Something I've always been curious about is the decline of traditional religious practice in younger generations of America. The decline seems to be in the practice of religion, but not necessarily in the belief system. Almost all of my friends who were raised in religious households profess negative attitudes towards church services. However, most of these people seem to have a personal belief system. I know that it's unscientific to generalize because most of these people are my socioeconomic equals, but I believe that there is a noticeable belief gap between younger and older generations. The younger generation is not only more likely than the other generation to avoid going to church, but also is more likely practice atheism or go by his/her own spiritual beliefs. The decline in traditional religious beliefs is illustrated by Willits (http://www.jstor.org/pss/3511025), who, in his studies, noted that church attendance among adolescents and young adults significantly decreased in a span of 10 years (1970-80).
This fairly recent trend caused me to think about its possible causes. The first idea that comes to mind is the use of skepticism and its popularity. In this age of technology, it seems as though the events that were once considered miraculous can be easily explained by science. Religion cannot be explained through science. It takes enormous faith to believe in what one is taught at church. As more and more people become college-educated, they question what they accepted as children in the church system.
Another theory I have deals with economic difference and how that might reflect religious belief. The people I have been dealing with have been mainly white and middle-classed. Most of these people live comfortably, with most needs obtained. I lived in Nicaragua for two years where most of the population lived in poverty. The majority of these people were strongly religious. For these people, religion is comfort; comfort in knowing that most matters are out of their hands. They turn to God to change their lives because their personal poverty is sadly out of their hands. Perhaps comfort keeps some white, middle-classed people from turning to religion.
I'm personally somewhat skeptical about this theory. It makes sense in specific contexts, but the fact of the matter is that there are always religious people. This idea, however, deals with the decreasing number of religious/church-going people.
Well, those are my ideas. I know it involved a lot of speculation and concentrated on a certain type of young person, but it's an interesting idea that I wanted to explore. Comment and give me some of your own insight on the matter!
Also, I interviewed some of my friends via Facebook (of course), asking them about their general thoughts on religion, and here are some snippets of what they said (that dealt with church):
-Like, my parents are hard-core Catholics, and I just don't really follow that so strongly, but I still have my beliefs, whether I see the church as necessary to be in touch with God or not.
-Most religions are so tainted by history that you can’t take scriptures too literally but still can be really good for people to have core values and a way to deal with life.
-I feel kinda as religous as my parents (my Italian ones). I basically don't go to church; I think sometimes it goes into superstition and according to my thinking I can't follow it.
-I don't think of myself as "religious" in a traditional sense. I feel that I am very spiritual, and that I am just as spiritual as my parents. My general attitude toward spirituality is positive - I think it provides comfort and security when we need it most.
-I already said this but I guess I can write it as well... I generally feel less religious than my parents. They would say that they aren't part of any specific tradition but the fact does remain that they are active members of our local UU church.
-It's never been a real topic of conversation - they tend not to tell me about their own views until I've developed my own independently - but both of them seem to be fairly firm non-believers. I suppose I consider myself less religious than they are just because I've had no real exposure to or experience with it, and no desire to seek it out.
-Not/anti- religious / Spiritual in a way that includes no mysticism or faith whatsoever.
P.S. I realize that my sample size is small and not very diverse, but I thought that it was a cool experiment.
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I do think that's an interesting group of responses. And I am certain that it is not the way responses would have looked 100 years ago..
ReplyDeleteI've thought about this too. I liked your research into it. I feel like people in our generation are thinking more into individual spirituality or atheism instead of religion. In my last post I mentioned the book The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and one of the points I liked that he made is that children are raised into certain religions and called Christian or Muslim even though at their age, they really can't come up with their own view on religion. What you brought up shows that people are starting to get away from that, understanding that they can question something even though they were raised believing it was true. I liked reading it, thanks!
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