Try before you die: teens test religions

While this may be an Australian survey, it is more likely that it is going to be reflected in the UK than USAmerican surveys. This is a report of a survey of Australian teens and their attitudes to religious belief. Interesting 'write bites' are:

"Accompanying that is the sense that it doesn't matter much anyway, what I call 'whateverism'," Dr Hughes said. "Whether you believe or you don't believe is no big deal either way, and you can change your mind from one minute to the next, whatever."

This is where relativism really hits the road; it de-values all belief, well nearly: because human nature abhors a commitment vacuum, so what tends to fill the vacuum is consumerism, but hiddenly without calling attention to itself or allowing itself to be named. Like humanity it cannot stand too much reality.

family, including siblings, is a much bigger influence on teenagers than peers.

So whatever the moral panics [evangelicals take note], primary socialisation is tremendously important. Of course this means that the onus is really on helping Christian parents to live and therefore model a spirituality of counter-consumerism.

Religious education needed to help young people develop a "spiritual literacy" so they could think through issues,

As a teacher-to-be, I take note and recognise my own sense of call in this. For me it is about pre-evangelism. I believe Christ-following makes sense and tends to do well when subjected to scrutiny, so encouraging robust thinking about religion and spirituality seems to me a culturally significant endeavour from a Christian perspective.

more young people believe there may be life after death (76 per cent) than believe that there may be a God.

That's interesting, and testimony to the 'spiritualist' kind of afterlife pictured in popular culture even through such things as "Buffy". We need to think more about resurrection and wholism versus quasi-gnostic views. In so doing we play a leading edge cultural thought-trend off against a probably dying one.

Australians are more likely than Americans to accept other paranormal beliefs such as reincarnation, astrology, psychics and communication with the dead.

If I'm right about the UK in relation to the USA and Aus, then this is an important thing to note.

It also counters the common assumption that young people are interested in spirituality rather than traditional religion. Spirituality ranks with riches at the bottom of what is important to them, with deep friendships and an exciting life at the top.

Hmmm. That's a bit of a blow to a lot of contemporary western missiological ideas... or is it? What do the terms mean and what is the context?
Try before you die: teens test religions - National - smh.com.au:
Filed in: religion, youth, attitudes, Australia, spirituality, God, afterlife, education, belief