Originally posted by Adam_PoE
In the United States, 75% of Christians teens leave the faith after high school.
That wasn't my point though. I said the majority of religions get their adherents from children of the parents who are that denomination. This may be true, but it does nothing to negate my point, as it deals with an entirely different subject.
It remains true that religious converts are far outnumbered by inherited family tradition, at least among the advanced nations of the world. It would be nice to think every person evaluates various religions and beliefs once they are old enough to understand them, then they decide which one they feel is correct. But no, we have Bible study sessions for elementary school children while regular mass is given for teh adults, and indoctrination as soon as a child is old enough to understand the words and ideas.
And I'd like to see the numbers of teens who come back to a particular faith later in life, or even believe in their faith and just don't go to church on Sundays. Many teens are apathetic toward religion, but remain tacit believers (they'd fill out Christian on a census) or come back later in life (when they have kids or in old age, for example). Just throwing out that number is only concerned with one aspect of their lives.
Originally posted by DigiMark007This is very true. I see many nominal Christians return to church when they have children and call themselves Christian all their lives. I've seen it a lot with Catholics in my experience.
Many teens are apathetic toward religion, but remain tacit believers (they'd fill out Christian on a census) or come back later in life (when they have kids or in old age, for example).