Is God on for old people?

 July 30 2005

Question:

Is God just for old people?  I’m 10 years old, and it seems to me like the only people in our family who are religious are old (like my grandparents).  Why is that?

Billy Graham’s answer:

No, God isn’t just for old people!  People of all ages need God, and the Bible especially urges young people to “remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come.” (Ecclesiastes 12:1) At the same time, many old people do take their faith more seriously, and this may give the impression that older people are more religious.  Why are they this way?  I think one reason is because older people have seen more of life, and they know from experience that life without God is empty.  They also know that life is short, and someday soon they will face God.

Jen’s response:

Older people in our society are indeed more religious then their younger counterparts.  But, you find religious and non-religious people in all age groups, so you can’t really generalize. 

Graham’s thinks older people are more religious because they are more experienced.  However, young people today are simply much more educated about religious diversity then our grandparents were.  Back in their day, there wasn’t TV, Internet, or even cultural diversity in their communities.  They grew up and were raised in a church and everyone they knew was taught to believe the same thing they were taught.  They just didn’t encounter different ways of thinking.  It is very easy to be devout in such an environment.

However, people today are global citizens.  We are more aware that there are other religions out there and that not everyone believes as we do, even if we don’t know what it is those other folk believe.   We are also more aware that there are folk that don’t believe at all, even if we do not understand why.  We are at least aware of their existence.

What this means in real terms is that it is much more likely that a young person will a) question the validity of the faith of their parents, and b) come to consider all religious belief basically equivalent.  Kind of like the metaphor of a gem.  Different religions are simply looking at the same truth through different facets of the gem.  When this is what is being taught, it is easy to see why young people just wouldn’t consider it a priority.

Also, more and more families are finding out that they have better things to do on the weekends then sit in a stuffy room listening to a sermon that really doesn’t have anything to do with their lives in the here and now.  And, once you try not going to church and nothing bad happens to you, you aren’t struck down by lightening or anything like that.  Well, then the fire and brimstone fear tactics that used to drive people into the pews, just doesn’t have the affect it once used to.  This effect is the release of fear.  And, not going to church is truly a liberating experience, and people like freedom; so, they don’t go like they used to.

Now, I know, my devoutly religious counterparts will cry out that my attitude is exactly what is wrong with the world; that people are too free.  To these folk, the world is a scary and dangerous place, filled with demons and bad people.  Going to church and hanging out only with people who believe as they do helps insulate them from the real world and the threats they think it contains.  These are the people who live in fear.  However, they are letting their fears prevent them from truly living.  They are missing out on the wonder that is our world.  As Camus said, if there is a sin in this life, it is in “hoping for another life and eluding the implacable grandeur of this life.”

And, once people experience how wonderful this world is, because they aren’t sitting in a room listening to a person fill them with fear, they generally find that most people are pretty nice and there is a lot to be proud of and hopeful for.  And, once they understand this, they free themselves from the fear that kept them involved in religion, and this (in my humble opinion) is the most likely reason why younger people are much less religious then their elder counterparts.