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Why Do The Majority Of Teenagers Not Bother To Come To A Conclusion On Their Religious Beliefs?


Lucifereus

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Hello everyone, it seems to me that most teenagers to not care about religion, or their own personal beliefs. The majority just claim to be Christian and when asked they'll simply reply "I'm Christian", and not even bother to think about it or question it. For me, I questioned my family's beliefs early on in being a teenager and decided religion is just silly. So does anyone know why they don't care?

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Hi, welcome to the forums.

 

It generally takes some kind of event in a person's life, or at least exposure to different kinds of people, to make a person think. If all they have been exposed to in their lives is religious people, generally young people will answer the same religion. If they go on to college, a number of them often change their minds due to finally being educated about the world, and meeting people of different beliefs. Also it may not be a matter of not caring, but being afraid to stand up for oneself, particularly if one comes from a controlling household. Fundamentalist households tend to be controlling.

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In my area, they either really are Christians or they are typically atheist or Wiccan. The ones that don't know may reply Christian just to not feel left out of a crowd. Yet some that have strong emotional catharsis in church don't necessarily care about "sin". My niece and nephews called themselves part of the "straight edge" Christians that were supposedly really serious about following God. Yet my niece was getting laid all she could, and I imagine my nephews were (and are) too, something they learned from their fundy daddy.

 

So, a flip answer is probably just to identify with a group and not feel isolated or stupid. But even the ones that are "serious" don't often know anything beyond what they were taught, and many don't give a damn about really following (keeping their thoughts from sin, obeying when they aren't being pressured to do so, etc).

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Many teenagers are too preoccupied with other things to think about religion and its implications.

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Many teenagers are too preoccupied with other things to think about religion and its implications.

 

Like hormones, and learning how to write the English language.

 

In any case it is going to be a bit tough on you, young Lucifereus, if you go through life expecting others to toe your line.

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Guest Davka

Dude, it's like, y'know, totally whatever you so want it 2 b. I mean, this band, they were majorly sick, and all singing about jesus and stuff, we we were like dude.

 

u gonna eat those fries?

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Hello and welcome.

 

I think it's not only teens that do that, but adults as well. Most people I know, adult or teen, don't think about or study their claimed religion. They just default to considering themselves to be one of the group they were raised in. They may or may not practice it, but it's still their religious identity.

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Why question unless you have a reason to?

 

I think it is more likely that there is more questioning going on than you think, just most aren't public about it for fear of being labeled a freak.

 

Also, I'm sure that some figure it works for them. Ain't broke, don't want to rock the boat, and have years of programming telling them this. Takes a lot to hack that out of your head.

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If teens haven't thought about their beliefs, it could be that they haven't had the time or the opportunity yet to be exposed to new ideas or explore.

 

It could be that they're preoccupied with other things: grades, girls, problems at home, what have you.

 

It could be that they have thought about it and made up their mind for now, you just weren't around for the process so you assume they haven't thought about it.

 

It could be that they'll change their mind next week because they're in the process of trying to differentiate from their families and figure out who they are, and while this week they're Christian, maybe next week they'll be Buddhist when you aren't looking.

 

It could be that they spout what their families say because it's safer for them to do so. (This was true for me, and has been true for a number of teen visitors to this site.)

 

It could be that they're lying.

 

It could be just you somehow: it could be that all you see are the shallow, unquestioning teens, because you don't hang out with the more introspective ones. It could be that you're buying into a stereotype about teens and making a bunch of unfounded assumptions based on that.

 

Could be a lot of things, really.

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Most of them also don't care about politics. It's because they have more important things to worry about, like getting laid. ;)

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I think that those who just go along for the ride probably have a healthier experience with xianity than those of us who took it seriously. I'd rather they just didn't go along for the ride because they end up voting how their pastor tells them to, but psychologically it probably has a much lesser impact on them.

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Hello everyone, it seems to me that most teenagers to not care about religion, or their own personal beliefs. The majority just claim to be Christian and when asked they'll simply reply "I'm Christian", and not even bother to think about it or question it. For me, I questioned my family's beliefs early on in being a teenager and decided religion is just silly. So does anyone know why they don't care?

 

I think that a lot of teens feel like they have their whole lives ahead of them, so the "important" after-life things can be decided on later. Unless, of course, they're heavily indoctrinated by their parents, church or whatever, like I was.

 

Hello and welcome.

