Among all things, could debates about the age of the earth, intelligent design versus evolution, and six-day versus gradual creation be drawing young people away from the Christian faith?
Ken Ham, famous for his Answers in Genesis creation-science ministry, says a major study he commissioned reveals the reasons why many young people are leaving the Church. According to
a recent article, a respected researcher uncovered that two-thirds of young people in evangelical churches will leave as they approach their 20s.
In Ham's new book, "Already Gone: Why Your Kids Quit Church and What You Can Do to Stop it," a collaborative effort with researcher Britt Beemer, church youth are already "lost" in their hearts and minds during elementary and high school, not college as many expect.
Beemer conducted this study via phone interviews and surveys with 1,000 20 to 29 year-olds who used to attend evangelical churches on a daily basis.
The results struck Ham with surprise. According to these interviews and surveys, children who faithfully attended Bible schools are more likely to question Scriptural authority and eventually fall away from the church. He calls this the "Sunday school syndrome."
The survey reveals that children who regularly attend Sunday school are more likely to leave the Church, believe that the Bible is less true, defend the legality of abortion and same-sex marriage and defend premarital sex.
Although Ham believes that there are various reasons for this, he thinks the source of the problem is how churches and parents teach children to interpret the creation account in Genesis.
Ham firmly believes in six-day creation that occurred 6,000 to 10,000 years ago and argues that the Church opened up the door for the exodus of youth in the 19th century as soon as they began teaching that "the age of the Earth is not an issue as long as you trust in Jesus and believe in the resurrection and the Gospel accounts."
Ham believes that the youth of younger generations may have been better able to deal with this inconsistency and hold onto their faith, but today, with a highly secular and athiestic public education system, it becomes harder for young people to mesh together what they have learned at church and in school.
According to Ham, when parents and teachers tell kids that it's okay to believe in evolution that occurred over millions of years, they come to believe that what they learned in school is always correct. And what is taught in school has nothing to do with, and often contradicts, what Scripture teaches.
After reviewing the survey results, Ham came to the conclusion that as soon as youth believe that Scripture is not the authority on the creation of the universe, they instantly question Scriptural authority as a whole. This is dangerous, because the foundation of Christianity rests on Scripture.
In Ham's book, he intends to prevent youth from leaving Christianity by proving that the Bible connects to reality and is based on history.
Why do you think many youth are drifting away from Christianity? Do you think it has anything to with confusion about the origin of the universe and humanity, as Ham argues?
Comments (685)
Maybe churches in America should stop worrying about why kids/people are "falling away" and instead turn their attention to those that are in church to disciple them as Jesus commissioned the Church to do. I have no doubt that when that happens (a focus on quality regardless of quantity) the people who are intensely-discipled will have a stronger effect (of love) on the people around them, drawing in people whose hearts will genuinely be changed by a relationship with the Lord.
After reviewing the survey results, Ham came to the conclusion that as soon as youth believe that Scripture is not the authority on the creation of the universe, they instantly question Scriptural authority as a whole. This is dangerous, because the foundation of Christianity rests on Scripture.
This is a false statement. This statement holds that the false doctrine of sola scritura doctrine is true. Christianity is founded on the teachings of Jesus, not on Scripture. If Scripture were the basis for Christianity, then there would have been no need for Jesus to come. The Holy Spirit could have continued to inspire people to keep writing Scripture.
If young people are taught that a false doctrine is the basis for their faith, it's no wonder they leave.
The sola scritura doctrine defies the common sense that thinking people hold so dear. Most people would not believe in a religion that was based on a false doctrine. Unfortunately, for many, religion like politics is not based on principle but on some sort of emotional appeal.
If the emotional appeal somehow wears off, that leaves the intellect free to do its business.
@MrsDarcy_MrsDarcy_MrsDarcy@xanga - Your comment is the reason I have trouble with such extreme christianity. I have a degree in geology. I've done plenty of "reading" on the subject.
@x_Butterflies_and_Hurricanes_x@xanga - Well, really, if you call this extreme, then the problem, I assure you, is not me. You need to read much more broadly. Open your mind to other possiblities than the company line. And don't be so proud: I have a (secular) degree in biology, which is a pretty central discipline to the discussion of origins.
@MrsDarcy_MrsDarcy_MrsDarcy@xanga - no its all the people who think that everything scientific is not scientific and not based on logic whatsoever, when that is solely what science is.
We're tired of youth pastors who half ass their jobs and don't talk about the important things; they don't answer the hard questions.
We're tired of trying to find a new church, and in our attempts to fit in, we're foiled by cliques and are ostracized for not putting up a front, trying to convince everyone that we actually follow The Bible, when we only pick it up to occasionally wipe the dust off of it.
We're tired of worship bands who half ass their jobs.
We're tired of apathy.
We're tired of having to follow rules when we feel like there's no point since "all you have to do is believe in him and apologize to be saved".
When we actually read The Bible, we only produce more questions that will never be answered at church, 'cause our pastors will half ass an answer.
Yes, it is true that youth (and young adults) are turning away from Christianity, but it happens for many reasons.
