do you know any young Christians

[zope]

MIL (in her 60s and religious) recently came to stay with us and I accompanied her to church when we got there i was really shocked by how few people under the age of 60 there seemed to be to the point where I (now in my mid 40s) felt young again. There were a number of small children with grandparents but virtually no one age 10-60. I haven’t been to church since I was a child myself so I was quite taken aback, is this what most churches are like nowadays or was this a one off. Do you personally know any young as in teenagers or in their 20s/30s Christians and do they have many friends who are also Christian? I would honestly be interested?

The trouble with having conversations with several different people at once is that the arguments get distorted one way or another.

That's the hallmark of an intelligent person, right there. You've convinced me.

You know you can take your time, right? This is the internet. You go slow if you need.

Like others I think younger Christians tend to go to more evangelical denominations or at least very progressive C of E's that it's hard to remember they are C of E! There are many many of the latter and Churches filled with Uni students, young singles/couples/famlies.

I think it’s more common to find young Christians these days who are not white and British, the majority of the practising Christians I know are black or Eastern European. I did know one white British woman who went to church, but she would complain that her church is full of old people. She tried somewhere more popular with black worshipers as they tend to have a younger congregation, but she couldn’t get used to their style of worship.

@SarahAndQuack

The trouble with having conversations with several different people at once is that the arguments get distorted one way or another.

That's the hallmark of an intelligent person, right there. You've convinced me.

You know you can take your time, right? This is the internet. You go slow if you need.

I need to go slow to determine what the fuck you're trying to say...

You leap from the historical (the invention of the printing press!) to the 21st century ("fewer children from poorer families feel able to access higher education" - really? since when? source?), and make bold, unproven assertions ("you tend to find that in countries/demographics where religion is seen as respectable, it is correlated with high levels of education" really? source? the Pew research says otherwise).

I'm not leaping at all. I'm afraid I can't really help you if you don't follow - maybe read up on the subject, think a little, and if you're still struggling, then there are loads of books on the subject that might make things clearer. I'm not sure what else to say?

I could have sworn I'd read and thought quite a lot about this and shared some links on this thread. But your assertions are backed by "loads of books". Gotcha. Thanks for that.

@MasterBeth

I could have sworn I'd read and thought quite a lot about this and shared some links on this thread. But your assertions are backed by "loads of books". Gotcha. Thanks for that.

Oh, gosh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you feel bad. I'm sure you did feel you'd read and thought about it a lot. I get that you shared some links, too. And that's really important.

But, we are not just talking about what you 'could have sworn'. If you had any sensible proof, you'd have cited it, and you'd be able to defend it properly.

I thought sensible proof was stating that you can find the answer in loads of books.

@MasterBeth

It's pointless trying to argue with a religious person on subjects like that.

To be religious requires faith. Faith that there is something more than just this life.
Faith that there is a God who has an interest in how you live your life. Faith that the religion and god you just so happen to follow is the right one (out of how many hundreds??). Faith that the hundreds of year old stories you base your life on have been interpretated correctly and continue to be relevant.

Those acts of faith mean that the religious are happy to suspend the need for proof or reason and are prepared to accept an enormous amount on no evidence whatsoever. When you're dealing with someone who is willing to make monumental life choices based on nothing you're not going to change their minds...ever.

@maddiemookins16mum

SmugOldBag
Very heartening to hear this OP. Hopefully the church will die out in the UK soon. 
Would you also say this about Mosques, Temples and Synagogues

Yes I certainly would! Where I said 'church' read 'religion'. Religion doesn't belong in the 21st century.

[quote MasterBeth]@OMG12 But as you brought it up… Zuckerman, Miron; Li, Chen; Lin, Shengxin; Hall, Judith A. (15 October 2019). "The Negative Intelligence–Religiosity Relation: New and Confirming Evidence". Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 46 (6): 856–868.[/quote]
Is that the study that states “ There was no support for mediation of the IRR by education” and “ Additional empirical and theoretical work is needed to resolve this issue.”

From the bit I’ve seen it seems to hinge on analytical style rather than intelligence per se. Or at least the authors find this hypothesis “more interesting” which raises the possibility of confirmation bias in my mind.

However, I’ve not read the entire book, assuming you have, what’s your take?

I’d be interested to know how the studies you mentioned previously addressed the points on sample I raised too. You raise a valid point though about intellect and education (assuming that is your position as you said you didn’t raise the point about intellect only education) and if as you suggest the two are separate matters what are your thoughts on why education relates to a reduced occurrence of religious belief? Could this actually be a reflection of the thought processes currently favoured by the educational system of quantifiability and falsifiable hypothesis?

