Thesis:Americans ages 18 to 29 are considerably less religious than older Americans, fewer young adults belong to any particular faith than older people do today and are also less likely to be affiliated than their parents' and grandparents' generations were when they were young.
Body Paragraph:There is a downward trend of respect in society for standard morals and values which is a direct result of the lack of religious influence among people today. This certain disregard for religion and religious beliefs can be attributed to a shift away from the traditional family structure. Ethical and moral standards are often gained through a religious belief, and these beliefs are taught at home. They are passed down from generation to generation. However, divorce is occurring at an alarming rate and non-traditional families are becoming more prevalent. Take for example the life experiences of those known as Generation X compared to members of the two older generations, Baby Boomers and Pre-Boomers. Forty-five percent of Generation X-era went through some sort of family disruption, such as the divorce or separation of their parents, or they were raised by a single parent. That compares to twenty-seven percent of the Baby Boomers and only twenty-three percent of the Pre-Boomers.
A result of this disruption in family dynamics is the low percentage of Generation X-era who said they were not involved in religion while growing up. Surveys show that thirty-five percent of Generation X-era indicated religious involvement while growing up compared with forty-five percent of Baby Boomers and fifty-three percent of Pre-Boomers. This represents a striking decline in involvement among the three generations. Generation X-era evidently felt less pressure or encouragement to participate in religious activities than their parents or grandparents, likely the result of a lack of family dynamics. While religious involvement is not strikingly different between Generation X-era and Baby Boomers, they are very different from Pre-Boomers. Generation X-era and Baby Boomers are more interested in personal autonomy, freedom, and independent thought, and for the most part are not committed to institutional religious involvement, which has generally negative effects on their ethical and moral values.
I like how you tied together morals and ethics at home to religion faith and beliefs. I do agree that you should be taught morals and ethics at home and if you have those, they can be a good structure to build on your religious brief. For instance, if you don't have any morals or ethic values and don't care about anything, you are more likely to not have a religion because you are careless and obviously don't want someone to tell you whats right or wrong or what to do or not to do
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed readin about your topic. It strikes home with me because i have also noticed the decline in religious belief in our generation. I agree with you point that a huge factor of this is our paretns generation.
ReplyDeleteIts really interesting that you brought it up religious topic with Generation ME. It's good topic and your body paragraph support your thesis.
ReplyDeleteI also talked about this topic in my paper and I see that we have found the same results regarding church attendance among millennials. I find it interesting how you talk about morals and ethics at home and how the divorce rate of the parents' generation is affecting them. The only thing that I think could make this better is if you add some quotes with the evidence you presented. Other than that nice job!
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