Analysis of religious questions

First interviewer

For the answers, it is clear that the interviewer believes in religion as well as in God. From the answers of first interviewer we can say that, a developmental systems perspective offers insight on how spirituality motivates young people to contribute to something greater than themselves and is therefore at the core of the thriving process.

According to developmental systems theory, youth whose interactions with their contexts are adaptive commit to a sense of identity that yields fidelity to an ideology that promotes reciprocity with their family, community, and society. This signifies the integration of moral and civic identities and promotes a commitment to contribute to the good of others and society. Young people thrive when their moral and civic identities involve them in valuing and taking action that contributes to a world beyond themselves. Such awareness and responsibility are described as transcendent or spiritual sensibilities (Geertz, 78).

In this sense, spirituality is recognized as an orientation that involves the transcendence of self, fueling or motivating the development of a commitment to contributing to others and institutions beyond self in time and place. Such an understanding of spirituality is beyond a feeling of transcendence, but a motivational force that propels individuals to care for self and others and contribute to something greater than themselves. As such, spirituality nurtures a sense of thriving in young people by providing the awareness of responsibility and the passion to initiate and sustain commitment to agency.

Religion has been recognized as offering a potentially fertile environment to nurture this sense of prosocial identity. Specifically, religion has been recognized for rich ideological, social, and spiritual contexts that may promote identities that transcend the self. Religious traditions often provide a worldview composed of beliefs and values embedded within social relations that seek to embody and model ideologies, histories, and traditions that in turn can sustain a young person with a sense of identity, purpose, and belonging. This sense of belonging strengthens a young person's commitment to a broader collective who share similar beliefs, providing motivation for service and identity formation.

Second interviewer

From the answers of the second interviewer, we can say that the person does not truly believe in religion. It is worth noting that no one ever need identify himself as a non-astrologer or a non-alchemist. Consequently, we do not have words for people who deny the validity of these pseudo-disciplines.

Likewise, atheism is a term that should not even exist. Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make when in the presence of religious dogma. The atheist is merely a person who believes that the 260 million Americans (eighty-seven percent of the population) who claim to .never doubt the existence of God. should be obliged to present evidence for his existence -- and, indeed, for his benevolence, given the relentless destruction of innocent human beings we witness in the world each day.

Only the atheist appreciates just how uncanny our situation is: most of us believe in a God that is every ...