A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH ON YOUNG ADULTS' PERCEPTIONS OF RELIGION AND RELIGIOSITY

Rapid social changes transform world views and value judgments. Religious under- standings are also subject to this process. Field research contains findings that irre- ligious, atheist and spiritualist tendencies have increased in the last Western genera- tion compared to the previous generation. Research conducted in Turkey shows that the majority of young people define themselves as believers, religious, Muslims, and people who care about religion and the existence of God. However, some current research shows that young people in Turkey can define themselves as deist, agnostic, atheist or non-believer, albeit at low rates. In current research, it is seen that themes such as moving away from religion, new spiritual searches, transformation of reli- gious identity, decline of religion, and doubt come to the fore in the context of youth religiosity. These themes cause anxiety in parents. It is unthinkable that the 21st century generation, born into a digital universe, will not differ from previous gen- erations. In this study, young adults’ understanding of religion and religiosity is dis- cussed, based on the thesis that the classical secularization paradigm is insufficient to explain the religion-society relationship. Research on religious understanding, unlike research on religiosity, focuses on individuals’ perceptions and understand- ings. The number of studies conducted after 2000 on youth and religion in Turkey is relatively small and the majority of them were conducted in the field of psychology of religion with quantitative methods. The breadth of the category and the limita- tions of the quantitative method make it difficult to evaluate the subject thoroughly. For this reason, this study focused on young adults in a certain age range and ex- amined their understanding of religion and religiosity using a qualitative method. The main purpose of this study is to describe young adults’ understanding of re- ligion and religiosity with the interpretive paradigm and to detect the differences that appear. Purposeful sampling was used in this research, which is an exploratory field research. Between the ages of 19 and 28 with different sociocultural character- istics; Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 18 young people from the categories of university students, employees, women and men. The find- ings were interpreted in the context of the understanding paradigm, focusing on the similarities and differences in the understandings of young adults. The findings are presented under the headings of the concept of God and religion, religiosity and view of religiosity, modernist/secular tendencies, religion-morality relationship, religion-mind/science relationship, religion and social problems, religion-politics/ state relationship. Most young adults have a traditional imitation of faith. Some of them seem to have not had a deep intellectual and/or emotional experience about religion and God due to the socio-cultural conditions they live in. Some young peo- ple tend to build their own imagination and/or internalize what has been learned. In the imagination of young adults, religion comes to the fore as reassuring, a source of identity, a cultural element, social integrator, a source of meaning and a shelter. Despite their faith identity, some young people seem to be in doubt about or have not come to terms with some of the fundamental beliefs of the religion. Even though young adults state that they do not fully comply with religious orders and prohi- bitions, they have a normative perception about religiosity. According to most of them, “religiosity” is possible, although “popular secularist culture” creates various difficulties. According to them, religiosity in line with the principles of religion can only be achieved within the framework of the concepts of faith, reading, contempla- tion, research, education, trust and self-criticism. However, some young people see it as impossible to be religious with “hedonistic liberalism” tendencies. Young adults tend to adapt to change in line with institutional secularization processes. In solving the problems of the relationship between youth and religion, institutional religious structures, especially the family, educators, and those who develop policies for the future of society, including youth policies, have important duties.