 

I think it's not only teens that do that, but adults as well. Most people I know, adult or teen, don't think about or study their claimed religion. They just default to considering themselves to be one of the group they were raised in. They may or may not practice it, but it's still their religious identity.

 

Yeah, I am constantly astounded at seeing grown adults who don't practice religion but still believe it. For instance, there's a guy I work with who is not at all a religious person, uses profanity, talks about sex and stuff that Christians generally try to avoid, has a semi-hellion attitude (though he's actually a nice guy unless you cross him). One day he joked about going to hell if he didn't change his ways, to which I made a passing comment along the lines, "Oh, hell's just make-believe, you don't have to worry about it," to which he replied on a more serious note, "I wish I could believe that." We didn't discuss it any further, but this guy is around 50 years old, and if I were him and really believed Christian dogma like that, I think I'd want to be serious about it and "get my life right with God." I mean, who wants to roast for eternity?

 

It just seems that a lot of people have this default belief system, regardless of whether or not they actually practice the faith.

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I notice that many teens I know may be "wise beyond their years", but often still don't have a grasp of many of the subtleties that surround religion and politics.

 

Plus, teens go through their rebellious stages, even to the extent that some of them will join a church if they have atheist parents.

 

Many teens are interested in alternative ways of thinking, and even some of the religious ones will still even play around with "occult" things, just to explore the boundaries, so to speak.

 

However, it's disturbing to note that in my town I've talked to some teens that are frightening prototypes of the future Pat Robertsons/Falwells of the world.

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Hello everyone, it seems to me that most teenagers to not care about religion, or their own personal beliefs. The majority just claim to be Christian and when asked they'll simply reply "I'm Christian", and not even bother to think about it or question it. For me, I questioned my family's beliefs early on in being a teenager and decided religion is just silly. So does anyone know why they don't care?

 

i can put this in the most subtle and lamest answer anywhere.

 

they're teenagers.

 

i live with 2 of them and they just don't care about anything at all unless it pertains to them. just to shut you up or get what they want, they'll agree with anything you say or tell them, then make a decision later and then come to you with it.

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Recalling my not-so-long-ago teenage days, it was a stressful time enough without religion adding to it.

 

I began a long deconversion process around 14 I think, and while I had stopped believing in god by then it took me a long time to admit it out loud. I have an anxiety disorder that gives me a hard time in social situations and it really didn't help.

 

Once in my advanced spanish class in high school our happily catholic teacher had us practicing conversations and asked each of us to state our religion and what it meant to us. I chickened out, stammered something about being catholic but not much of a churchgoer. Everyone was staring at me. After my turn I asked to go to the bathroom. I was so mad at myself for chickening out locked myself in a stall and cried.

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I think that those who just go along for the ride probably have a healthier experience with xianity than those of us who took it seriously. I'd rather they just didn't go along for the ride because they end up voting how their pastor tells them to, but psychologically it probably has a much lesser impact on them.

 

I think it is very true that those people who are brought up in Christianity who take it seriously have a much harder time. This has been my personal experience. I have two brothers raised in it the same as myself, but I am the only one who really took it seriously - hence the psychological damage.

 

They never really bought into it, but didn't examine it either, so they remained at least nominally Christians although neither of them were churchgoers in adulthood.

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It is a relatively rare thing for teenagers and even adults to take a deeper look into things. I think the majority of people are more interested in how to best fit in and maintain their social standing than they are in what things mean or if they are good or true.

 

That's why matters of religion are all about affirmation rather than analysis. I've always liked florduh's signature quote "If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people." That is so true of most of the people I run across. How many people have told you, "You think too much." when bringing up a problem with the Bible or with religion?

 

That's because we want to separate the True from the "NOT True." Most people want to keep the peace. They want "BOTH . . . AND " as much as possible.

 

If it comes down to discounting , excluding or defaming those who are not like them, they will be more than willing eventually. But that is part of the group dynamic. Go along and get along as much as possible. When that fails, give the questioners the boot.

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If critical thinking were taught in public schools you might get more introspective teenagers.

 

It is probably accurate to conclude that most are busy attempting to be cool, and get through school with minimal problems. If a teacher is not willing to challenge his students to think objectively and defend their opinions, and just instead presents 'information' and helps them repeat it, then they have no incentive to learn reasoning abilities.

