A Survey on the Affect of the Field of Study on the Religiosity of Different Univesity Students with Especial Reference to Sociology

Reviewing history of human thought, there are two different realities talked about: observable and non-observable. Abrahamian religious thinkers referring to revelation, talk about non-observable reality and its relationship with observable reality. These materials were mixed with superstitious in such a way that European thinkers preferred just to rely on experience and talk about observable reality after Renascence. So, secularism appeared as a value and experimental sciences became the sign of wisdom and a reliable reference for the life. New sciences with positivistic viewpoint became a good reference for industrialization and modernism. Meanwhile sociology improved as a substitute for religion's social functions. As modernism improved and expanded, these sciences with all their outcomes spread all over the world. In our country, especially higher education, improved in this tradition. This research seeks to find the impact of these studies on the religious attitude of students and compare Sociology's affect with other fields influence in this respect. Also this research would likes to examine some background variables effect on religious status of the students. This is a survey, longitudinal and a comparative study. Questionnaire is our tool for data gathering from Shiraz University and Shiraz Medical University students in different fields of study. Results, analyzed with SPSS software, shows that medical studies, agricultural sciences and sociology have the most negative affect on religious attitude of students. Those who are studying Humanities are the list influenced students, but any how all secular fields have their own impacts. Our findings show that the only field that students left university with more religious attitudes in regard of what they had at the entrance are Architecture students.