Smith and his assistants surveyed Emerging Adults on eight religious beliefs (belief in a judgment day, belief in angels/demons, miracles, life after death, reincarnation, astrology, and recent doubts about religious beliefs). In short, there was considerable diversity in religious commitments. More specifically, substantially greater numbers now profess non-traditional (from the American experience) views: God is an impersonal force, Jesus was not the son of God, and God did not create the world. “These shifts are often especially pronounced among Catholics and mainline Protestants.” (125)
Contrast the shifting content of EA beliefs with their self-perception. A significant majority (59%) reported that their religious beliefs had remained about the same while 24% said they had become more religious.
What can account for the discontinuity between the content of the beliefs of EAs and their perception of their religious beliefs? Perhaps the survey didn’t ask the right questions. Or, perhaps the American penchant for dumbing down the place of cognitive content in religion has come home to roost. It seems that many EAs believe that it doesn’t matter what they believe, only that they believe something that goes by the (self-defined) name of “religious.”
Bad news for those who don’t believe that the mind should be separated from religious belief. But also bad news for proponents of the secularization thesis. However we might evaluate the religion of many EAs, they have a lot of it.
05 April 2010
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I find this topic very interesting and wanted to briefly comment.
ReplyDeleteThe dicontinuity between the content of beliefs and perception of religious beliefs could be attributed to a pluralistic society with politically-devised moral/religous relativity and a substantial increase in information without the ability to dissemintate truth and fiction. By mixing the preceeding ingredients it will inevitably lead to doubt, thereby warping religous views.
The following highlights from a recent Pew Research study shows the difference in religous views between those over 30 and under 30. My overall assumption asserts that those under 30 are more engulfed in the blitz of information and technology than those older than 30.
Key Findings from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life Dated February 17, 2010: Millenial Generation Less Religously Active than Older Americans
Compared with their elders today, young people are much less likely to affiliate with any religious tradition or to identify themselves as part of a Christian denomination. Fully one-in-four adults under age 30 are unaffiliated.
One-third of those under age 30 say they attend worship services every week, compared with 41% of adults 30 and older.
Fewer than half of adults under age 30 say that religion is very important in their lives (45%), compared with almost six-in-ten adults 30 and older (59%).
Sixty-four percent of young adults say they are absolutely certain of God's existence, compared with 73% of those 30 and older.
Adults under age 30 are just as likely as older adults to believe in life after death (75% vs. 74%), heaven (74% each), hell (62% vs. 59%) and miracles (78% vs. 79%).
Nearly three-quarters of affiliated young adults (74%) say there is more than one true way to interpret the teachings of their faith, compared with 67% of affiliated adults 30 and older.
http://pewforum.org/Age/Religion-Among-the-Millennials.aspx
James 1:5-8
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and witout reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
I'm hopeful that Smith will get funding to pursue this cohort for several more 5-year increments. I am very interested to see the effects of aging on their beliefs and practices.
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