 

I didn't bother to question God until I learned, basically, that questioning things you'd been told since you were little gave you more insight into life, and helped you make better decisions. But it didn't come naturally because generally you'd be scolded and shamed for questioning traditional values like "God Exists" "Jesus Loves You" "America is the best nation on Earth" and so on. It was only when I was forced to back up these claims that I became interested in deconstructing the beliefs that I had culturally inherited.

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I echo just about everyone- teenagers have seemingly more-pressing concerns around them. Passing classes, learning to drive, getting past first base, ect. Some put religion at the center of their lives. Others, social status. Still others just want to make it day to day, swimming through that soup of hormones and expectations.

 

For me, it took exposure to people of another religious faith, along with four solid years of classes in comparative religion in college, until the Christian worldview broke down.

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because actually coming to a conclusion is way too damn difficult, even for most adults.

 

I'm an atheist, but probably in the loosest sense of the word.

 

It's easier and more fun to chill on Facebook.

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Thanks everyone sorry I wasnt on for so long I had just discovered this website and than utterly forgot about it until the other day I was like "shit, how did I forget all this time"

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Teenagers don't really notice shit unless it comes bearing tits or ass.

 

Though honestly, some might not see a reason to put much effort into thinking about religion, because it wasn't a part of their lives to begin with. I know that was me. My mom is catholic, my dad lutheran, and I'm technically catholic by terms of their marriage. (Apparently, I had to be signed over to the crazies to allow them to marry in mom's church without him converting.) But I was never baptized, never went to church (on Sundays, anyway; I went for a few special occasions, and once or twice when I slept over at a friend's house), and my religious knowledge came from VHS Bible adventures. (Seriously. I had a set of these horribly funny bible stories, in which three archeologist kids fell back in time in Egypt and learned about Bible events.) I never took them seriously. How could I? They were cartoons about giants and freakin' whales swallowing men whole! Never once did I consider the idiot notion people thought they honestly happened.

 

No quincenera for me either, even though my mom, her sisters, and pretty much all of her family had them.

 

And yet, when I rather mildly mentioned that I didn't believe in God when I was 17, my mom dragged me to Easter service forthwith and bawled over how I "should" believe, "because I had to," and it was all her fault for not making me go to church. So did I really come to a conclusion? Not really. It was how I always was. There was no decision. It's kind of like breathing.

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I can only speak from my own experience that when I was a teen, I didn't really come to a conclusion because like others said, I just had other things on my mind that I thought was more important, like not getting killed by bullies or trying to pass my classes. I went to church three times a week, participated in youth group related activities, and I knew all the popular bible stories, but I just didn't ponder things like the scripture or theology very much because I was busy with other things. I think that's true for most Christians, whether adults or teens, that they just don't really take the time to sit back and actually think about what they're told to believe at church. I also think some Christians try to push uncomfortable thoughts about their religion out of their head that they know will shatter their faith or at least I tried to do that for many years until I finally accepted there were no good reasons to believe anymore. So, I wonder how many teens don't think about their religion because they have other things to do or how many teens do other things so they won't have to think about their religion.

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I was different from other teenagers because I immersed myself in bible theology. From sixteen to twenty (roughly), my life revolved around religion.

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Teenagers don't really notice shit unless it comes bearing tits or ass.

 

Though honestly, some might not see a reason to put much effort into thinking about religion, because it wasn't a part of their lives to begin with. I know that was me. My mom is catholic, my dad lutheran, and I'm technically catholic by terms of their marriage. (Apparently, I had to be signed over to the crazies to allow them to marry in mom's church without him converting.) But I was never baptized, never went to church (on Sundays, anyway; I went for a few special occasions, and once or twice when I slept over at a friend's house), and my religious knowledge came from VHS Bible adventures. (Seriously. I had a set of these horribly funny bible stories, in which three archeologist kids fell back in time in Egypt and learned about Bible events.) I never took them seriously. How could I? They were cartoons about giants and freakin' whales swallowing men whole! Never once did I consider the idiot notion people thought they honestly happened.

 

No quincenera for me either, even though my mom, her sisters, and pretty much all of her family had them.

 

And yet, when I rather mildly mentioned that I didn't believe in God when I was 17, my mom dragged me to Easter service forthwith and bawled over how I "should" believe, "because I had to," and it was all her fault for not making me go to church. So did I really come to a conclusion? Not really. It was how I always was. There was no decision. It's kind of like breathing.

 

This is kind of like my story, only my family did regularly attend church for a few years... and not even the same one. Otherwise religion was never much of an issue.

 

Now my mom's pissed that I don't believe. oops.

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