Research Paper on "Effects of Forced Religion Spiritualism on Academic and Social Learning in Adolescents"

Research Paper 10 pages (2899 words) Sources: 7

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Forced Religion/Spiritualism on Academic and Social Learning in Adolescents

Although it is often ignored when it comes to its capacity to manipulate individuals, religion can have a strong effect on people, especially on teenagers, given their predisposition toward taking in all the information they come across without being able to filter it. Religious communities generally concentrate on inducing religious natures into members who are not yet familiar with the concept. Seen strictly from an ethical standpoint, religion is responsible for teaching adolescents to discern between right and wrong. Consequent to being presented with religious thoughts, teenagers are likely to display a more intense attachment toward learning. Even with that, the effect religion has on adolescents mostly depends on how it is taught and on the rationality religious adults employ in their teachings.

In certain occasions religion is the power that gets people through their everyday lives and assists them in being successful. Being a member of a minority brings on a series of challenges and makes it difficult for one to abstain from being influenced by their position. Religious beliefs were always essential in helping individuals cope with their existence and even in helping them put across ideas influenced by their religious learning.

African-Americans are often discriminated on account of their skin color, and many fail to accomplish their dreams because they feel that it is easier for them to avoid being differentiated by refraining from entering non-black communities. Discrimination in the U.S. was most obvious during slavery, when the masses promoted concepts involving unfairness and hatred for those who were not white. In such times, religion is responsible for helping numerous black individuals to realize that everyone was equal in god's eyes, regardless of their particularities. This made their suffering easier to endure and intensified their spirituality to the point where some became indifferent to the torment they were subjected to (Patton & McClure, 2009).

Even in the present day, when discrimination has ameliorated significantly, black individuals are still presented with the task of ignoring biased behaviors. In addition to being exposed to discrimination because of their color, African-American women also risk being discriminated on account of their gender (Patton & McClure, 2009).

For Black American adolescent women, spirituality is essential, as it works as a surviving mechanism which enables them to resist discrimination and to shape an identity. For white individuals in the U.S., the understanding of Christianity did not change much from how it was in the previous centuries. In contrast, African-American women constantly try to find new meanings of biblical text, in order to adapt these interpretations to their lives and to find explanations for dilemmas they come across.

It is surprising that in spite of risking prejudice a large number of African-American women manage to stay in college and some are even distinguished through their learning abilities. Apparently, one of the main reasons for which they do not fall victims to discrimination is the spirituality. In conditions somewhat similar to the ones underwent by slaves when they had to keep their minds clear during difficult times, spirituality assists black adolescents in keeping away from allowing their thinking to be affected by their position (Patton & McClure, 2009).

Religion apparently builds self-esteem and increases the chances an individual has to thrive while attending an educational institute. Also, religion promotes a healthy living, with a religious person being predisposed to stay away from activities which damage his or her physical or psychological condition (Patton & McClure, 2009). This is especially obvious in adolescents who come across the chance of using harmful substances. Whereas non-religious persons are more likely to fall victim to substance abuse, religion makes teenagers better prepared to deal with such circumstances. One's tendency to abuse substances mainly depends on the respective individual's background. When an adolescent is taught that drugs are bad and that it is immoral to use them, that teenager will have more chances to refuse using drugs when the opportunity arises. However, when a teenager is not educated in regard to using harmful substances, it is virtually impossible for that individual to be able to realize the danger he or she faces when he or she comes across such an opening (Wallace, Brown, Bachman & Laveist, 2003).

Religious belief is of great importance in determining the behavior of adolescents. Depending on the intensity to which they are religious, teenagers are less or more inclined to use harmful substances. Religious can be perceived as a force that promotes self-restraint from activities that can be harmful for the individual (Wallace, Brown, Bachman & Laveist, 2003).

In most occasions religion and spirituality are incorrectly understood by the masses, provided that fanatical individuals who call themselves religious perform absurd acts and claim that religion is responsible for their behavior. This can be attributed to the fact that most of these people interpreted spirituality in the wrong way.

One of the main reasons for which religion is taught in schools is for it to promote ethics and help children in developing properly both from a physical and from a mental point-of-view. Spiritual guidance can be performed in two distinct ways: a realistic one that encourages adolescents in behaving ethically by explaining the difference between right and wrong and providing examples on the way; an idealistic one that involves more than one theory and conveys ideas on topics such as the divine destiny of humankind. In its essence, religion is deeply related to education, as they are both directed at preparing young people to develop into healthy adults. The general public appears to be supportive toward religious education when it comes to it being taught to adolescents with the purpose of giving them a better understanding of life and everything related to it (Wright, 2001, p. 10).

In spite of its benevolent character, religion does not always succeed in training adolescents how to behave adult lives. The Holocaust stands as an example when considering people who acted against every principle they were taught in school while attending religion classes. Some of the prominent Germans engaged in torturing and contributing to the torture of human beings even with the fact that they were intellectuals (Wright, 2001, p. 13).

Even though child development theories have shown several interesting facts regarding children, adult religious individuals are reluctant to employ reasonable techniques in presenting their children with the religion they follow. When being part of religious communities, most children are first taught that they have to want to follow the religion their tutors are following, instead of being presented with all the factors involved and left with choosing whether or not they want the respective religion to guide them through their lives.

In their interpretation of religion, children are presented with two options. One of them involves them regarding it from an objective standpoint and constantly relating to reality while doing so. The other involves a subjective point-of-view, as children interpret religious language literally and are reluctant to believe that the experiences they are taught did not actually happen (Wright, 2001, p. 37). In their attempt to introduce religion to their children, religious parents are often inclined to do so by only presenting them with the second option.

When it is transmitted in way that prevents individuals from properly developing a clear idea of what it is and of what its principles want to convey, religion can be detrimental for someone. To a certain degree, forced religion is similar to secular nationalism, considering that they can both influence an individual to commit irrational acts. Young people are determined to better integrate the groups they are part of and will not hesitate to follow the teachings they learn from their instructors, especially given that they have a less develop capacity to filter information by distinguishing between right and wrong. In order to express the religious convictions they learnt from the adults in their communities, adolescents are predisposed to performing extreme acts, as they want to prove their dedication. In particular groups, adults preach about how wickedness is no longer immoral when it is motivated by religion. Numerous suicide bombers were adolescents who were not able to understand that the concepts in their religion could be interpreted in more than one way and that it was not right for them to want to kill innocent people (Hamburg & Hamburg, 2004, p. 38).

While the general public mostly prefers to associate religious violence to Islam, there are also western religions that provide their followers with passages that can be wrongly interpreted by some and used as grounds to commit immoralities. A variety of subgroups in Christianity were reported to employ fervent parochial approaches with the purpose of misleading followers into thinking that discrimination toward other groups is perfectly natural (Hamburg & Hamburg, 2004, p. 339). Again, bearing in mind that adolescents are among the individuals predisposed to being strongly influenced by religious teachings, it is not surprising that they come to take action in accordance to the education they are given.

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