AP Poll: God vital to young Amercians

[kfrost06]

Among America's young people, godliness contributes to happiness.

An extensive survey by The Associated Press and MTV found that people aged 13 to 24 who describe themselves as very spiritual or religious tend to be happier than those who don't.

When it comes to spirituality, American young people also are remarkably tolerant — nearly 7 in 10 say that while they follow their own religious or spiritual beliefs, others might be true as well.

On the whole, the poll found religion is a vital part of the lives of many American young people, although with significant pockets that attach little or no importance to faith.

Forty-four percent say religion and spirituality is at least very important to them, 21 percent responded it is somewhat important, 20 percent say it plays a small part in their lives and 14 percent say it doesn't play any role.

Among races, African-Americans are most likely to describe religion as being the single most important thing in their lives. Females are slightly more religious than males, and the South is the most religious region, the survey said.

The poll's mission was to figure out what makes young people happy. And it appears religion helps.

Eighty percent of those who call religion or spirituality the most important thing in their lives say they're happy, while 60 percent of those who say faith isn't important to them consider themselves happy.

"If you believe God is helping you, then everything else isn't as important and you can trust that there's somebody there for you no matter what," said Molly Luksik, a 21-year-old ballet dancer in Chicago and a Roman Catholic who attends Mass weekly. "Just going to church and everything ... it's very calming, and everyone is nice."

Sociologists have long drawn a connection between happiness and the sense of community inherent to most religious practice. Lisa Pearce, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina, said religion can indeed contribute to happiness, but she cautioned that the converse also can hold true.

"It's easier for kids who are happy and have things going well in their life to find the time and energy to participate in religion," said Pearce, co-principal investigator for the National Study of Youth and Religion. "It could be kids who have bad experiences in church end up leaving and being unhappy with religion."

The poll also asked young people to choose between two statements about their views of other faiths.

Sixty-eight percent agree with the statement, "I follow my own religious and spiritual beliefs, but I think that other religious beliefs could be true as well." Thirty-one percent choose, "I strongly believe that my religious beliefs are true and universal, and that other religious beliefs are not right."

The latter statement is more likely to be the position of young teens — 13 to 17 — and those who attend religious services weekly.

However, tolerance is the rule overall. That doesn't surprise the Rev. Paul Raushenbush, associate dean for religious life at Princeton University and author of "Teen Spirit: One World, Many Faiths."

Young people eat lunch and play soccer with peers from other belief backgrounds, while adults tend to self-segregate with others of like mind, he said. Sweeping immigration reform in 1965 transformed America into the world's most religiously diverse nation, and young people grew up with the second generation of the immigrant wave, he noted.

"This shows that it doesn't require a lack of conviction in your own faith tradition to think someone else might have a similar type of conviction in their own," Raushenbush said. "There is no sense of, 'This diminishes my faith.'"

Traci Laichter, 14, went to Jewish preschool. Her grandparents are Holocaust survivors. Her family keeps kosher and displays a mezuzah — a little box holding verses from the Torah — on the door of their suburban Las Vegas home.

Her faith is strong and she believes it will last, but that doesn't mean she thinks other faiths are devoid of truth.

"I believe whatever you believe is true to you and it really shouldn't matter what other people think," she said.

About 75 percent of those surveyed say God or a higher power has some impact on their happiness. At the same time, 90 percent believe happiness is at least partly under their own control.

"I think you do have control over how you are going to feel on a particular day," said David Mueller of Lockport, N.Y., a 20-year-old college student who attends an evangelical Christian megachurch called The Chapel.

"When it comes to events in your whole life, it's already somewhat laid out for you," he said. "You can stray off to another path. But where God wants you to go, you are going to get there."

___

The AP-MTV poll was conducted by Knowledge Networks Inc. from April 16 to 23, and involved online interviews with 1,280 people aged 13 to 24. It had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

[Tock]

An extensive survey by The Associated Press and MTV found that people aged 13 to 24 who describe themselves as very spiritual or religious tend to be happier than those who don't.

Ya, I was like that . . . I had lots of people telling me that I should think that way. Never knew much about anything else until I was 30. Now I'm a recovering fundamentalist, taking each day one at a time, feeling better as each day passes.

[scriptfactory]

Of course they are happier, they are walking around in a drugged state. Religion, the opium of the people.

[BgMc31]

Of course they are happier, they are walking around in a drugged state. Religion, the opium of the people.

