The Question of Faith SECTION D


Also, you now feel a great desire to be more independent and self- reliant. You want to stand on your own two feet, do more things for yourself, think things through for yourself and be less dependent on your parents/guardians.


Clearly, adolescence is a time of great change in your life. It is when your peer group begins to play a very important role in how you see yourself and the world around you.


REMEMBER! Your peer group is made up of those people who are of a similar age to yourself.


During adolescence, your peer group can have a greater influence on your attitudes to religious belief and practice than your parents/guardians. Perhaps this is because you feel that they are the only ones who really understand what you are going through.


Adolescence is a time of great change in your life.


Typically you draw much of your support and encouragement from the network of friends you have built up in your peer group. As an adolescent, it is only natural that you would want to be accepted by your peers and to fit in with them. However this can cause you to feel a strong pressure to conform to what your peers want you to believe and do. So, if you build friendships with people who are open to religious beliefs and see a value in religious practices, then you are more likely to do so too.


It is important to keep in mind that there is no need to agree in every respect with the views of your peers. If they really are your friends, then they should be willing to respect your choices on this issue. Within the broader context of taking greater responsibility for how you think and act, you have a responsibility to yourself to make your own mind up about the role religious faith plays in your life.


If you choose to take religious faith seriously, then you must make it your own. This means you must aim to develop a mature religious faith.


Mature religious faith involves:


ò Accepting that there are no easy answers to be had to life’s most important questions.


ò Giving up the idea that God is a remote figure who is ‘above you’ and replacing it with one of God as a mysterious presence who guides and supports you.


ò Putting your relationship with God at the centre of your life.


ò Working out a clear idea of what you believe in and why you believe it.


ò Respecting those whose beliefs differ from your own. ò Trying to live the best kind of life you can.


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