NAME: Yamile Sarhan

3 ES A

Individual report

Belief systems

Are young people connected to religion?

Word count
1069

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1
INTRODUCTION 3

1. YOUNG PEOPLE AND RELIGION 3, 4

2. RELIGION NOWADAYS 4

3. CAN YOUNG PEOPLE CHANGE THEIR BELIEFS? 5

4. IS RELIGION BEING FORGOTTEN? 5

CONCLUSION 6
BIBLIOGRAPHY 7

2
INTRODUCTION
Young people nowadays don’t believe in religion as much as in the past, although there are some youngsters
that still practice religion, but most of them is for the influence of their parents, because when they were born
their parents told them about their specific religion and they sent them to a school of their religion, so as a
child you don’t really get to choose in which religion you want to believe. So, in the present there are a lot of
young people that started questioning their beliefs.

1. YOUNG PEOPLE AND RELIGION

As I said before, young people are questioning their beliefs, and also, they are changing their religion, or in
some cases, they stop believing in a particular religion. To prove that there are some interview highlights
below.

Miriam Nissly – Age 29

She was raised Jewish but now she considers herself Jewish with an agonist bent.

"I realize maybe there's a disconnect there — why are you doing it if you don't necessarily
have a belief in God?”
“I don't think I need to answer that question [about God] in order to participate in the
traditions I was brought up with."

Yusuf Ahmad – Age 33

He was raised Muslim, now is an atheist.

“I remember growing up, in like fifth [or] sixth grade I'd hear these stories and be like,
'That's crazy!

Kyle Simpson – Age 27

He was raised Christian, but now he is not Christian.

"I don't [believe in God] but I really want to”

“"I think having a God would create a meaning for our lives, like we're working toward a
purpose”

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With these three highlights interviews we can see that the beliefs of the young people change, in some cases it
changes a little bit, like with Miriam who was raised Jewish, and she still is but with an agonist bent, because
she thinks she doesn’t have to believe in God to do the things and traditions of the religion she was raised. In
other cases, it changes a lot, like with Yusuf, who was raised Jewish but never really believed all the stories
they told him in school, this was because when he was born, he was already Muslim, because of his family,
but because of his own choice, so when he was older, he realised he didn’t had to believe in the same things
as his parents. And then is there is the case of Kyle, who was raised Christian, but he never believed in God,
although he really wanted to. In the interview he said that he liked the idea of believing in God.

2. RELIGION NOWADAYS
Religion in the present isn’t as powerful as before, maybe because young people don’t take it as seriously as it
used to be, and also because of the covid-19 not many people can attend to the church on Sundays ( in case
of the Christians ), because it is to many people accumulated in one space, and also because it is a little bit
dangerous for the people who don’t have the vaccine yet. But religion is very important in the life of adults
and some youngsters.

In this graph you can see how currently, people between 18-22 ages, attend to church. 29% of the young
people do not attend to church, is a little percent but this graph was made around 2017. A questionnaire was
given to the young people and the results showed that 34% of the youngsters say they don't attend to church
because they just moved to college, and they don't a have church near them. The 32% said that church was
hypocritical and judgmental. The 29% said that they didn’t feel connected to the people on their church. The
25% said that they disagreed with their church in political/social issues. And the other 24% said that their work
and responsibilities prevented them from attending. Below is a graph showing this better:

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3. CAN YOUNG PEOPLE CHANGE THEIR BELIEFS?
Young people around the world are changing their beliefs, since a long time, but now there is a lot of
youngsters that doesn’t practice/believe religion. Although there a lot of young people that still follow the
beliefs, they were raised with. But there are other young people who still haven’t changed their beliefs
because they are not sure to feel that way, or maybe they could be, even, afraid of telling their family who
raised them with a particular religion, but they don’t believe in it.

4. IS RELIGION BEING FORGOTTEN?

In some points of view, you can see that religion is staying in the past, but in other point of view, religion is
not as strong as in the past, but there are some people that still practice religion as in the past.
There are some studies that PEW RESERCHER CENTER made by asking to the people: “What is your present
religion, if any?”. The results showed that in forty-one countries people between 18 and 39 years are less
affiliated to religion, and it also shows that only in two countries adults are less affiliated with religion (people
older than 40) Below you can see the graph in which shows the results.

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CONCLUSION

Are young people connected to religion?

In some ways they are, but not directly, they don’t do everything the religious people used to do. And the
majority changed the beliefs they were raised with, but others stayed with their religion, but didn’t necessarily
believe in God, because they said that they don’t need to answer the famous question “Do you believe I God?”
to stay with the traditions and celebrations they were raised with. And there are always the young people that
don’t believe in anything, they’re atheist, that many people don’t agree with, because they say that believing
in something is very good, and everyone should believe in something, but some people just don’t feel that
way. In conclusion, young people are connected to religion less and less over time, but there are some young
people that follow the religion just like before but is the minority.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY


 https://www.google.com/search?
rlz=1C1ALOY_esAR952AR952&sxsrf=ALeKk02FuFu4MN1WrIx9iC9nR5jQqq_3Pg:1621619795888&q=Y
outh+and+religion+today&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiO0pO_rNvwAhWcHbkGHd5kCnIQ1QIwE3oECBsQAQ&b
iw=1366&bih=625
 https://lifewayresearch.com/2019/01/15/most-teenagers-drop-out-of-church-as-young-adults/
 https://www.pewforum.org/2018/06/13/young-adults-around-the-world-are-less-religious-by-several-
measures/
 https://www.npr.org/2013/01/15/169342349/more-young-people-are-moving-away-from-religion-but-why