Teens and Religion (Conclusion)

Even though teens may have several different views on religion, many more teens will practice their faith to a greater extent if they are educated about it. As kids, we are taught our morals and customs, and if we are taught well, we are more likely to live by those teachings and pass them on. If this happens, our culture will start to accept God more, and there would be less teenage rebellion, thus causing teens to be less likely to engage in risky behavior. If we don't accept God the way we should, our community will dive deeper and deeper into the realm of sin.

Teen Statistics

3 out of 4 teens believe God helps those who help themselves. Researchers say only 4% of teens in this generation will be bible believing Christians. Up to 90% of those who come to christ do so before they are 20.1 of 4 uses illegal drugs, and 1 of 3 has been drunk in the past month. 9 out of 10 have seen porn online. 1 million teen girls are pregnant, and 340,000 have abortions every year. 4 of 10 has inflicted pain on them selves. Numbers show that 35 % of adults are Bible believing Christians and at this rate that number will go down to 4%. 1500 commit suicide every year. one half are no longer virgins. There are 3 million teens suffering from alcoholism only in the U.S. Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of teen deaths. 1 of 3 high school and college students have been in an abusive relationship. Over 8 million new STD cases occur among teens each year. In 120 minutes there will be 160 dropouts. In 2 hours 120 of teens will run away from home, 480 will get high on pills, and 720 will catch a STD. These statistics are not easy to read and under stand but they are very much true. how do you feel about these statistics and what can people do to make some of theses statistics less

a.morin

Premarital Sex

Sexually active teenagers, in America, are a significant thing going on in the world today. A question that rings in the minds of teenagers everywhere is when to have sex. Our Catholic teachings, instruct us to wait until one is in a loving marriage to have sex. Not only is the church preaching abstinence, but now public schools are also teaching students on the advantages of abstinence. Premarital sex is a growing, and important issue. Premarital sex is usually the cause of sexually transmitted diseases, teen pregnancy, and deep, emotions of regret. Nationally, one-quarter of 15 year old females and less than 30% of 15 year old males have had sex, compared with 66% of 18 year old females, and 68% of 18 year old males who have had sexual intercourse. So this means many teens have sex which is wrong and against out religion. I thin the reason why teens all in to sex so fast is because they see all there friends doing it and them telling other teens how much fun and exciting it really is. what are your views on premarital sex, do you think its wrong? Why or why not?

A Godless Society

It’s a shame how most teens today do not know their faith well, or do not care about their faith as much as they should. Most teens today get easily distracted by trivial things, most commonly being technology and forms of media, such as television, that they forget to put God first and practice their faith. In some cases, kids and teens were not properly educated about their faith by parents or other role models, so they don't understand how important God is. Because of this,most teens live a lifestyle that doesn't put any importance on God. If teens are better educated about their faith, more teens would make more time for God and be in church more often, and would be less likely to engage in sinful activities. Since we live in a society that tries its hardest to outlaw God, teens suffer the most by not getting a proper education about their faith. Ironically, in other cultures that incorporate God into their society, teens have no problem accepting their faith since they are taught early on that God is supposed to play an important part in their lives. This says something about our culture. It says that we don't care about God at all, or that we don't need religion when in fact, we do.

Tangibilty and Teens

The world is such a materialistic place, its simply teeming with tangibility. Tangibility deals with the physical aspect of somethings very nature. As humans we seek tangibility to own a sense of stability in our daily rituals. Faith is not a tangible thing, but the process of worshiping God includes a very real aspect of it, the church. The church, something many attend with a rigid will and the others finding it to burdening and annoying. Going to mass is the physical aspect of faith because we are considered to be openly participating in the sacraments, or Christ himself. God is something many teens consider 'ritualistic', simply because parents took them to church as children. Our experiences as children were simplistic and as children grow, as many end to do, they began to question God, or in many cases the church itself.What many of our parents failed to instill in us was the experience of God, not church. We went to church and experienced an empty handed sense of reasoning and created a weak basis for faith. Questioning a few people around school came up with the same results.
When asked if they attended masses outside school, about seven out ten people responded with 'no'. all those who said no were quick to add they used to go as children, but simply stopped attending around twelve or thirteen years of age. Those who attended church only two out of those three found that church felt important to them. The one who said it wasn't important responded, "I feel like I attend church because I'm asked to go. To be honest I really don't care, but I do believe in God. I just find going kind of annoying." Is this what attending church had become, a burden to 33% of teens i interviewed that attended mass services? A curious thing about the group interviewed is that many of their parents stopped going when they stopped going. Families often attend church together as an activity of sorts. It's easy to infer that when their child stopped going that family activity came to end and was treated like many childish fads our parents indulged.

The Teenager and the "Dead God"

Nietzsche made the famous quotation that "God was dead, he remains dead, and we have killed him." This idea carried over into the year 2010, and while we refuse to acknowledge the lack of commitment in our lives to the old church teachings and a sense of empty words that spew out when speaking of morals and how we feel about God. our culture is the epitome of posh style and complete destitution. We, the middle class teenagers, have all dealt with significant changes in our day to day lives. Teens enjoy a liberal sense of view which can be traced back to the liberal movements made by the college kids of the 1960s and early 70s. The changes produced a terracotta of ideas that moved from the old ideas of conservatism. However somehow in our quest to modernize, out ideas of our relatioship withGod changed.
The old ideas of conservatism often included church attendance and a "cookie-cutter" society which in the fifties a revival of the ideas put fourth in the early nineteen-hundreds. The end of the old culture became apparent when the babyboomer generation finally reached adulthood. The musical, social, economic, and sexual revolutions paved the way for new generations to expand the web of liberalism to a point where teens were also able to question their roles and faith in society. Questioning God became a common thing and suddenly a gap was forming. Transitioning into adulthood left people feeling rather loose in a roundabout way. No more church, no more old testament, no more 'old' God. Somehow revolting against the old ways once more because teens felt that the faith was slightly out of touch with the 'new' world. so in a sense we did infact kill God, a 'god' that is. the new century destroyed an old school of thought of what faith meant, and although it was not a tangible thing teenagers still believe in a 'God', just not the 'old' one.

Teens everyday life involving the Church

Why has the Church become only about coming closer to God and communicating with him? Well, with modern technology we are able to use a website or a blog to express our true emotions and feelings on such topics. With religion being a very small portion of a teens life we have to rely on these aids to assist teens in their quest to become a true believer in Christ. Hearing stories of his miracles and his choice in words help us to be very intellectual in the sense that his teachings can relate to what is happening in todays world. The Ten Commandments were spelled out to us and we grow up remembering the core meanings to them. However, we stray away from what they really mean. Going to Church helps us recant on what we must do to stay in the right path. Jesus and his words are a guideline for us as teens become more consistent in attending a weekly mass. Without mass we become non believers in the sense that we cannot hear and understand what jesus had done on his time on Earth, rather we would just read out of a bible and be unable to comprehend anything. Therefore, with Mass, we can hear with the pirests tone of voice and emphasis the excitement the Jesus once had and his followers. Do you think that Mass has the same lasting affect on teens? Why or why not?