Challenges Facing the Youth in Today’s Society
Most of the problems facing today’s youth are not restricted to any one ethnic or religious group, but affect young people generally. Most discussions on youth have focussed on issues such as drug abuse, crime, violence, sexuality and poverty. In addition to these, today’s youth are afflicted by new challenges.
These include:
1. An Identity Crisis: Who am I?
2. Lack of self confidence and low self esteem: I am worthless
3. A sense of hopelessness: Where am I going?
4. Confusion and ambiguity concerning moral issues: What is right and wrong?
5. The negative impact of the electronic media: Entertainment ?
6. Competitiveness in education: the uneven playing field: Excellence by
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As such the family and religion now have a minimal impact on the average youngster. The values emphasized today include individualism, Godlessness, materialism, secularism and rationalism. It is the youth who are encountering the most serious challenge to his/her faith under the impact of godless culture of modernity.
Best minds in our society are not socialized by religious institutions. The emphasis is on competitiveness, academic success, career goals, income and social mobility Little or no attention is given to preparing tomorrows leadership. There is no emphasis is placed on critical thinking , problem solving.
We are preparing followers, imitators conformists, and not leaders, innovators or problem solvers.
The youth is being asked to give up certain family and social values that were an integral part of their identity, and adopt in its place a sense of self-alienation, and become a self-estranged imitator of everything "modern".
We need to pay close attention to the effects of secularism: confining the role of religion to the private domain of the individual and creating a dichotomy between "religious" and "worldly," between "private" and "public." It denies religion and its mediating institutions any public function and influence in shaping matters of public policy.
Technology: internet and TV
We are witnessing a phenomenal advancement in technology over the last three decades, and our citizens are experiencing remarkable
The Bible speaks of our contemporary society as exhibiting an obvious self-sufficiency that disgusts God and hurts our communal living – for God intended that we lived as each other’s keeper. Young people have embraced the postmodern worldview – one with confused tenets that further allow youth freedom to be comfortable themselves with their own contradictions. Today, you can find that youth can be,
In his essay “The Meaning of Secularity”, Charles Taylor examines the role of religion in modern life in the United States, arguing that -- while it is invoked in public life -- it is generally a matter that has been supplanted by a new, modern “social imaginary” inspired by the various secular movements of the modern era. However, one key mistake is made by Taylor in his analysis. He fails to understand that the United States is sharply divided along political and demographic lines, and that each of these divisions represent drastically different ideas of the role of religion in government and public life.
To some extent it could be argued that the U.S is a less secularized country than Australia. However, with research as evidence it can be argued that the U.S is to the same extent as secularized as Australia. Both countries prohibit the religions from having any influence on the state by having a true separation. With the number of people believing in a religion constantly changing, it is evident that it has become stronger in the public sphere and that there is a strong connection between education and welfare levels of a country and it’s religious outlook.
So now we raise the question, what differentiates a religion-based government versus a secular one? In order to understand this question we must first take into account that there are no universally accepted guidelines for what constitutes a religion. However, there tend to be designated behaviors that are synonymous with religion such as specific practices, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, ethics, organizations, and the aspects that tend to be on the unquantifiable side such as supernatural, transcendental, or any spiritual elements. Taking these general standards into consideration, we can compare it with the definition of what a secular society entails. One manifestation of secularism is “asserting the right to be free from religious
[1.] Secularization Theory is the sociological concept that as society progresses, religious authority and beliefs play a diminishing role within it. This theory, however, takes on different dimensions at different levels of society. At the Micro-level, secularization theory is the decreased dependency on religion to establish a personal worldview, and thus a lesser role in defining a person's identity. Then at the Meso-level, decreasing trends in religious authority results in the emergence of private institutions that take over roles previously dominated by the religious organizations, producing conflict.
Evaluate the impact of secularisation on the 21st century church. Are there positive lessons modern believers can learn from secularists? Secularisation is defined as the process of social and cultural rejection of religious traditions by separating the state from the church. In the UK this process has notably increased since the beginning of the 21st century, but it is arguable whether it has significantly impacted the church negatively or positively. Therefore, this essay will examine the impacts secularisation has had on the Christian Church in the UK, and assess whether the impacts are harmful to the church and religion or beneficial.
