By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Even though a record number of people under the age of 30 claim they are not affiliated with any organized religion, other indicators show they are still very religious. This generation was also found to be very open to blending practices from a variety of faiths.
According to FoxNews.com, the study, conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion, found that 25 percent of people under the age of 30 (known as Millennials) say they are not affiliated with an organized religion, the highest percentage of any generation before it.
By comparison, only 20 percent of Generation Xers — people born between 1965 and 1980 — identified themselves as unaffiliated at the same age. Just 13 percent of Baby Boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) said they were unaffiliated with a major religion at the same age.
However, the data “doesn’t necessarily mean that young people are more secular,” says Greg Smith, one of the researchers who conducted the study.
For instance, on the question of whether they believe in a heaven or hell, three-quarters (75 percent) of the Millennials answered “Yes” — the same as for people over 30.
Asked if they believe in life after death, the same 75 percent say yes.
Eighty percent of Millennials say they believe in miracles, the same as for those over 30.
“What this shows,” says Smith, “is that the U.S. is still pretty unique, still very, very religious.”
“Nine out of 10 people say they believe in God … but there’s an openness as to the way Americans approach religion,” he said.
While eight in 10 Americans still describe themselves as Christian “there’s an openness. . . . They’ll borrow meditation practices from Buddhism, for instance, or belief in the Hindu understanding of reincarnation,” Smith said. “But more and more people from all age groups and faith backgrounds (two thirds) say that many religions can lead to eternal life.”
Researchers are unsure what this means for the future. Will young people eventually join a join a faith, lose a faith, or switch faiths? “We just don’t know,” Smith said.
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