Why are the young people non-religious
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Anonymous
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Have you seen the news about the French Catholic Church today?
Might be part of it... For me personally, I grew up a Christmas & Easter churchgoer (Episcopalian) in a very fire-and-brimstone Baptist area, and the whole social structure and attitude turned me off. I am also one of those people who learned about the Holocaust, child abuse, etc. and lost my faith. That said I respect others' faiths and am not anti-religion or anything. It does comfort people in tough times, and there is a sense of cohesive community and purpose that I think we in the US are losing in the absence of church as a community pillar (discussed in the book "Bowling Alone"). And I have donated to Catholic organizations that were doing good things in the community (baby pantries, etc. not the Church itself). |
Anonymous
They pretty much are. It's a different topic, but they are quite mutually exclusive. That doesn't mean no scientist is religious. He or she just has to suspend their disbelief. |
Anonymous
DP. What do you mean by this? Also, a number of non-Western countries also have a high % of people without a specific religion. |
Anonymous
Science and religious belief are mutually exclusive. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-the-ldquo-you-rdquo-in-an-afterlife-wouldnt-really-be-you/ |
Anonymous
| Republicans, priests, and preachers who cheat on their wives. |
Anonymous
| I was shamed by the Catholic Church for wearing my cheerleading outfit. I was actually rushing from my high school to make it to CCD. Judge much? Told my parents Mary Catherine was a bi#ch and I was never going back. Best thing I ever did. Not one immediate family is still in the Catholic Church. |
Anonymous
| fewer parents raised their children to be religious, so fewer adults believe in god and thus do not raise their children to be religious....... |
Anonymous
I am not pro-transgender or pro-Biden, but I did study Human Genetics at the Howard Hughes Medical institute. There was a fetus with two X chromosomes that was in a woob that was flooded with testosterone. The fetus started developing a "stump" turning into a penis. Shortly after birth, the baby was given surgery to remove said "stump" and then was raised as a girl. Please read about Klinefelter's, Turner's, hermaphrodites, and psuedo-hemaphrodites before you think everyone is "questioning". Some people were experts on this long before (90s) it became cool for reasons of pollutants/xeno-estrogens, testicular abnormalities, survival rates, etc. |
Anonymous
Funny that the greatest scientist of all time (Isaac Newton) was unquestionably a religious fanatic. |
Anonymous
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Because religion is toxic and has been used as a method to manipulate and control for thousands of years. Take the bible for example. Men wrote the bible... not God, not Jesus, just men and men usually have agendas. They like "putting the fear of God" into people or doing horrific things in God's name. Religions are like cults and they're for the weak minded. |
Anonymous
My very Catholic parents raised us to be good Catholics when we were kids in the 70s. It was post-Vatican II and a bit of sunlight was leaking into The Church as I recall sitting in the front pew with a eight people serving on the alter with seven women/girls (choir director, organist, reader, alter girls) and just one man (our progressive rector). A decade later John Paul II had weeded out most of the progressives, the women were gone from our home church's alter and we all learned how the highest levels of the church actively covered up and extended the sexual abuse of children on a massive scale. Even my Mom quit attending. The whole structure was revealed to be rotten. Fortunately, the individual faith and charity of my family and people in general continues. The large Catholic extended family of my youth has evolved into a mix of church members (almost all non-Catholic) and socially active citizens who continue to live God's love. Are we non-religious? I suppose some are but it depends on your definition. |
Anonymous
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There are a lot of really interesting surveys that study this exact question, which I'll link below for those who want to do a deep dive on the issue. Some of the major findings are a lot of what has already been said:
Millennial and Gen Z were raised by parents who didn't instill theology in us. Most religious celebrations are about cultural or familial gathering, not the religious significance. I'm not sure that's the fault of our parents, who were often told in their own religious upbringing not to question things, or who had their questions dismissed. Their parents (our grandparents) had a different model of parenting that was much more top-down or do-as-I-say (this is a generalization, obviously, but so is this question overall). It's hard to be excited about passing on a theology to your children that you weren't well-educated in or engaged with yourself. Deep religious connection rarely happens by osmosis; you can't just take your kids to services and expect us to be religious in the long run. Sure, we might continue to do the cultural things (celebrate holidays with family, etc), but the deep meaning requires more engagement and understanding than passively sitting through services sometimes. The politicization of "religion" (particularly Evangelical Christianity), which tries to pass off right wing political ideologies as theology. Theoretically, if millennials become more conservative as we age (debatable), then we might find ourselves in gradual agreement with these political religions, but I doubt it, unless these "religions" change their tune on some hot button issues like gay rights and women's rights. I don't think intolerance toward the LGBTQ community or women is going to be something that our generation or future generations become more conservative about, even if we age into more conservative political positions in other ways. The Catholic Church protecting/hiding rapists and predators for decades, which, even for non-Catholics, colors the view of all organized religion as secretive and hypocritical and not looking out for the best interests of the community. The availability of other types of community that replaces the need for religion-based support systems. Part of the lack of young people in religion is, itself, self-perpetuating. A religious community used to be a place to make friends, but if I'm the youngest person there by 20 years, then the social aspect of showing up is just not there and that can be a big motivator in whether or not I roll out of bed on the weekend and want to go to services to see my friends, even if I'm not feeling particularly spiritual that day. If I do show up and it's difficult to connect with people socially who are a generation or more older than me, I'm likely to feel awkward and opt not to go, even if the spiritual part is of interest to me. The rise in spirituality as an option outside of organized religion. People can be "spiritual" in whatever personal way suits them, and have the relationship with God or "the universe" that is meaningful to them without the need for a clergy intermediary. Some religions feel very negative with a focus on avoiding sin, instead of doing good. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/millennials-are-leaving-religion-and-not-coming-back/ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/01/08/qa-why-millennials-are-less-religious-than-older-americans/ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/09/10/10-key-findings-about-the-religious-lives-of-u-s-teens-and-their-parents/ https://psmag.com/ideas/gen-z-is-the-least-religious-generation-heres-why-that-could-be-a-good-thing https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/millennials-are-leaving-organized-religion-heres-where-some-are-finding-community |
Anonymous
Some are non-religious. Some just avoid organized religion, no matter the sexy, but are still people of faith. WaPo just had an article on teen witches. But yeah, some may return to organized religion. I stopped practicing Catholicism from 15-17 and then slowly returned in college. My oldest had a similar pattern. She’s now 28 and she and her bf joined a parish this fall. |
Anonymous
| I was a practicing Catholic growing up in the Archdiocese of Washington. When I moved to the Diocese of Arlington, it was a complete culture shock in a negative way. It was also around the time the sex abuse scandals were coming out. I left the church and never looked back. Sometimes it makes me a bit sad that I lost a community I grew up with, but for me as a social moderate on most issues, the Diocese of Arlington is really something that does not mesh with how I was raised. |
Anonymous
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At the end of the day- God seems like an a$$.
Like who tortures children with cancer to teach their parents a lesson? Who decides that giving miscarriages to parents who want kids is a great test in faith? Or gives the wealthy even more power and wealth during a pandemic. Or takes away moms from innocent kids through cancer as a lesson in love? Why give so much pain if you are omniscient and loving? It doesn’t make sense. If we are supposed to believe in this and worship this- it is by default an abusive relationship. It’s like being with a boyfriend that hits you, rapes you, tortures you and then says- I do this out of love!!!! I hurt you to test your faith- and if you don’t worship me I will make it worse after you die but while you are alive, it’s going to be pretty awful anyway. Oh, and on top of that, we’re broke. |