Joseph’s seminar made me think about the value we place on religion and symbolism, particularly in a secular nation such as New Zealand. In his study which examined how attitudes towards Muslims are changing in New Zealand, one trend he found was that greater religiosity is correlated with greater levels of warmth towards Muslims. Joseph suggested that in New Zealand, where religious people might even be considered a minority, sympathy among different religions is more likely to exist.
This reminded me of a study published in 2017 which found that there is a tendency for atheists to be regarded as immoral, even by other atheists (interestingly, New Zealand was one of two countries where this was not clearly evident). While New Zealand is considered a secular country, as a nation we still take part in what Joseph labels ‘deceivingly secular rituals.’ Anzac Day, for example, commemorates sacrifices made by people most of us no longer remember, for wars that don’t feel all that immediate to us, but we still attend dawn services and parades because they hold symbolic importance.
So religious or not, we all take part in symbolic activities or hold superstitions. It’s interesting that we place different values on different symbolic activities – commemorating a war can bring people together, while those same people might be prejudiced against a different symbolic experience. Our symbolic beliefs are consequently incredibly important for how we relate to others.
