I'd love to hear your feedback on the following news story titled: Spirituality, Not Religion, Makes Kids Happy .
This seems to pick up on the war between spirituality and religion. Institutions are distrusted, while the "personal aspects ... (meaning and value in one's own life) and communal aspects (quality and depth of inter-personal relationships)" are valued.
My thought is that I would hope that our religion (as defined by the researchers and by most people currently) would inform and increase our spirituality, otherwise, it is not doing it's job. Also, which would you rather have: A "well-adjusted and well-behaved child" or a "happy" child (although it's never explicitly said what that is - possibly "not depressed")
Other thoughts?
2 comments:
I don't know how well a child could truly understand "religion" right away anyway. I think that it is good that at least there is a positive aspect for kids and that they don't completely hate it, but that doesn't mean my kid won't go to church. I take what the research shows with a grain of salt since kids still don't have the mental ability to plan ahead and rationally reason things out, so how can they know about religion?
It seems to be restating an old psychological tidbit we've more or less known for years; human beings crave purpose. The question is whether or not rituals themselves are perceived to fulfill one's life or not.
I think that since today's western culture tends to be moving away from ritual (or at least, what has been traditionally understood as such), the "rituals" of religion are no longer helpful for deriving meaning and purpose in life in this context.
But then again, there seems to be an awful lot of growth in some traditional-style congregations AND emerging-style congregations that both employ a lot of ritual. I think the difference is that these congregations have found a way to make their rituals effectively convey meaning to the people who partake of them, rather than simply maintaining a ritual for that ritual's sake.
I imagine that one's definition of "religion" probably plays a part in this too ... I'd say that good religion is practicing one's spirituality with appropriate rituals and being flexible when they cease to be helpful. But most people don't think of it that way. The whole "religion vs. spirituality" thing has only been a recent development, it didn't used to be a separate concept. I think the debate shows us more about our culture than it really tells us about the nature of our own psychology.
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