I'm a 29 year old Christian, as is my DH (31). Half our church is 18-40 year olds I would say. It's non denomination. Outside church I haven't met many Christians my age.

I'm 30 and I don't know anyone who goes to church. The only religious people I know are Muslim and even they aren't particularly strict.

I have never met a single person who goes to church, even in my childhood (and I am 38). In fact, I often wonder if anyone goes when I see a church and quite a few near me are closed (one is now a nightclub!).

It's quite surprising to see how many people on this thread go to church. I just assumed it had sort of died out.

In our church, a service with a very old person might not even be the service young families attend. Every church in our area has at least a handful of young families, but our church has the largest group of 11-18 year olds because parents actively want to send them to a place with more teens. We don't have many 18-28 year olds though because there is no uni in our town.

Our church is vaguely charismatic evangelical Anglican as well if that helps.

I know loads. I'm atheist myself but there seems a big network of young Christians around where I live. The church's are not like traditional ones, vibrant and full of young hipster looking types and lots of families. I've only realised through Facebook the links ( who knows who).

It would have been useful being new into an area with a young family to have that ready made community.

@garlictwist

I have never met a single person who goes to church, even in my childhood (and I am 38). In fact, I often wonder if anyone goes when I see a church and quite a few near me are closed (one is now a nightclub!).

It's quite surprising to see how many people on this thread go to church. I just assumed it had sort of died out.

A lot of churches don’t look like churches, though. Some churches are very modern buildings. There’s a big Baptist one on my high street and some people don’t realise it’s a church, even though they might walk past it several times a day. Some churches don’t have their own space and rent space in schools or community buildings. Some churches rent theatres or auditoriums.

No. Here it's all over 60s, and parents with primary-aged kids hoping to get them into a "church" secondary school that attend. Needless to say once kids are in the "right" school they don't bother anymore.
I know a few under 50s Christians but it's not really deemed cool.

A lot of younger people are accessing church services online since many churches started broadcasting over Lockdowns.
Then they develop their faith in Home Groups or Study Groups. Sunday morning church attendance isn't the whole story for the younger generation, and the church is reaching people where they are (on their phones).

[quote Thebestwaytoscareatory]@MasterBeth

It's pointless trying to argue with a religious person on subjects like that.

To be religious requires faith. Faith that there is something more than just this life.
Faith that there is a God who has an interest in how you live your life. Faith that the religion and god you just so happen to follow is the right one (out of how many hundreds??). Faith that the hundreds of year old stories you base your life on have been interpretated correctly and continue to be relevant.

Those acts of faith mean that the religious are happy to suspend the need for proof or reason and are prepared to accept an enormous amount on no evidence whatsoever. When you're dealing with someone who is willing to make monumental life choices based on nothing you're not going to change their minds...ever.[/quote]
It’s an interesting post. What’s your view on a “perennial philosophy” certain religions and Gods are manifestations of this based on cultures separated by time and space? Therefore one Source?

Many don’t believe in a personal God as you describe. Many do believe in this as being Nothing or No-thing.

Most who do shape their lives around religion would most likely say they are not basing their lives on “nothing” you are confusing quantifiable data with existence.

Maybe there is a symbiotic relationship between the divine and mankind? “God is dead [because] we have killed Him” maybe the human race is also on course for distinction. Or more likely we will create another God/gods to fulfil a basic human need that has existed throughout history. What makes us so special that out of nearly all of human existence we suddenly see the right way to view the world? Surely this is no better argument than the old one about which god?

But ultimately why would anyone want to change some one else’s mind? How about simple acceptance of different perspectives-evangelical thought processes exist outside of religion.

Meant to add, I live in an area with a lot of people from African or Caribbean backgrounds, and lots will go to church if they’re of a Christian faith. It’s very common and typical.

Depends on the church I think. I go to the toddler group at the local baptist church, and they seem to have quite a lot of younger members (in their 30s, and their children). They have a creche at Sunday service, have the toddler group, run events on weekends for the kids and the services are all family friendly.

I imagine its different at a stuffy church where everyone is expected to sit in silence through the service and kids aren't explicitly invited.

It seems like a lovely community and I would love to be part of it, but I just don't believe and never will.

I'm a Christian as is my partner. He is very involved in his church and it's a very young demographic, but we do live in a student city. At the dc's school is a c of e primary and there is a huge number of Christian church going families.

I didn't grow up in this city and it's definitely not what I witnessed growing up where I knew no one that went to church!