Freedom from religion: The current generation of young people are embracing secularism.
http://www.mndaily.com/2012/09/05/freedom-religion
Freedom from religion
The current generation of young people are embracing secularism.
ByDelaney Daly September 05, 2012
The United States has created a reputation for being a Christian nation. We’ve grown up chanting, ‘One nation, under God’ in the Pledge of Allegiance, while the insignia ‘In God We Trust’ is flashed every time someone takes out a dollar bill. Although we are a constitutionally secular state, religion has etched its way into the backbone of America’s political belief system, serving as a basis for political decision making.
Amid America’s youth culture, however, a paradigm shift has taken place.
Nontheistic ideas have become less taboo and even attractive to many young adults today.A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center has shown the substantial increase of doubt in the existence of God among adults under 30. Since 2007, the number of young adults in America who disagreed with the statement, ‘I never doubt the existence of God’ has doubled in percentage from 15 percent to 30 percent. A similar survey revealed that more than a fourth of America’s youngest generation doesn’t associate with any particular religion.
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The decline of religious identification in America is distinctly characteristic to our generation. Because of this, there is a major gap between the belief system of older generations — namely Baby Boomers — and our own.
What led us down the proverbial path of godlessness? A short answer may simply be an increase in general knowledge. Lack of faith is more prominent in those who are college-educated than among those who have only completed high school. We are also native to the technological era; we have had the opportunity to directly access a vast amount of information and opinion through any medium of media. Moreover, the Internet has been used as a place for people to openly question and discuss the existence of a god through an outlet where they won’t face any type of real persecution.
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