In my family, we were all raised Christian, but 2 out of 4 brothers left Christianity, and those 2 were the ones who had been most dedicated to Jesus and had wanted to be ministers; they were the ones who studied the Bible the most. Faith seems easier for the other two brothers because they do not examine anything in great depth, but they cannot actually even address the arguments of the 2 who left Christianity.
But every family is different. Some people have friends who show them problems with the Bible; other people may not study at all but just come to feel that church members are fake and do not have genuine divine power in their lives.
Human origins and evolution are only one part of the problem. Sometimes those may serve as the first clue that something is amiss, but then other issues combine to drive people away.
Some Christians (like my family) are taught that the Bible is completely true and infallible and the word of God and that they must rely on faith, BUT then it only takes a single contradiction to shake their faith; then, when they read history or study science, they learn information that runs counter to the Bible, yet is well-established enough to be in any encyclopedia, and relies on evidence and not faith. This causes lots of confusion. Examples:
-- Adam and Eve being created in c. 4100 BC according to Biblical genealogies or study-Bible time-lines, whereas fossil and other archaeological evidence shows humans were around much earlier.
-- The "global" flood of Noah occurring in the 2400's BC according to the Bible, whereas both history and archaeology show not only no global flood during human history, but continuous human civilization in multiple parts of the world from long before the 2400's BC. It doesn't help that the Bible story seems to have borrowed from an earlier Babylonian version, which itself borrowed from an earlier Sumerian version.
-- Historical and archaeological evidence contrary to a literal interpretation of even the Moses/Exodus story, which the Bible places in the 1400's BC -- a problem since Egypt was actually at the height of its power from the 1400's through the 1200's.
Some Christians think such stuff doesn't matter, but they're simply lazy and undereducated.
Ham does have a point in saying that it is wrong to think we can easily be Christians even if we dismiss the Old Testament stories, since Jesus and other New Testament characters are presented as supporting the Genesis stories. ex. Luke's genealogy assumes that there were only 77 generations of humans from God to Jesus through Adam. This matches Genesis closely enough, but how can it be reconciled to science or even ancient literature, since Egyptians, Sumerians, Greeks, and Hindus all thought humans had been around long before that?
When former Christians are displaying this information everywhere and nobody offers serious rebuttal on specific points, it makes Christianity look like ancient superstition rather than truth. My own example: http://www.geocities.com/investigatingchristianity/OTChrono.html.
But there are many other issues. Example: I know multiple people who were once dedicated Christians involved in ministry but they did studies of all the messianic prophecies in the Old Testament and concluded 1. that Jesus did not fulfill many of them, and 2. that New Testament writers took many "prophecies" out of context. 2 examples: (my own) http://www.geocities.com/investigatingchristianity/MessianismPreChristian.html , (and one, J. A. Priest I found yesterday linked in a discussion on the TED.com site) http://www.landcastlepublishing.com/ .
If that were not bad enough, in both of the last examples, the authors also found other problems with the New Testament. J. A. Priest, for example, tried to make a single biography of Jesus by combining Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but he ended up convinced of their irreconcilability. The other site shows contradictions in resurrection accounts. I could not rebut such arguments.
And that's from unknown people. There are much more well-known people like Dan Barker , former preacher and Christian musician, and John Loftus, former apologist and student of William Lane Craig and contributor to http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/. These guys are publishing books explaining why they left the faith (example 1, 2,), and for many intellectuals, Christian apologists simply cannot compete with the evidence and logic of these former Christians who know all the apologists arguments, because they themselves used to make them. And there are famous professors of religious studies who grew up dedicated Christians but over time became very liberal, agnostic, or atheistic as a result of their studies of the Bible itself and history. They, too, are putting out numersous very-well-researched books that receive less-well-written rebuttals from Christian apologists. Examples: Bart Ehrman at U. of North Carolina, and Robert M. Price.
As a young man, I wanted, more than anything, to serve God and to be a minister, but the more I studied, the more I realized that I had been lied to, even if unintentionally. The Bible had plenty of error. Christianity was an old fraud. People like Ken Ham became only an embarrassment, not an asset. Astronomy, tree rings, ice cores, glaciation, fossils galore, carbon dating, potassium-argon dating, stratigraphy, plate tectonics, Milankovitch cycles, ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian history and literature and archaeology, etc. all line up against Ham and his like, which is why young earth creations repeatedly lose in their attempts to gain credibility.
And there are even more obvious problems that people sometimes skip over, like erroneous Biblical cosmology - http://windonreed2.xanga.com/705377790/biblical-cosmology-and-its-problems/ .
So I left Christianity when I saw what lies it was propagating, and I posted my reasons http://www.geocities.com/investigatingchristianity/index.html .
And NOT EVEN ONCE in the last 10 years have I met or corresponded with a single Christian able or even willing to address my points, especially in detail. That is why people are leaving and will leave as education continually improves.
My opinion is that they are drifting be cause it doesn't offer the self gartification that many people want. We want feel good we are great messages, and many churches just tell them what is wrong with them, and that they are living a life of sin. They don't want to feel bad about what they do, or the party they went to last night.
i just think we're more open to other thoughts and political issues. church will always be there for us when we need it, but at times, we want to educate ourselves through other means, i believe.
