Identifications, Identities, and Beliefs: Why the Scientific Study of Religion Should Not Take Shortcuts

As social scientists, before we take a crack at how to measure the various aspects of religiosity, we must first take a step back and ask why we are making measures in the first place (Wuthnow 2015). Reading the above article, we were a bit perplexed about the motivations for evaluating the measures - and the rationale seems to be more to help journalistic pollsters reduce their interview schedule than to make any real contribution to how we can understand religion and how religion impacts and is influenced by other social institutions. Theory and explanation should guide research and the development and choice of measures, not expediency driven by for-profit, nonscientific pollsters.