Without God and against the Church? Organized Nones in Germany and in comparison to Switzerland

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Gert Pickel
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research ; Protestant Theology
• Term: from 2016 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 278622330

The project takes focus on the group of organized atheists in Germany. Often “the atheism” is described quite generalized as critical against any kind of religion and somehow aggressive. But findings of the main project could empirically present a very broad usage in self-description as an atheist. To decrypt the phenomenon of atheism and for a better differentiation between atheism and other non-religious phenomena like indifference or areligiosity it is necessary to analyze atheism more focused.Aim of the submitted project is the empirical quantitative identification of the secularistic network in Germany and the description of their attitudes. In a second step a comparison to Switzerland and methodological identification of atheism will be made possible. The quantitative data of interviewed members of atheist organization will be unique in Germany.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants