Wilson L. Deaton
13th December 2006, 04:23 PM (16:23)
Excerpts from a paper Chelsie (my daughter) wrote:
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
... While most teens claim to be religious or belong to a certain religion, the majority seem to have chosen the good sounding aspects of death from various religions and combined them to form their own beliefs...
CHAPTER II: BELIEFS OF AFTERLIFE
.... All the responses I received can basically be divided into three main categories: Reincarnation, Total Death, and Heaven or Hell.
Reincarnation
Reincarnation was a very common response when teens considered what happens when they die. However, unlike most religions which include reincarnation in their beliefs, the concept of bad karma was absent from the responses. Many of the teens believe that when they die, they will get another shot at life, but none of them mentioned the possibility of ending up in a worse situation in the next life because of their behavior in the current one. Many of the students believed that after a good enough life, they would end up making it to Heaven. However, all rejected the idea of Hell. This is one typical response I received explaining the mixture of God, reincarnation, and Heaven that seems to be so widespread:
“i dont believe that god would create us and this planet and everything on it and give us free will if he was going to condem us for our bad choices and things we have done. so people spend their time on earth and live their lives. i believe when they die that god will decide if they go to heaven or are reincarnated to relive their life and hopefully make better choices and give people a 2nd or 3rd or 4th chance.”
The students appeared reluctant to accept that a God who created them would be willing to allow them to suffer forever. ... This question posed in a teen forum discussing death and its’ response expresses the thoughts of many teens:
-“Doesn't it make more sense to keep perfecting ourselves instead of just one time shot?”
-“Theoretically, yes, perfecting ourselves through a series of lives would make far more sense than the Christian version of one shot.”
The teens acknowledged that they weren’t good enough for Heaven, but failed to recognize that there was any kind of Savior... They were concerned about getting themselves better through a series of lives so that they could get to Heaven instead.
Total Death
The second common belief held by High School students is that when their body dies, their soul dies too. They just cease to exist completely. ...
Heaven or Hell
The third view that I came across was the Christian view that when you die, you either go to Heaven or Hell. Half the students with this belief thought that they had sinned, and been forgiven because of Jesus, and could now look forward to Heaven. The other half of the students only mentioned having faith in God as the necessary key to getting into Heaven. They made no reference to sin or living a Christian lifestyle.
This view was also held by one third of my respondents. However, three out of the five students who believed this way attended the Christian High School in the city. This means that within secular public high schools, this belief is only held by just under a fifth of the students. ... Also, although only one third of the students held this view, over half of them had considered themselves Christian enough to include it within their web profile.
A higher percentage of students who held this belief had attended a funeral than those with the alternate views, and they all felt the need to mention that death wasn’t anything to fear and they could be happy because they would see the person again someday in Heaven. While the teens holding the other view points didn’t seem that scared of dieing, they were generally more uncertain and took funerals harder because they believed they weren’t going to see that person ever again.
CHAPTER III: ROOTS OF BELIEF
Although the Christian view of death was not the overwhelming view among high school students, aspects of it had been taken and incorporated into the reincarnation view and even students who completely rejected the concepts of Heaven and Hell knew the words that a Christian would want to hear, such as “sin”. Christianity has greatly influenced the beliefs of this generation; however, they have also been greatly influenced by the culture’s high values on individualism and “feeling good”.
In a large-scale, nation-wide study done by Smith and Denton, this mutation of the Christian faith was also identified as the wide-spread belief system of teens. It has been labeled Moralistic Therapeutic Deism1 and encompasses five basic beliefs:
A God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth.
God wants people to be good, nice and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
Good people go to heaven when they die.
It still contains the basic Christian belief that God created the world, and that there is a Heaven. However, it leaves out essentials such as grace, service, justice, and God’s close personal involvement in our lives... Its focus is simply to make a person feel good, be a relatively good person, and get along fairly well with others. It’s not about total surrender to an Almighty God, but being happy and living relatively good.
While Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is definitely not Christianity, many people who believe this way are still actively involved in church and consider themselves Christians2, either because they don’t fully understand their traditional beliefs, or they just don’t accept the traditions and don’t view them as essential to being a Christian. Many believe that just as someone could attend church only sporadically and still be a Christian, they can believe in reincarnation or that “good” people will make it to Heaven and still be a Christian.
There are a few contributing factors to why Moralistic Therapeutic Deism has become so prevalent today among teens. One is the failure of parents and other influential adults to discuss their beliefs with the teens. Three fourths of teens reported having similar beliefs to those of their parents3. However, during the interviews, many of the teens mentioned that it was their first time to really discuss their beliefs with an adult. They base their beliefs on watching the day to day actions of those around them who often claim Christianity and spend one hour a week at church. That says a lot about the importance of the beliefs.
Another factor is the current cultural popularity of relativism and acceptance. People are willing to sacrifice Truth in an effort to not be considered judgmental or narrow-minded. Churches water down their message to appeal to more people, not necessarily denying our need for grace, our call to justice, and Hell, but focusing on the other more popular aspects such as God making us, wanting to bless us, and ability to help us when we need it.
CHAPTER IV: BEHAVIOR AS RESULT OF BELIEFS
With a concept of death that basically removes all consequences from bad choices so widespread among teenagers today, is their behavior really that surprising? While the general suicide rate has gone down recently, the suicide rate for 15-24 year-olds has tripled in the last 25 years4. If someone believes they will get to start over with another life (and not any worse than it is now) when they die, then a situation wouldn’t have to be excessively bad for someone to decide to give the next one a try. And if someone believes that they are just gone when they die; whatever they do now is it, wouldn’t that encourage the risky, wild, life-on-the-edge attitude seen in so many? Nearly 80% of high school seniors admit to trying alcohol. 60% of high school seniors reported that they had already had sex. 34% of high school students smoke. The reigning attitude seems to be doing what makes you feel good. If people dismiss the concept of sin and a Savior, then why not just live for the moment and do whatever seems like the most fun? There is a fair amount of uncertainty among teens about exactly what happens, but since the issue doesn’t seem to be bothering anyone else, they seem pretty satisfied to just go with what sounds good or whatever they were told growing up. The ease and convenience of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism has basically made teens apathetic and unconcerned5. Most of them aren’t really out there “seeking”.
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION
High School students in America have very individualized views of life after death, which for the most part don’t agree with the religion they claim. They have taken a very syncretistic approach and mixed different aspects of Christianity with Hinduism and a little of their own ideas. They believe in a God who made them and a Heaven, which they will get to by having multiple lives and being a pretty good person. They reject the idea of Hell because they don’t believe that God would be willing to send them there and they don’t believe it would be fair to be judged for eternity based on our brief life here. Another large portion of teens believe that when they die it’s all just over. Their soul and body will both die at the same time.
These concepts of death are largely flowing out of a greater religious view called Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, which basically just believes in God, in being happy, and that good people go to Heaven (and that most people are good). This isn’t an organized religion at this point; its beliefs are just modeled by a large number of teens and even adults.
With Hell, bad Karma, and an Afterlife in general out of the picture, this leaves no real consequences for many actions in the minds of teens. A perceived lack of consequences leads to lifestyles and choices which are often unwise and even dangerous.
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
... While most teens claim to be religious or belong to a certain religion, the majority seem to have chosen the good sounding aspects of death from various religions and combined them to form their own beliefs...
CHAPTER II: BELIEFS OF AFTERLIFE
.... All the responses I received can basically be divided into three main categories: Reincarnation, Total Death, and Heaven or Hell.
Reincarnation
Reincarnation was a very common response when teens considered what happens when they die. However, unlike most religions which include reincarnation in their beliefs, the concept of bad karma was absent from the responses. Many of the teens believe that when they die, they will get another shot at life, but none of them mentioned the possibility of ending up in a worse situation in the next life because of their behavior in the current one. Many of the students believed that after a good enough life, they would end up making it to Heaven. However, all rejected the idea of Hell. This is one typical response I received explaining the mixture of God, reincarnation, and Heaven that seems to be so widespread:
“i dont believe that god would create us and this planet and everything on it and give us free will if he was going to condem us for our bad choices and things we have done. so people spend their time on earth and live their lives. i believe when they die that god will decide if they go to heaven or are reincarnated to relive their life and hopefully make better choices and give people a 2nd or 3rd or 4th chance.”
The students appeared reluctant to accept that a God who created them would be willing to allow them to suffer forever. ... This question posed in a teen forum discussing death and its’ response expresses the thoughts of many teens:
-“Doesn't it make more sense to keep perfecting ourselves instead of just one time shot?”
-“Theoretically, yes, perfecting ourselves through a series of lives would make far more sense than the Christian version of one shot.”
The teens acknowledged that they weren’t good enough for Heaven, but failed to recognize that there was any kind of Savior... They were concerned about getting themselves better through a series of lives so that they could get to Heaven instead.
Total Death
The second common belief held by High School students is that when their body dies, their soul dies too. They just cease to exist completely. ...
Heaven or Hell
The third view that I came across was the Christian view that when you die, you either go to Heaven or Hell. Half the students with this belief thought that they had sinned, and been forgiven because of Jesus, and could now look forward to Heaven. The other half of the students only mentioned having faith in God as the necessary key to getting into Heaven. They made no reference to sin or living a Christian lifestyle.
This view was also held by one third of my respondents. However, three out of the five students who believed this way attended the Christian High School in the city. This means that within secular public high schools, this belief is only held by just under a fifth of the students. ... Also, although only one third of the students held this view, over half of them had considered themselves Christian enough to include it within their web profile.
A higher percentage of students who held this belief had attended a funeral than those with the alternate views, and they all felt the need to mention that death wasn’t anything to fear and they could be happy because they would see the person again someday in Heaven. While the teens holding the other view points didn’t seem that scared of dieing, they were generally more uncertain and took funerals harder because they believed they weren’t going to see that person ever again.
CHAPTER III: ROOTS OF BELIEF
Although the Christian view of death was not the overwhelming view among high school students, aspects of it had been taken and incorporated into the reincarnation view and even students who completely rejected the concepts of Heaven and Hell knew the words that a Christian would want to hear, such as “sin”. Christianity has greatly influenced the beliefs of this generation; however, they have also been greatly influenced by the culture’s high values on individualism and “feeling good”.
In a large-scale, nation-wide study done by Smith and Denton, this mutation of the Christian faith was also identified as the wide-spread belief system of teens. It has been labeled Moralistic Therapeutic Deism1 and encompasses five basic beliefs:
A God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth.
God wants people to be good, nice and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
Good people go to heaven when they die.
It still contains the basic Christian belief that God created the world, and that there is a Heaven. However, it leaves out essentials such as grace, service, justice, and God’s close personal involvement in our lives... Its focus is simply to make a person feel good, be a relatively good person, and get along fairly well with others. It’s not about total surrender to an Almighty God, but being happy and living relatively good.
While Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is definitely not Christianity, many people who believe this way are still actively involved in church and consider themselves Christians2, either because they don’t fully understand their traditional beliefs, or they just don’t accept the traditions and don’t view them as essential to being a Christian. Many believe that just as someone could attend church only sporadically and still be a Christian, they can believe in reincarnation or that “good” people will make it to Heaven and still be a Christian.
There are a few contributing factors to why Moralistic Therapeutic Deism has become so prevalent today among teens. One is the failure of parents and other influential adults to discuss their beliefs with the teens. Three fourths of teens reported having similar beliefs to those of their parents3. However, during the interviews, many of the teens mentioned that it was their first time to really discuss their beliefs with an adult. They base their beliefs on watching the day to day actions of those around them who often claim Christianity and spend one hour a week at church. That says a lot about the importance of the beliefs.
Another factor is the current cultural popularity of relativism and acceptance. People are willing to sacrifice Truth in an effort to not be considered judgmental or narrow-minded. Churches water down their message to appeal to more people, not necessarily denying our need for grace, our call to justice, and Hell, but focusing on the other more popular aspects such as God making us, wanting to bless us, and ability to help us when we need it.
CHAPTER IV: BEHAVIOR AS RESULT OF BELIEFS
With a concept of death that basically removes all consequences from bad choices so widespread among teenagers today, is their behavior really that surprising? While the general suicide rate has gone down recently, the suicide rate for 15-24 year-olds has tripled in the last 25 years4. If someone believes they will get to start over with another life (and not any worse than it is now) when they die, then a situation wouldn’t have to be excessively bad for someone to decide to give the next one a try. And if someone believes that they are just gone when they die; whatever they do now is it, wouldn’t that encourage the risky, wild, life-on-the-edge attitude seen in so many? Nearly 80% of high school seniors admit to trying alcohol. 60% of high school seniors reported that they had already had sex. 34% of high school students smoke. The reigning attitude seems to be doing what makes you feel good. If people dismiss the concept of sin and a Savior, then why not just live for the moment and do whatever seems like the most fun? There is a fair amount of uncertainty among teens about exactly what happens, but since the issue doesn’t seem to be bothering anyone else, they seem pretty satisfied to just go with what sounds good or whatever they were told growing up. The ease and convenience of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism has basically made teens apathetic and unconcerned5. Most of them aren’t really out there “seeking”.
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION
High School students in America have very individualized views of life after death, which for the most part don’t agree with the religion they claim. They have taken a very syncretistic approach and mixed different aspects of Christianity with Hinduism and a little of their own ideas. They believe in a God who made them and a Heaven, which they will get to by having multiple lives and being a pretty good person. They reject the idea of Hell because they don’t believe that God would be willing to send them there and they don’t believe it would be fair to be judged for eternity based on our brief life here. Another large portion of teens believe that when they die it’s all just over. Their soul and body will both die at the same time.
These concepts of death are largely flowing out of a greater religious view called Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, which basically just believes in God, in being happy, and that good people go to Heaven (and that most people are good). This isn’t an organized religion at this point; its beliefs are just modeled by a large number of teens and even adults.
With Hell, bad Karma, and an Afterlife in general out of the picture, this leaves no real consequences for many actions in the minds of teens. A perceived lack of consequences leads to lifestyles and choices which are often unwise and even dangerous.