En guide till det goda livet? Om gymnasieungdomars syn på religion och religiösa människor

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to investigate the attitudes towards religion and religious people held by a group of Swedish high school students. The main questions are; what causes these attitudes and how do they shape the students’ encounter with religion and religious people and in what way could religious education help the students problematize these attitudes? The method used is a quantitative method using a questionnaire, with a Likert scale, posing different questions about religion as such, world religion and religious people. The theoretical basis, in order to discuss the result of the questionnaire, is a gender theory and the theory of social psychology. The result of the study confirms earlier studies of youths both in Sweden and Western Europe. The result shows that there is a certain degree of negative attitudes towards religion, most of all against Islam. There is a tendency to view religion as the cause behind conflicts and religious people are, to an extent, seen as illogical. The boys, as a group, host more negative attitudes than the girls. At the same time the students show a high degree of spirituality but turn away from institutionalized religion to more private and spiritual religious expressions. This results in a generally positive attitude in letting people, who are religious, live their lives according to their religion as long as it is done in private. We experience a collision between the two discourses. The result shows a need for religious education to move beyond teaching about religion as readymade systems and to address the Secularisation Theory, which is strong in Sweden, and its impact on the view on religion and religious people. Religious education also needs to open up for discussion on how attitudes are formed and influence the meeting with ”The Other”.