Why are religious teens happier than their secular peers?
bostonglobe.com
bostonglobe.com
I've lived most of my life in countries that are much more secular than the US (and briefly in the US). In majority secular places I think I observe a reversal, although I don't know about teens, just in general. It's like being outside the social norm is the issue.
While people like to dump on religions and argue about them for many reasons, it's kind of foolish to assume that they're horrible or incapable of helping people.
At various point in time many christians believers became "basic christians" rejecting all communities/church calling them for what effectively they are: PR agencies with big or less big financial and influential power. In other world toxic and oppressive environments. I've no doubt many part of them are genuine people, but that's is the mean, the org, and the psychological substance.
Here’s but one study of a multitude https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2019/01/31/are-relig...
And how do you know that? I imagine someone could come to that conclusion by doing something like generalizing from 10 minutes of AM talk radio or direct mail flyers, but kind of thing won't shed any light on the day to day experience of actual conservative people.
And the GP is right. I listened to an Ezra Klein (a progressive) podcast about teen mental health, and the expert noted that phenomena the GP refers to: teen mental health is better for kids from conservative families than kids from liberal families. One of the theories they put out is maybe conservative families put more limits on smartphone/social media use, while liberal families did not and eagerly embraced the new thing, resulting in their kids getting more unmitigated exposure to psychologically damaging technology.
I guess that in real life they were more open about what they really thought.
North Winds Blowing, The Stranglers
Conservatives culturally live in a mind castle of sorts. Very few things actually shake them because their core set of beliefs, by their very virtue, do not really shift at all. Political conservatives also believe heavily in incremental progress. They don't actually care if they get all of what they want now. Even if they don't obtain it they'll obtain the ultimate prize for having contributed and that's all that really matters to them.
Liberals on the other hand, and non-believers, are subject to science which by its very nature is often contradictory in the short term to ascertain longer term truths. Living year to year in that reality can leave your beliefs shook in one way or another. Liberalism is also not nearly as homogenous as conservativism when it comes to core beliefs; in fact, things change all the time and sometimes at a pace too fast for even liberals to keep up with. To liberals the future isn't filled with hope. Our planks have to do with equality, climate change, distribution of resources, and a variety of topics that are huge. Doubly so, were impatient and don't have a somewhat cynical view of incrementalism because the stakes are here and now on Earth, not in some after life.
Thus the jokes about "I stand with `$CURRENTTHING`".
>and sometimes at a pace too fast for even liberals to keep up with
I saw a good description (on /r/4chan, no less) of this: People who constantly check in on each other to see what the latest things are to embrace/avoid.[1] What a miserable way to live.
[1] I would add that even more important is to denounce/shun when the latest thing to embrace/avoid isn't being embraced/avoided
Now imagine believing that there was Someone there - not just the impersonal universe. And that Someone knew who you were, and cared about you, and wanted to be in relationship with you instead of just at a distance. And that Someone was in control of what happened, and could be trusted with the future.
Yeah, you don't believe it. You think it's brain-dead. You think it's against all the evidence. But can't you see that, if you did believe it, it would change everything about how you viewed the world, and your place in it, and your situation? Can't you see how you wouldn't be in despair any more, even in the same circumstances?
That's why religious teens are happier than their secular peers.
(And, as spamizbad pointed out, the community aspects help too.)
But one weird realization I’ve had is that i’m sort of devoutly atheistic. Like you might think as an atheist I wouldn’t care about say converting to Judaism to get married and yet I wouldn’t. Partly out of respect for Judiasm! I think I wonder, what is the implication of this.
Should I try to be more religious? Is happiness the ultimate goal over I dunno, some sense of being true to myself? Does it even work for people who don’t truly believe?
From a philosophical perspective, "He Is There And He Is Not Silent" by Francis Schaeffer is solid. It's simple, but very deep.
(Smith's life is thoroughly, unflinchingly documented: https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/ ).
(Thoughtful comments appreciated with any downvotes.)
At its root I wonder - is there a halfway point between I have all the answers and will try to remake the world into that image, and staring into the abyss.
I mean, part of becoming an adult is accepting the fact that it’s not all happiness all the time.