We believe in unicorns
Project Leads
Start and end dates: 1 June 2023 – 30 June 2024
Award: £29,900
There are now more non-believers in Britain than there are religious believers. The growing population of ‘nones’ is youthful, but the youngest among them are little
studied. ‘We believe in unicorns’ looks at atheism through the eyes of primary school kids, who are growing into non-believers.
Children’s beliefs can be shaped as much by their love of imaginative play and fantastical creatures as by what grown ups call ‘reality’. This film sees children discuss gods, ghosts, unicorns and science in conversations with their peers, elders and members of the public. This approach gives children a way to articulate their own versions of atheism through exploring questions that probe at the origins of their beliefs.
Young children are strongly influenced by their family values and for many children, school may be the first time they experience their inherited beliefs in opposition to others’. Upon recognising that there are other beliefs available, children have to navigate a process of both aligning themselves with, and differentiating themselves from others, thus beginning to build their sense of identity. This film witnesses these formative family and school interactions.
‘We believe in unicorns’ is inspired by the research project Becoming non-believers: Explaining atheism in childhood, by Drs. Anna Strhan and Lois Lee, which draws on data from the Understanding Unbelief research project Nonreligious Childhood, led by Dr. Strhan and Dr. Rachael Shillitoe. Their research seeks to understand the causes of children’s non-belief and the relationships between the different aspects of life which influence it. This film explores and illustrates some of their findings.
Strhan, Lee and Shillitoe have recognised a prevalence of humanist values among their informants. The children in their study believe in gender and racial equality and the rights of the individual to assert their unique identity. Is embracing your own identity, and protecting other people’s rights seen as the guiding principle for our little non-believers? Are the ‘unicorns’ the new idols?
