Faith, Science and Non-Religious Identity Formation among Male Kenyan Youth

Abstract

The faith and science dialogue has received scholarly at-tention in the recent past. Within the African landscape at large, theunderlying assumption has been that Africans are religious. However,there has been a rising cohort of Africans who are increasingly iden-tified as nonreligious or atheist or agnostic. This research presentsa qualitative analysis of the sociocultural factors that affect or influ-ence these minority identities within a pluralistic African context,exploring their emergence and diversities within the African context,with a specific focus on 20 male Kenyan youth who are identified asnonreligious. This research utilized purposive sampling within non-religious groups and networks. Second, this research aims at explor-ing how nonreligious identities are constructed, particularly given theconcomitant issues surrounding emerging adulthood and new media.This builds up on the theories around youth and identity formation,while foregrounding science and belief as a central theme of study.