Comments on: Are Faith and Religion Important to Gen Y?

By: sameve

sameve — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 19:47:32 +0000

Kristina, thanks for your comments! You're right that it's all about choices, decisions, and setting priorities. I definitely don't think that you have to attend your house of worship regularly to be considered faithful. In fact, what I was trying to say in this post is that there are so many other ways to live your faith.

By: sameve

sameve — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 13:47:32 +0000

By: TimOwen

TimOwen — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 07:15:05 +0000

Faith is the only know antidote for Failure.

Religion is much further down the list for me compared to how I am able to Implement FAITH. I was fascinated to look back in my own life Sam and witness how big a deal FAITH has been for me. I made a post of my inquiry at our blog: http://timothybertowen.com/interviews/?cat=75

Thank you Sam, your post deepens our inquiry into these experiences in our lives.

Tim Owen
Implementation Mastermind Coach for IM Professionals
Be All You Can Be Online

By: Kristina

Kristina — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 02:41:59 +0000

I was just thinking about this and then I saw your post. It is hard for us at this time in our lives because we are so busy. But it also boils down to choices too, I think. It is the same with hanging out with friends, watching tv, exercising, etc. We either consciously or unconsciously make a decisions what is important and make time for it. If we don't make time for it then we have decided that it is not as important as our things.
However, do does not attending church/temple/etc (whatever is applicable for your chosen faith) mean that you are any less faithful? I don't go on Sundays, I just haven't been able to take the time out to do so and now Easter is coming up and all I can think about is sleeping in. Does that mean that I am not a good Christen? That my faith is less strong than others?
I don't know where I am going with this post. Just throwing things out and seeing what sticks I guess.

By: sameve

sameve — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:50:44 +0000

Wow, thank you for such a detailed response! You make a very important point about the focus on assimilation in our country, and social pressure definitely does play a large role. Unfortunately, religion falls victim to the whole “cool” conundrum, and I'm not sure if there will ever be an effective way to change that stigma for young people.

By: sameve

sameve — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:47:38 +0000

Rebecca, I hope my post motivates you to write one of your own. I'm not sure that being young is a reason for not being religious. There are plenty of young people who are religious, and plenty of older people who aren't. However, there are a lot of Gen Yers who use youth as an excuse.

By: Akhila

Akhila — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 02:36:42 +0000

Great post and interesting thoughts! I'm extremely interested in the idea of religion myself, but like most other Gen Y bloggers, I tend to stay away from discussing this in my blog or with other Gen Yers. I think religion, like some others here have said, is obviously a touchy topic because each person has such strong opinions and this often leads to disagreements with neither person wanting to back down. It's difficult because religion ultimately is a personal experience. You don't want to offend anyone or get offended yourself.

At the same time, I think Gen Y in the U.S. is made up of kids mostly born and brought up in the States. Perhaps many of our parents were immigrants or people who held on strongly to their faith and tradition. However, our generation distanced itself to some extent from our cultural and thus religious heritage. This is due to changes in America itself - the country focuses on assimilation of various groups. People are forced often to conform to be "cool" or "accepted" in society and as a result I feel like many people abandon their religious background in order to seem more accepted or "American." Even though this is a wrong interpretation of being American, I think unfortunately social pressures play a huge role. Americans today are some of the most atheist and agnostic populations ever.

A huge part of this is like Carlos said, a lot of religious rituals and symbolism just doesn't mesh with popular and "cool" American teenage culture. Sure there's christian rock, but other than that pop culture doesn't really embrace or leave much room for religion. In fact pop culture embraces sex, drugs and violence often -- you see this in tv shows, movies, music, and video games for example. These types of themes are often considered "cool" but are often against conservative religious principles.

That being said, I think spirituality is still accepted and somewhat embraced; the concepts of yoga, meditation, and many other ways of personally connecting with God are pretty popular compared to organized ritualistic religion.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:57:53 +0000

I have been wanting to write a post on Gen Y and religion for just about forever… aargh. Maybe this post will give me the motivation I need. I do agree that Gen Yers seemingly don't care as much as previous generations, at least for organized religions. Although I always have in my head my mother who warned me about my boyfriend in high school who was a bit of rebel and whose parents were deeply religious. He will turn into his parents someday, she said. I wonder if it's just because we're young that we're not religious yet…

By: Carlos Miceli

Carlos Miceli — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:21:06 +0000

You are absolutely right. I may have my opinion influenced of my personal experience when i was a kid, and that's a mistake. Religion was boring for me, but there's a lot of people that truly engage with it, and have an awesome time.

But then again, people can find that fun in many places and activities. Consider that people today don't want even a little bit of boring time. It's like religion may be 80% fun, but partying for example, it's a 100%.

Shallow? Immature? Probably. But our generation has many flaws, and these may be some of it.

I still admire your whole view, i truly do. Keep it up Sam!

By: sameve

sameve — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:06:00 +0000

Hi Carlos! Great to see you here. I think you make some very interesting points. People are very used to their fast-paced lives and instant gratification, and it's definitely hard for religion to compete. But, I have to disagree and say that religion can definitely be fun. I think it all depends on your community and the different places you experience your faith. For me, some of my most memorable moments are dancing and singing at Jewish camp with my friends. Definitely fun!

Also, although the media does tend to distort things, I think politics has also had a lot to do with skewing people's views of religion. It's truly unfortunate.

Thanks for your comments!