Critical Thinking and Religiousness: A Quantitative Study Among Undergraduate Students

The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between critical thinking and religiousness that has an important place in individuals' lives. A sample group of the research consists of 500 subjects, of which 227 are female and 273 are male and who were selected from students studying at Necmettin Erbakan University Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Meram Faculty of Medicine, and Ahmet Kelesoglu Faculty of Theology by using a random sampling method. In the research, "Religious Life Scale" was used for collecting data regarding religiousness, and "Critical Thinking Tendency Scale" was used for collecting data regarding critical thinking. Pearson Correlation Analysis, "One Way Analysis of Variance (OneWayAnova)" was used for data analysis and "Tukey-HSD Test" was used for the analysis of multi group variables. According to the findings obtained, it has been determined that there is a negative and significant relationship between critical thinking and religiousness. There is a significant relationship between religiousness and flexibility, systematicity and determinationpatience dimensions of critical thinking. On the other hand, relationships between religiousness and metacognition and open-mindedness dimensions have not reached a significant level. It has been determined that critical thinking differentiates depending on independent variables of the faculty of study.