What I remember about this article..
Religious switching and knowledge among adolescent in Singapore by Phyllis Ghim-Lian Chew
1. This article was written in 2004, so its quite recent.
2. It stated that adolescents' knowledge about religion is very poor. Not only do they not know about their own religions, they know even less of the other religions. Main reason is the misinformation or the lack of information as a result of a lack knowledge being passed down from parents to child. Mostly valid for Taoist and Buddhism. Most parents who are Taoist and Buddhist are not too sure of their own religion themselves and their lack of academic prowess does not encourage them to explain to their children as to the various practises accorded to their own religions.
3. Adolescent learnt about religion from Textbooks and during CME classes in school.
4. There is a false sense of tolerance among adolescent (adults?) in that adolescent equate tolerance with fear and not whole hearted respect. Fear is illustrated by not talking about religion among friends.
5. A majority of switchers switched from Buddhism, Free Thinkers to Christianity. Main reason as stated by them is the 'feel good' feeling. In other words, the switched happened because of the emotions occur and not of the intellect. Switchers switched mostly because of peers, and family members. Half of the switchers are met by dissaproval by parents but the parents relented. Half were not by dissaproval by parents but this does not mean that their parents approved of them being Christians. Some kept it a secret for fear of reprisal. Some may switched because of situational stress such as exams and their friends who introduce prayers and chants to them.
Is that all?
Slim
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