Luv it!!!

[Logan13]

Of course they are happier, they are walking around in a drugged state. Religion, the opium of the people.

If this poll were about Muslims, I'll bet that you wouldn't have retorted in the same way.............

[scriptfactory]

If this poll were about Muslims, I'll bet that you wouldn't have retorted in the same way.............

I bet I would have... I'm Christian, by the way.

[Logan13]

I bet I would have... I'm Christian, by the way.

So you are addicted to the opiate of religion?

[scriptfactory]

So you are addicted to the opiate of religion?

Being a believer and being religious are two different things, IMO. I'm sure you read Nietzsche but for the others here is his take on religion.

Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself again. But man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Man is the world of man—state, society. This state and this society produce religion, which is an inverted consciousness of the world, because they are an inverted world. Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point d'honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement, and its universal basis of consolation and justification. It is the fantastic realization of the human essence since the human essence has not acquired any true reality. The struggle against religion is, therefore, indirectly the struggle against that world whose spiritual aroma is religion.

Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.

I should add that I believe there is nothing wrong with religion being an opium. Sometimes weak people actually need religion to make it in life.

[kfrost06]

Of course they are happier, they are walking around in a drugged state. Religion, the opium of the people.

"God is dead" - Nietzsche

"Nietzsche is dead" - God

[kfrost06]

I'm Christian, by the way.

Sometimes weak people actually need religion to make it in life.

So by your own account you are a weak person that needs religion to make it through life? Your words not mine.

[scriptfactory]

So by your own account you are a weak person that needs religion to make it through life? Your words not mine.

If that's how you want to interpret it, fine. I don't have to prove anything to you. I'm just saying that there are people that need (note the emphasis on 'need') to believe or disbelieve and there are people that choose to believe or disbelieve.

[scriptfactory]

"God is dead" - Nietzsche

"Nietzsche is dead" - God

Do you even know what he meant by "God is dead"? Maybe you should read a little instead of writing so much.

God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?

[kfrost06]

Do you even know what he meant by "God is dead"?

He, Nietzsche, meant God is dead in the hearts and minds of men, that rationalism and science has killed God. He also suggest that by accepting the death of God we will also involve the ending of accepted standards of morality and of purpose.

So is he right? Will killing God lead to a break down in morality? Will a reason and purpose in life will be gone w/o God? With no God why is murder wrong? why is life precious? Nietzsche himself seemed to favour the creation of a new set of values "faithful to the earth" since the idea of a God was no longer believable to him.

Maybe you should read a little instead of writing so much.

p.s. reading and writing go hand in hand. Did I offend you?

[scriptfactory]

He, Nietzsche, meant God is dead in the hearts and minds of men, that rationalism and science has killed God. He also suggest that by accepting the death of God we will also involve the ending of accepted standards of morality and of purpose.

So is he right? Will killing God lead to a break down in morality? Will a reason and purpose in life will be gone w/o God? With no God why is murder wrong? why is life precious? Nietzsche himself seemed to favour the creation of a new set of values "faithful to the earth" since the idea of a God was no longer believable to him.

I believe that is right, in a way. We are entering a new age where God is not a factor to many people. This leads people in a direction they wouldn't have been if they were believers, IMO.

If you ever play the video game Bioshock you will see what I think would happen in a society of atheists.

p.s. reading and writing go hand in hand. Did I offend you?

Not offended at all. That Nietzsche is dead stuff is just usually recited by Christians who don't have a better argument...

[Kärnfysikern]

If you ever play the video game Bioshock you will see what I think would happen in a society of atheists.

You mean we will be able to shoot lightning and fire out of our hands. Sign me up

On a serious note though, why you think it would end like that? Religion and god hardly has any influence at all in the nordic countries anymore.

[scriptfactory]

You mean we will be able to shoot lightning and fire out of our hands. Sign me up

On a serious note though, why you think it would end like that? Religion and god hardly has any influence at all in the nordic countries anymore.

That was a joke! I don't know what would happen...

[Kärnfysikern]

That was a joke! I don't know what would happen...

My prediction for such a society would be that women would be easy Without religion marriage is pointless and no one save themself for it.

All other effects from abandoning god is much less important

[goose]

For your god:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wcG3yoSAdk

[Flagg]

For your god:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wcG3yoSAdk

That was brilliant!!

God is not tolerant and neither are His believers