Religion’s impact on daily life

January 14, 2021

The latest show on Netflix.

The newest trend on social media. 

The project due in some class. 

Topics such as these seem to fill the lives of teenagers.

But religion still has its place for many students. 

In this second part of a WTV Special Report, Executive Producer Cooper Ragle continues his exploration of the world of teenagers and religion.

 

Since its inception, religion has been fought over and tested, but thousands of years after it first appeared on earth, these students still believe religion has a place in today’s society.

“I think religion affects society because it really gives people something to believe in, it gives hope,” class of 2020 graduate Jared Jones said. “Overall I think religion itself is like a good way for people to have somebody to believe in, and something to look forward to. It answers questions that, like people, know like how the earth came to be and where we’re going after death and things like that that really just like puts leads to people’s minds I think that’s one big reason why people find this agenda so intriguing in society.”

It holds people to a certain moral standard or conduct that just like kind of help frame society in a way and so that’s why you see it a lot,

— senior Safa Ashraf

“So religion is affecting our society mainly today because it holds people to a certain moral standard or conduct that just like kind of help frame society in a way and so that’s why you see it a lot,” senior Safa Ashraf said. 

“Religion is definitely one of the biggest factors of our social and political conflicts but it also is the reason that a lot of people stick to what’s morally right,” senior Chloe Zonis said. “Although like there are a lot of disputes over territories and what have you due to religion, it also sets a great standard for people growing up in their own religion.”

However for some students on campus, religion doesn’t play a role in their lives.

“I just grew up in a house that wasn’t very religious so I just never had that in my life, so once I started to form my own beliefs I decided I was an atheist,” class of 2020 graduate Emma Varela said. “My dad is an atheist, my mom is Catholic, so I did have a little bit of religion in my life but she’s not really practicing, so I didn’t really go to Church as a kid or have that.”

But even with a lack of religion, questions can still stir about religious practices and ideals.

According to a recent Pew Research Center Study, approximately 63 percent of Americans identify as Christian, 2 percent as Jewish, 1 percent as Muslim, and 1 percent as Buddhist.

“Definitely, like even nowadays I do question sometimes, ‘Oh maybe there is a god, maybe it would be better if I had God in my life,’” Varela said. “Because I would have faith and stuff like that, then I realize, I look at the facts and everything I’ve been told my entire life, what my dad tells me, what other atheists that I have conversations with tell me, or like the media and stuff like that, that like I don’t believe in it. I’ve never read the Bible, but I do want to read the Bible, because it’s always good to be informed about everything in the world.”

When it comes to the concepts and ideas tied to religion, there’s one thing that varela struggles with.  

“Yes, if like there were straight facts or if God, because people always say Jesus comes to them or like an angel talks to them, I never believe those stories,” Varela said. “I think it’s just like, ‘Oh I’m getting attention’, but if God did come to me and was like ‘I’m here’ or there was a straight proof of another being, then I would totally believe in it, like I sometimes, I always wanna believe in reincarnation, of like Buddhism ya know? Because I think it’s a really cool idea and I am afraid of just, nothing being there, which is also what made me an atheist because I think people made religion because they’re just afraid of dying and want something else, like they don’t wanna just die, they want something else to happen to them so that’s why. I’m afraid of the blackness, the nothingness, so I’m like ‘maybe some reincarnation would be fun.’”

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