A Muslim named Kaivan and a Jew named Dylan are both typical members of Generation Y.  They both subscribe to a different religious belief, but neither is fighting over who is right.  For them, their religion is not about whose is the best, but which religion works best for them.

Overall, Generation Y breaks into three religious categories.  There are 27 percent who consider themselves “Godly,” 27 percent who are “Godless,” and 46 percent who are Undecided.  This is according to the survey OMG! How Generation Y is Redefining Faith in the iPod Era. generic diflucan This survey found that while today’s young people still follow the same religions their parents did, they differ in their expression of faith.

For many, this means replacing religious services that may feel outdated.  “Most young people today will say they are spiritual, not religious,” said Rabbi Yehuda Sarna, the Jewish chaplain at NYU.  Those spiritual youth believe holiness is subjective, and doesn’t have to be determined by an organized faith.  “People began thinking in terms of ‘me’ and not ‘the community,’” Rabbi Sarna said.

Members of Generation Y are looking to form a community outside of the church and in a more contemporary fashion.

“Religion, for me, is more of a cultural connection with the people I grew up with,” said Kaivan Sattar, a Bangladeshi Muslim sophomore at NYU.  Sattar also said that when it comes to his religion, on a scale from one to ten, he considers himself a six.  “I don’t follow every rule, but I use it as a guide or set of values,” he said.

Prof. Jeremy Walton, of NYU’s religious studies department, believes that this sort of creative construction can help to promote an individual’s spirituality. “My religion is mostly exploratory,” said Dylan Brown, a 20-year-old Jewish sophomore at NYU.  “There’s over a 1000 years of knowledge, and I like to think of it as a lifestyle, not a religion.”  By determining what they believe to be true, members of Generation Y have to determine what they believe is false.  Generation Y has been forced to think critically about religion, and they are thinking outside the box.

While Walton sees this as being a good thing, people like Ghamashyam Das, a Hare Krishna monk, see it as a bad thing.  “If everyone has a say in religion, then it’s all relative,” he said.  “There can be no ultimate good, ultimate evil, or ultimate truth. Instead it’s just all shades of gray.”  Das believes that this customization of beliefs is more due to Generation Y’s indifference, not their curiosity.  “Tolerance isn’t really tolerance in the world we live in,” he said.  “Beneath the surface it’s just indifference. People are really/saying, I don’t care which [religion] is right.”

Experts like Walton and Das are still trying to account for why this change is happening, but they both admit there is a change.   Today, it’s harder to find someone strongly devoted to his or her religion than someone indifferent towards it.  “I should be thinking about God 24/7, to the point where he’s putting decisions in my head,” said Evie Olson, a Catholic Studies and Journalism major at the University of St. Thomas. While Olson represents this minority of Generation Y, she still has a similar goal to her peers.  “Even though the church isn’t perfect, we still need it,” she said.  “You communicate with God through the church, it creates community.”