An Experimental Comparative Study of Clergies and Academic's View on Religiosity Criteria

In this paper clergies and academic's View on Religiosity Criteria will study and compare. Religiosity criterion is considered as the principle based on which the extent of religiosity of people is evaluated.Based on the sociological theories of Weber, Stark and Girth about the relationship between religious understandings of different groups and their social status and situations and on the basis of secularization theories, and also considering the fact that clergies and academics enjoy different social characteristics, particularly with regard to their relation with academic institutions and modern values, it was hypothesized that clergies and academics criteria for religiosity vary and academics put more focus on general moral aspects and less emphasis on ritualistic, collective and juridical aspects of religiosity.For this aim, three samples of clergies, academics and academic clergies compared by conducting a questionnaire in which the respondents decided on the significance of the items of a multidimensional religiosity scale. The data revealed that academics and clergies emphasized differently on various aspects of religiosity. While clerics focused on all aspects and dimensions of religiosity, academics put primarily stress on moral aspects of religiosity and put less stress on collective rituals. The diversity could be explained based on the differences of social situation and educational tradition of clergies and academics.