@LoBornlite@xanga - Is exactly right. As soon as evangelical churches quit worshiping the Bible and start worshiping Jesus, there will be far fewer problems. I know the Bible is the inspired word of God, however inspiration is not the same as dictation. The Bible is neither a science book nor a history book. If you are going to take away my freedom to read what others write and understand the Bible through the prism of the time, place, and literary devices of the authors, then you have lost me already. God did not give us a mind that is infinitesimally more powerful than the most powerful supercomputer to see us waste it on stopping at "...a curse".
Hey
I think young people are leaving the church for a number of reasons, in addition to feeling it isn't relevant. We often don't feel wanted. It seems to us that it's a lot of "old people" junk. And by junk I mean legalism. There is always lots of talk of wanting the "next generation" and for the young ones to "rise up" but how many churches out there are ACTUALLY allowing that to happen? How many churches are ASKING their young people's opinion? How many churches are letting them lead worship, prepare and give messages (once screened by the pastor and all)?
My church is, and the result is phenomenal. My now 16 yr old brother has been preaching since grade 8. He knows who he is in Christ, and because someone trusted him to give a message he has been searching out who Christ is for himself.
My church has ministry teams that are made up entirely of young people, they train us, and guide us and help us =)
It wasn't always like this, and I've been in churches where no one pays attention to the young people, until something goes wrong. But if you're never there when the good things are happening, and only want to yell condemnation at the young people, of course they're going to leave. It doesn't mean you CONDONE the bad stuff (ie some older young people invited some underagers to +19 event) but it doesnt mean you condemn it. Sure, there were consequences, but it was ALL done in a spirit of love.
And that's what matters.
That the young people feel loved, and accepted =)
I think that people are finally thinking for themselves. I know personally I grew up in a (very much) christian family, but then by age 10 realized I did not believe it. So after quite some research i found a belief that I truly can say that I believe in and have experienced to be true.
@x_Butterflies_and_Hurricanes_x@xanga - Not quite. That's what science is supposed to be, but not everybody who calls himself a scientist is scientific, and many dogmas that claim to be scientifically derived are based on very bad syllogisms, or no syllogisms at all. You mustn't be a mindless sheep. You have to think for yourself, and it doesn't look like you know how to do that yet.
The only way we'll get people to believe in Christianity is a worldwide effort at reshaping the Culture and the religeon as we know it. Sort of a like the secret society the Masons, minus the "do-nothing" approach. As our forefathers came together and made groundlines for American's to live by, there is now a need for a society to be formed where our very Culture is reevaluated, and new groundlines be set for the ever-lasting future.
It's the only way.
@WindOnReed2@xanga - You haven't been looking in the right places. Try going to the Intelligent Design crowd. They are smart and not specifically religious. Very scientific. You'll learn some things that will help you in your obviously intense search for understanting.
@YouKnowI@xanga - Huh?
:) A new movement? A rebirth say. People getting together for good, realizing what's evil and what isn't, and what leads to evil, etc, etc etc. Then forming new rules, etc etc. :)
It's the only way. Otherwise we'll all be in the shadows as we have for so long. Distracted by building nations, developing toys from our discovery of electricity. God has taken the backseat for too long. I SEE EVERYTHING!
@WindOnReed2@xanga - And NOT EVEN ONCE in the last 10 years have I met or corresponded with a single Christian able or even willing to address my points, especially in detail.
All you've done is prove that the foundational Protestant doctrine of sola scritura is false. You have not proven Christianity false.
I will address your concerns if you bottom line them. I don't have time to read through all your stuff.
If you want to know the Truth behind any issue, you can come to me, and I'll tell you EXACTLy what I think.
@MrsDarcy_MrsDarcy_MrsDarcy@xanga - I know how to think for myself perfectly fine. Thanks.
I think it can do with all the science, but I think the main problem is how boring the church can be, and how boxed in God can be. It's like He gets boxed into a message and people let others (pastor) go to God for them... and it gets old, outside of the box life doesn't really change. I'm a Christian, but wow my walk got much deeper when I actually found myself involved in church like going out into the city to help people, and got involved away from the church, like in my room, studying the bible myself. :) I asked God the hard questions nobody else knew and got answers... so yeah, I'm 18, and have an enjoyable time in church :D
@WindOnReed2@xanga - If you are looking for cosmic order in the Bible it's no wonder you took you left Christianity!
God is completely ordered and true. But man is finite and even the best among us is highly disordered. Consequently, though inspired by the Holy Spirit a human authored work on God will be subject to human disorder and not even come close to capturing the true nature of God.
This is why orthodox Christianity is not a Scripture driven religion. Christianity is a Church driven religion. Jesus created the Church as his Bride. The Church is Christ's continued presense of earth.
Sola scritura, the Protestant doctrine that demands that Christianity be a scripturally driven religion is a heresy concocted by religious maniac Martin Luther. Sola scritura is a man-made doctrine and has absolutely nothing to do with correct Christian teachings.
@SUPAHeARt@xanga - *sigh* I think that church is more than just a place for you to be entertained.