Assess the Reasons Why Young People Seem to Participate in Religious Activity Less Than Older Generations

Another challenge concerning the Millennials is that a lot of these young adults are growing up without attending church. The Barna group calls them the unchurched segment and report that this segment has increased in the last 10 years, from 44% to 52% (5 Reasons). This is a problem because it decreases the chances for new members to join the church. The majority of people that follows a specific religion learned about that religion in early childhood. Students of human behavior believe that “The most significant borrowing occurs in early childhood. Family is thus an important factor…” (Wuthnow 106). If the number of the unchurched segment continues to grow at this pace, in the next few decades, this will continue to be a major concern for church leaders across the Americas. It is a lot harder to try to reach those people that have never attended church or don’t come from a religious background than try to reach those that belong to a church or have been brought up in the faith.

Assess the view that religious beliefs and practices are changing to reflect a new era of diversity and choice.

The 1960s was a rapid, evolutionary new burst in religious change. People during this era ignored their parents and grandparents values, and made their own. This caused a dramatic decrease in churchgoing numbers, and christian values in the south. These changes can be connected with the direction the world was going. Politics, mobility, and great leadership had a huge impact on the religion of the 1960s.

In regards to social changes, boomers can be divided into two groups. There are boomers that will continue their parent’s view of society and there are the groups that will break social traditions. ‘Boomers separation also involves a rejection of party identification as a basis for political decisions and an abiding commitment to individualism, self-reliance, and introspection as a generational style for solving problems” (Light 1988). Boomers come from a time of great social change which in turn has made them more liberal to modern issues such a homosexuality and abortion. In 1993, Time magazine reported that about 42% of baby boomers were dropouts from formal religion (BG Central). According to my parents that are boomers, once leaving behind bigotry and religious persecution they

There are many methodological problems with measuring whether religion has become privatized, on of these problems is that ‘ how do you measure how many religious organisations there are?’ this is a problem because it is near impossible to count every single religious organisation in the world because of the amount of cults and sects that exist that not everybody may know about. Sociologists argue that there has been a decrease on the number of religious organisations, and therefore religious belief is decreasing, but they do not take into account that it may not be religious belief that is declining, but that lack of funding has meant that the religious beliefs could not remain forcing people into practise privately, Also, how do you define what a religious organisation is. Another problem with measuring whether religion has become privatised is that you can’t know what people are thinking, just because they don’t visit a religious organisation, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are not religious, they may just not have the time to visit the organisation so instead use things like televangelism to practise at home. Also, just because people don’t attend religious organisations often, Stark and Bainbridge believe that the decline in traditional religions has created a demand for newer religions, this includes new age

Those between the ages of 55 and 64 were most likely to select ‘pastors of local churches’ (17 percent) among the age groups. Some 10 percent of those 65 and older selected the same, while 7 percent of those 18 to 24 and 6 percent of those 25 to 34 said the same.

Our society has undoubtedly turned itself from religion. This is because the Catholic Church teaches us values that we do not want to accept. The Church tells us to wait, but we do not want to wait. We want everything right now. We can have anything right now.

In Susan Olps article Millennials Seek Spiritual Life, But Not Necessarily Church, Olp talks about several different college students and their pastors and the way they worship. By interviewing these students and leaders, Olp was able to conclude that the millennial generation, people between the ages of twelve to thirty this year, explore their faith in ways other than just showing up at church. This is a challenge for pastors and chaplains. Church leaders have decided that authenticity and technology play a huge role in the millennial generation's daily lives, so leaders have incorporated what this group of people love into their teachings. The churches that

Some think that some millennials are less religious; I can see how they would think that because of the way the nation has changed. After furthering my research on generational differences on the role of religion in America, I found some interesting facts. I found this graph that helps us break down each generation.

The decline in religion does not surprise me seeing how the view of it has changed over time among millions of people. Religion is a common theme in “God is Dead” by Friedrich Nietzsche and “The Art of Happiness” by The Dalai Lama. Nietzsche’s main argument is that religion has been a nuisance and he is glad that the decline of it had begun. He sees the decline as a chance for people to freely think with no barriers and many new opportunities are possible because of it. The Dalai Lama argues that everyone and anyone has the right to believe in whatever they want or nothing at all, as long as it makes them happy. He also says people should understand and respect each others choices and not treat anyone inferior based solely on their beliefs while Nietzsche believes no religion at all is better.

They are taking away this idea of religion from their lives, separating themselves from their parents and grandparents, who grew up in a time where religion was also slowly seeing a fall but it was still a big part of most Americans to go to church on Sunday or be a sinner. Students today are finding more freedom in the search to find themselves and what they are religiously or spiritually without much hate or disdain from their fellow peers. As the rise of technology increases many students find themselves going into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) based fields and there’s this general push to get students, mostly people of color and woman, to join these mostly white male

Why are the youth being drawn in great numbers to the Christian faith? Could it be the sense of belonging that they are after? Has the culture that they have grown up in made it important to belong to a group? What makes the youth of the nineties different from their predecessors? It’s not like all of these kids come from disadvantaged or broken homes. Many of them are well-adjusted middle-class kids that don't need to be attached to something out side of themselves to be validated or excepted. The one thing that they all seem to have in common is that they have been raised in a much more complex social atmosphere than past youngsters. They have spent more time in front of a television than any other generation. They have been labeled a generation without a cause. Their energy has been sapped by endless hours of Nintendo and the constant race to stay on the cutting edge of fashion. They become consumers at younger ages too and that brings on the pressure to have the best, and have it first. Kids find themselves making one purchase after another and never coming away with anything that will last. The life that Hollywood romanices and glorifies leaves them feeling hollow and unfulfilled. The youth today are experiencing burn out at a very young age. Suicide

Modern society is inarguably different from medieval communities, quite frankly it would be terrifying if they were exactly the same. Contemporary culture, in general, is not wholeheartedly focused on the journey to salvation/ religious causes as was more common in medieval communities. Communication, technology and education have broadened the scope of human activity and opportunities. As far as declining religion and social hierarchy, it remains debatable whether it is a cause or effect of modern technology. Though because humans are creatures of habit and conservative as far as change, religious tradition and teachings remain embedded in many communities. Despite similarities based on tradition and inherited values, modern society differs in driving forces and religious prevalence due to a developed and educated environment.

That is a significant difference in ideology, as said previously that the older generation tends to stick to more traditional viewpoints. As noted by table 1 as well the probability statistic has a correlation of .00 meaning that this is statistically significant in saying that the correlation between the age and the response, and that it is safe to say that majority of the population within those age ranges would respond in the same way.

It is the youth who are encountering the most serious challenge to his/her faith under the impact of godless culture of modernity.