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Religion Important to Young Americans

Written By Timothy Fish

Published 9/5/2007

Religion is important. At least, that is what 65% of the young Americans from 13 to 24 in a recent MTV/Associated Press poll indicated. The study also indicates that religion makes them happier than those without religion. It is good that they are taking a more scientific approach to this, but I could have saved them a lot of money and told them that. For years, churches have been saying the same thing. True happiness cannot be achieved without God and it is important to be actively involved in serving him.

The study did not focus on any particular religious group. Also, the measure of happiness was to ask the respondents if they were happy. Under the conditions of the study, it is doubtful that we can draw any conclusions about the effectiveness of various things in making an unhappy person happy. It is unlikely, for example, that a teenager who has just be dumped by her boyfriend is suddenly feel happy again after attending church or that church attendance will prevent a feeling of unhappiness when unpleasant things happen. What we can take from this is that young Americans may not be as morally bankrupt as what some people seem to think. It appears that young Americans see the importance of religion and family as well as the relative unimportance of things, but they still need guidance to point them in the right direction.