“A person's level of belief can increase and decrease over the course of their life.”

The claim is a general psychological observation that a person's level of religious belief can fluctuate—increasing and decreasing—over the course of their life. This is well-supported by multiple longitudinal studies in the psychology of religion. A large-scale 11-wave longitudinal study of over 14,000 Dutch participants aged 16–101 found that religiosity is "not static but develops over time," with patterns of change across the lifespan including decreases in young adulthood, increases in middle and late adulthood, and potential declines near the end of life. The study noted "significant individual differences in development," meaning people vary in how their beliefs shift (Bleijenberg et al., 2022, *Social Psychological and Personality Science*). A 35-year multi-generational study (Bengtson et al., *Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion*, 2015) found "an overall aging effect with an upward drift in religious intensity and strength of beliefs over the adult lifespan," while also documenting that religious attendance drops in late life—demonstrating non-linear, fluctuating trajectories. A study of Chinese adults (2012–2016) explicitly examined "religious fluidity," defined as "variability in religious belonging, behavior, and belief at the individual level," finding that such variability is "not random but patterned by social and cultural context" (Wiley, *Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion*, 2023). An accelerated longitudinal study of ages 45–80 found that multiple dimensions of religiosity/spirituality followed "cubic trajectories"—rising, falling, and rising again at different life stages (Oxford, *The Gerontologist*, 2024). All of these studies confirm that religious belief is not fixed but changes—sometimes increasing, sometimes decreasing—across the lifespan, consistent with Farage's general observation. The claim is a straightforward, well-documented finding in the field. Sources: - "Secularization Trends Obscure Developmental Changes in Religiosity," *Social Psychological and Personality Science*, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/19485506221076684 - "Does Religiousness Increase with Age? Age Changes and Generational Differences Over 35 Years," *Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion*, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jssr.12183 - "Fluidity of Faith: Predictors of Religion in a Longitudinal Sample of Chinese Adults," *Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion*, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jssr.12764 - "Religiosity and Spirituality Development: An Accelerated Longitudinal Design," *The Gerontologist*, https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnae097