It’s hard to believe that one in three young Australian adults go regularly to worship services – more than any other age group. But it’s true and men are leading the charge.

It’s a puzzle, because it breaks two longstanding rules of religion: believers are typically female and old.

Remember back in 2000. Even the most optimistic priest wouldn’t have predicted that would change.  The Cold War was over, religion was set to fade way – replaced globally with rationalism, liberalism and democracy. 

Generation Xers were finishing the work of their baby boomer parents - rejecting once and for all church moralising, hypocrisy, and dogma.

But the children of Generation X are now young adults themselves. And just as the hippie boomers rebelled, Gen Y and especially Gen Z are rebelling against their atheist parents by turning to God.

Remembering too, what the so-called rationalist generation bequeathed today’s young adults – a world of debt, insecurity, and climate chaos. Why not look elsewhere for meaning and purpose?

GUESTS:

• Dr Intifar Chowdhury Lecturer in Government at Flinders University, where she studies the political attitudes of young Australians.
• Dr Anna Halafoff  Associate Professor of Sociology at Deakin University, coordinator of their Spirituality and Wellbeing Research Network.
• Emelia Haskey Undergraduate at the University of Divinity Adelaide where she’s in training to become a minister of the Uniting Church.