Baylor University study links secular rationalism with belief in magic among religious adults
A survey of 1,812 US adults found that individuals combining scientific orientation with residual religion are more prone to magical beliefs.
Sociologists Paul Froese of Baylor University, Isaiah King of Carson-Newman University, and Ruiqian Li of American University analyzed how secular rationalism correlates with non-divine supernatural beliefs among 1,812 US adults oup.com
Social Forcesoup.comOpen source ↗. The data were gathered between January and March via mail and online forms by Gallup for the 2025 Baylor Religion Survey, with the final paper published in Social Forces. The authors reported that institutional secularization does not eliminate supernatural thinking, but instead redirects it toward individualized concepts of magic.
Secular rationalism and supernatural categories
The researchers defined secular rationalism as a perspective that views science as the primary mechanism for understanding reality, emphasizes human reasoning in moral matters, favors independent spiritual interpretation, and maintains disinterest in doctrinal debates. The survey differentiated between three types of supernatural views: divine miracles, superstitions, and magic. The magic category encompassed beliefs in curses, ghosts, spirits within objects, communication with deceased individuals, future forecasting, and magic itself.
Participants displaying higher secular rationalism metrics showed reduced adherence to church-sanctioned miracles. However, their scores for magic and general superstitions were consistently higher than those of individuals rejecting rationalist views.
Intersecting science and residual religion
Further analysis revealed that the correlation between secular rationalism and increased magical belief was isolated to respondents who retained traditional religious ties, such as attending services or believing in God oup.com
Social Forcesoup.comOpen source ↗. This pattern was not clearly evident among strictly non-religious individuals or those entirely unaffiliated with faith communities.
Among respondents who believed in God, roughly 40 percent of those exhibiting secular rationalism showed inclinations toward magical beliefs, compared to 19 percent among those rejecting that outlook. The authors concluded that secular rationalism does not eliminate supernatural concepts; instead, it provides individuals with the autonomy to select non-institutional spiritual mechanisms.
