Age and Belief

• As people grow older they become more attached to religion
• Belief in God is most common in those under 34
• Belief in God is highest among over 55s
• The attachment of older people can typically be explained by 3 main factors;

  • Disengagement (detached from mechanisms of society)
  • Religious socialisation (family and education socialisation)
  • Ill-health/death (faced with a declining health
• In the most developed countries, younger people are less willing to identify with a religion
• Catto suggests younger people are more likely to rely on their own conscience rather than religious rules
• Young people appear to be more attracted to New Age Spiritual and NRMs
• It can be suggested younger people are not necessarily less involved in politics - they instead practise in private
• The is 6 main reasons for a disparity in religion and age;

  • Declining attraction of religion
  • Expanding spiritual market
  • Privatisation of belief
  • Secular spirituality
  • Decling religious education
  • Pragmatic reasons
• Declining attraction of religion

  Young people are more likely to see Church services as boring/repetitive and dislike controversies due to religion
• Declining attraction of religion

  Former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, said he veiws the Church of England as an elderly lady who mutters away to herself in a corner
• Declining attraction of religion

  Controversies leading to young people leaving religion include; the ”gay cake” row and the heartbeat bill
• Expanding Spiritual marketplace

  Lynch suggets people turn away from the conventional ideas of religion due to more options and exposure to a diverse range of religious and spiritual ideas
• Privatisation of Belief

  Young people treat their faith as a private matter so dont make public displays such as going to services
• Privatisation of belief

  Davie called this ”believing without belonging”
• Privatisation of belief

  Some people also are religious but may not answer that in surveys or not realise they are
• Secular spirituality and the ”sacred”

  Lynch says young people find religious feeling in what is generally regarded as religious, like they find new forms to express it
• Declining Religious education

  Bruce said the CoE is unable to recruit people by socialising them into religious thinking
• Declining religious education

  Christian research shows half of children went sunday school a century ago compared to just 1/25 in 2000
• Pragmatic reasons

  Leisute has become a bigger part of people lives than religion as shops, pubs etc are open very long hours
• Pragmatic reasons

  Young people have access to more enjoyable activities rather than religion
• However, this trend does not affect everyone as Young Muslims are more likely than old people to identify via their religious beliefs
• The UK national Census found Ethnic minority religions tend to have a younger age profile
• 85% of Muslims are aged under 50 compared to only 55% of Christians