The youth in society today are fairly at a disadvantage when it comes to being in a society where they are prejudged by their immaturity level and tend to make mistakes when mixed in with the wrong crowd of individuals. The youth form an essential part of any society. The youth are to be molded to become better adults as they are growing up in society, to become law abiding citizens. They are to be protected, guided and shielded from the evils of the world. There is no doubt that they create one of the most vulnerable and defenseless persons of our society.
The youth today are so buried in their phone, buried in a world of texting, social media, Netflix binging, buried in a world of pure laziness and no production. People waste most of their time watching videos or movies, being on social media all day or whatever other excuse there is to not focus their time on God, and eventually end up living most of their life without being an active religious follower. Social media became a place where the youth can share their ideas and views in many different religions. The youth can be pushed into one religion if they aren’t knowledgeable enough to direct themselves or they can open their eyes and keep in mind that there are other religions in which they can fall back to because of peer pressure.. Public schools teach the youth about the world’s religions which, again, can cause them to believe one is better than the other or have the freedom to pick and choose which religion best fits them. For example, someone may want to remain sexually active before marriage and they will pick a religion that allows that such as atheism, or may just become confused because of all the in depth knowledge about so many religions that they just think picking atheism is easier to live with and may just come to conclude that religion isn’t all that necessary. A
Today’s society, especially in the west, has grown to become more and more secular. It is said that this is due to our governments. Since religion is about faith, moral and voluntary associations they mean that if the government would be controlled by religion it would be forced to implement religious acts. That could often lead to unnecessary conflicts that eventually
Adolescence is a particularly important developmental period during which to study religious involvement. Research on religiosity in United States primarily focuses on adults over 18. Only a limited number of studies explore religiosity, practices, importance, and their relationship with positive outcomes in youth. During the transition to adolescence, teens grow in abstract thinking, as well as deductive reasoning, which allows them to question ideas regarding religion and spirituality. These studies indicate that religion in known to be an important factor in the lives of youth (Regnerus 2007; Smith and Denton 2005). Almost half of youth report that religion is significant to them and are attending religious services regularly (Smith and
As we have grown as a society, we have been able to recognize that the youth of our population has always been up against one problem or another. In the past youth have been faced with both the lack of money as well as misunderstandings with parents or teachers. Unfortunately, today's young generation have far more serious problems, such as the increases of teenagers who use alcohol and cigarettes on a daily basis or that many young people suffer from drug addiction. “According to statistics, every fifth teenager, arrested for criminal actions, is younger than 14 years old” (EnglishTopics, 2016). Overall, today’s young generation is faced with multiple issues that are being seen in a negative way, thus because of the lack of support and assurance
• Can freedom of religion and secularism coexist? How might they support one another? How might they undermine one another?
However, when parents encourage their children to express their own opinions, even when opposing to parent’s ideas, it can nurture sense of identity, self-confidence, and autonomously chosen values. Also highly religious adolescents and adolescents with religious parents are prone to likely exhibit positive behaviors and fewer high-risk behaviors (Muller & Ellison, 2001; Regnerus, 2003). In analyzing the article, it would have been beneficial to know if there was a strong distinction between Christianity, Judaism and Islam when it comes to adolescents and talking about religion. Also, the authors mentioned a scarcity in research on children and
As the Baby Boomers slowly fade and the Founders, the generation of social media and risk takers born after 2000, grow into the modern world, many are questioning religion in today’s prevailing society and if it should be taught in the home. In fact, the religious category of unaffiliated has risen from 16% in 2007 to 23% in 2014. However, this does not mean that the overall Christian religion is depleting as still seven of ten identify themselves as Christians.
We often hear the phrase “youth are the future,” which is undeniably true, as youth will inherit the world from those before them – this is a natural progression of life. Youth have the capability to look at the world with a fresh set of eyes. They are in a unique position to challenge social policy and build a future that works towards addressing some of the world's current issues: famine, poverty, gender equality, racism, infections diseases, climate change, war and terrorism, population crisis, and other ever-changing economically related concerns. While it does seem that our youth have