all important Total 70% 20% 7% 3% 100% 57% 29% 10% 5% 100%

Similar to the importance of religion, it would seem that the importance of God has also decreased to a certain degree.62 South Africans who think God is very important have decreased by about 23%. Those who think God is neither very important nor unimportant have more than doubled to 34% in 2013 (Table 4.13). It would seem that God – just like religion - has become less important, though not unimportant, to a large number of people. Furthermore, the majority of South Africans (over 80%) are members of religious

organisations (Table 4.14 below). In fact, over half of the population are active members. According to the data on religious attendance for the period 2006-2013, roughly 55%-62% of South Africans claim to attend a religious organisation at least once a week.

Table 4.13 Importance of God

How important is god in your life? Year

2006 2013

Very important

Neither very important nor unimportant Not important 87% 12% 1% 64% 34% 2% Total 100% 100%

Table 4.14 Membership of religious organisation

Religious membership 2006 2013 Active member Inactive member Don’t belong Total 51% 31% 18% 100% 56% 25% 19% 100% 62

Importance Of God was originally answered on a ten-point scale and was recoded in the same manner as Exploitation And Fairness (see footnote 16). The new response categories were labelled as follows: 1=”Very Important” and 3=”Not Important” with category 2 being the neutral category (“Neither Very Important Nor Unimportant”).

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Crosstabulations revealed a relationship between “evil is everywhere” and “importance of God.” In both 2006 and 2013, agreement was highest among those to whom God is most important (89%-91%) and lowest among those to whom God is not important (70%-77%) – see Figure 4.19 below. The same pattern was found with regards to the second statement, but only in the 2013 data set (Figure 4.20). Whereas the results from 2006 were mixed, in 2013 those to whom God is most important were most likely to agree (85%) and the other groups were less likely to do so (72%).

Figure 4.19 Evil is everywhere and importance of God

Figure 4.20 Evil can possess people and importance of God

89% 90%

70% 91%

79%

77%

Very important Neither very important nor

unimportant Not important 2006 2013 87% 81% 94% 85% 72% 72%

Very important Neither very important nor

unimportant

Not important 2006 2013

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Agreement to the third statement (Figure 4.21) runs counter to the above-mentioned pattern: in 2006 those to whom God is not important were most likely to agree (42%). The people to whom God is very important were least likely to do so (32%). In 2013 there was an overall 55%-61% level of agreement among everyone.63

Figure 4.21 The community must get rid of evil people and the importance of God

The final variable that was analysed in this category was self-reported religiosity in which people were asked if they were religious, not religious or atheist. In both datasets a similar number of respondents described themselves as religious (80%), not religious (17%-18%) and atheist (1%-2%). Crosstabulation – as seen in Figure 4.22 – indicated that agreement with the first statement was similar among everyone in 2006. However, in 2013 the religious group‟s agreement remained at a high level (88%) while the atheist group‟s agreement dropped (to 73%). The group that is neither religious nor atheist is in the middle with roughly 80% agreement.

63_{The relationship between the first statement and Importance of God is very weak in 2006 (with an effect size} of .03), but moderate in 2013 (.4). For the second statement the effect size is .2 in 2006 and .3 in 2013. Finally, the last relationship has an effect size of -.2 in 2006 and -.1 in 2013.

32% 37%

42%

55% 55%

61%

Very important Neither very important nor

unimportant

Not important

89 Figure 4.22 Evil is everywhere: agreement according to self-reported religiosity

Figure 4.23 Evil can take possession of some people: agreement according to self- reported religiosity

The second statement (Figure 4.23 above) revealed the exact same pattern: although agreement was the same for everyone in 2006 (87%-89%), in 2013 the level of agreement seems to be a reflection of the respondents‟ religiosity. There is an 82% agreement rate among the religious and a 72% agreement rate among those who are not religious, but are also not atheists. The agreement level of the atheist group is approximately 66%, which is relatively low. 89% 87% 95% 88% 80% 73%

Religious Not religious Atheist

2006 2013 87% _87% 89% 82% 72% 66%

Religious Not religious Atheist

2006 2013

90 Figure 4.24 The Community Must Get Rid Of Evil People: Agreement According To

Self-Reported Religiosity

Agreement with the third statement revealed a more curious pattern. In this instance, atheists reported more agreement in 2006 than the other respondents did: a high 54% agreement compared to the 32%-34% agreement of others. In 2013 agreement once again takes on the familiar pattern as discussed above. It is once again highest among the religious (56%). Those who are neither religious nor atheist record a similar level of agreement of 53%. Atheists again have the lowest agreement (more or less 46%). See Figure 4.24 above.64

In conclusion, it would seem that those who are more religious are more likely to believe in the general existence and powers of evil. The need to remove evil persons is, however, rather more general and less strongly associated with religion.