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According to some studies, religion increases in importance later in adulthood. [2] A survey in the United States showed that 72 percent of surveyed said they are religious and consider spirituality a major part of their lives. [3]
However, there have not been as many longitudinal studies on the influence of ethnicity, gender, and generational status on individuals' development of religious identity over time. Nevertheless, of the handful of such studies, researchers have focused mainly on adolescence [3] [11] [15] [23] and started to branch out to emerging adulthood.
Erik Erikson and Carl Jung proposed stage theories [2] [3] of human development that encompass the entire life span, and emphasized the potential for positive change very late in life. The concept of adulthood has legal and socio-cultural definitions. The legal definition [4] of an adult is a person who is fully grown or developed.
[3] A passage occurs when an individual leaves one group to enter another; in the metaphor, he changes rooms. Van Gennep further distinguishes between "the secular" and "the sacred sphere." Theorizing that civilizations are arranged on a scale, implying that the lower levels represent "the simplest level of development," he hypothesizes that ...
Thomas Dixon states, "Religions certainly do provide a framework within which people can learn the difference between right and wrong." [23] Religions provide various methods for publicising, announcing and condemning the moral duties and decisions of individuals. A priestly caste may adopt the role of moral guardians. [25]
One modern academic theory of religion, social constructionism, says that religion is a modern concept that suggests all spiritual practice and worship follows a model similar to the Abrahamic religions as an orientation system that helps to interpret reality and define human beings, [6] and thus believes that religion, as a concept, has been ...
Shango, the Orisha of fire, lightning, and thunder, in the Yoruba religion, depicted on horseback. Definitions of religion vary; [395] according to one definition, a religion is a belief system concerning the supernatural, sacred or divine, and practices, values, institutions and rituals associated with such belief. Some religions also have a ...
The American Religious Identification Survey gave nonreligious groups the largest gain in terms of absolute numbers: 14.3 million (8.4% of the population) to 29.4 million (14.1% of the population) for the period 1990–2001 in the U.S. [456] [457] A 2012 study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life reports, "The number of Americans who do ...