More and more millennials are turning away from faith and prefer to be identified as atheist or agnostic. This is based on a study by Pew Research Center which states that millennials are less likely to choose or be part of a religion.
A 2014 study found that a number of non-religious millennials, or those who were born between 1981 to 1996, is still higher than those generation X group or those who were born between 1965 and 1980. 35 percent of the millennials are identified to be atheist or agnostic while 23 percent of the Generation X group are non-religious, according to KVUE ABC.
According to Sean Rivera, a UTSA student and a president of Secular Student Alliance at UTSA said that millennials think about Christians as hypocritical and judgmental and that they are not seen with empathy for people with different beliefs or lifestyle.
UTSA Campus Life Director Audrey Dominguez, who also works with Youth for Christ San Antonio said that what millennials want aside from authenticity is the sense of community at church, and he has this observation based on his engagement with hundreds of young people.
University of Virginia Associate Religious Studies Professor Matthew Hedstrom also spent a lot of time finding out why millennials are less attached to organized religion than their parents or grandparents. He explained that it has something to do with the perceived political entanglement of religion, especially when it comes to Christianity because when people talk about leaving religion, most of them pertain to Christianity, according to Phys.Org.
But he also explained that this does not mean that millennials do not believe in God because many millennials still believe in God but only choose not to be affiliated with any religion. They are the ones who still pray and call themselves "spiritual but not religious.
