kiddy fiddling priests?

For the same reason as any age group is. They believe that they have no use for what the church offers.

They hate getting juked in the butt by priests

rebellion against religion sounds about right to me...

The state religion of Athiesm is taught in the schools and hearing their philosophy over and over again, some kids believe it.

They are using their own minds and realizing that church is kind of useless, not to mention boring.

Religion is overrated. Especially organized. There is a widespread discord in my agegroup in respect to religion. We have very distinct groups, the psychopathic overzelous Catholics, or people that go "uhhhh...that's unnecessary." and the second group appeals to our laziness :D Also, the teaching of Evolution provides an alternative explanation of "how are we here." which is a GOOD thing. If we didn't have that, we would just be ignorant. And no one believes in God because no one sees how "He" works. If "He" is so overpowering, why is there so much suffering? And what is there saying that we aren't already in Hell considering the suffering every person goes through every day? Seems he could fix it all. But we've come up with the "free will" argument. Also, it's becoming more known that Christian holidays are just knockoffs of other religions. Ex: Christmas is NOT Jesus' birthday. It has been scientifically proven a baby could NOT have been born at that time of year. It just wouldn't work. Unless you use the "he's the son of God" argument, you lose at that angle. Also, beyond that no one REALLY knows when Jesus was born. NO one knows. It was just decided that the winter solstice was a good enough time to be his birthday. Those are just a few examples, I know there are more. But I can't think of any more.

I'm a young person and I left the church, simply because I stopped believing in fairy tales and grew up. I was 8. Good times.

I am not a Catholic so anything about priests either positive or negative has no bearing on this answer!!! The enthusiasm, feelings of immortality and feelings of being tied down and prevented from enjoying life of the young have always caused a movement away from the church once they finish instruction and become adults. I have noted this in three generations during my lifetime. I also have noted the return of these people once they obtain 'middle age' and realize they are not immortal and are going to die, recognize that their enthusiasm was not always lasting and their freedom actually is tied to others and society. I can't speak for the Catholic phenomenon.

They arent living in the fear of God, like I was raised. They are going to burn in hell....... Just kidding.

Because their being taught this nonsense that aslong as you pray this prayer you will go to heaven,no matter how you live your life.

Credibility. Churches can not compete with other social activities.

They think they can do better on their own. +4

Probably because all of those young altar boys are tired of getting raped by the priests.

People are waking up to the whole mess. They see theocracies and their splinter groups killing off millions in the middle east and in the west realize that we almost went down the same rotten path. In the east, China especially religions are banned for good reason. They undermine the authority of the state as they do everywhere. Many people, myself included see the hypocrisy where wealthy church groups get to keep building bigger and bigger churches and organizations and pay zero tax under the guise that they do better things than anyone else when in reality all they do are to do for themselves and nobody else in many cases. Look at the TV networks. As long as they have "church" attached to their names they pay NO tax while every other TV network MUST pay taxes. Also many people don't want the laws unduly influenced by church doctrines which happens on a wholesale level especially in the "bible belt" when there is zero evidence that what they claim is truth. There has never been a shred of evidence and never will be. My personal beliefs: No church should be tax free unless they can prove with real evidence beyond any reasonable doubt the claims they make are true. Otherwise they are showed favoritism by their own worshipers who happen to also be politicians.

I stopped going to church at an early age. I mentioned the fact that one of my best friends was homosexual and they told me I had to stop seeing him. The reason being that if I hung around him too much I would think it is ok and I would turn homosexual myself. I believe God would only want us to love one another regardless if you were black, white, purple or blue. Big or Small. Homosexual or Straight. I believe in a personal relationship with God as well.

that's what young people do...but on average they come back when they have their own children

some because they are ignorant. others because they are lame. others because they dont believe in God. im 16 & still in church

Eyes are open. The age of awareness is coming much younger. I was 39. Now it's in the twenties. I call it progress.

Rebellious nature. The church tells them not to do something. They do it anyway. luckily they can always find forgiveness.

because the preists keep trying to rape them.

Because now kids have access to more information than ever before. Kids have television and the internet, especially the internet. They don't have to blindly accept what their church tells them, they can do research for themselves and make up their own minds. They now have more power than ever to realize that it is all bullsh*t.

I think the internet is giving young people a better idea of what is out there for them. They see that they have spiritual options other than just church. And of course more news means that Churches have a hard time trying to hide their flaws.

They have a lot of questions which have to be answered with a lot of patience and cannot be pushed aside by bigoted views.Their reasoning has to be taken into account also. You cannot tell them to follow a faith blindly because we live in a world where there is choice.Whatever appeals to them goes a long way.You cannot strait jacket a person with ancient texts and rituals. They want to know the whys and the wherefores? To first satisfy them is important hence newer types of Gurus come up.Hence the New Age has happened!

The mentality is 'Who are you to tell me what to do?' q:)

Because they realise The church religion is just a method of scaring people into behaving a certain way.. and the stories is teaches are generally common sense.. be a good person, dont kill, dont steal etc Religion is becoming such a joke... the 4th biggest religion in the UK are the Jedi Knights, which brought a smile to my face. Watch this video, www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNf-P_5u_Hw This is the reason I Personally don't believe!

Revelation 18:1-4. It is in the process of being fulfilled.

You can't fool all of the people all of the time.

young people are leaving the church because it is not relivent to them! The church for many years had lied and belittled younger people and done their best to make them feel guilty about what they were naturally given to enjoy by God. Churches long ago set up unBiblical rules to control their followers; they made their "rules" higher than the Bible and twisted them into lies that have become truth in the church. The biggest being those involving sexual practices. Sex or the condemning of it was and is one of the biggest money makers for the church. Make a person feel guilty about his natural sex urges then tell him if he prays and makes a monitary contribution to the church his sexual sins are forgiven! God gave us sex to not only procreate but to enjoy! If you truly know what the Bible says about it you don't have to be married to enjoy it! This is why young people are leaving the church! They are taught God is a vendictive God and will condemn you to hell if you enjoy yourselves. The church should teach the truth that God is love and that He loves you anyway you are and not just because of a bunch of made up rules! By the way if you don't know, I am a follower of God and Jesus and know the truth as He has given it to me through research and reading. I am almost embarrassed to call myself a Christian anymore because to be known as one marks you as a pious lier. If you would like to learn and or read more about what God really says, please ask. God really isn't mean and vindictive!

I think one major problem is because most church sessions and masses and all are too old fashioned, and really don't cater to young people. They find it boring, because the church fails to reach out to them in that complicated and elaborate way that most teenagers require to be reached. There are a lot of religious programs for youths though, but I think for the most part, the worlds are just too different. Churches need to evolve a bit and find some new way to reach eye level with kids, so to speak.

Because they don't agree with what the said church has to say. At least for me, that was the reason. I grew up as a Latter-Day-Saint and as soon as the Prophet told the people of the church in California to vote for a proposition that would ban same-sex marriages I left. I couldn't understand why a God that loves everybody would disown a child because of their predisposition to like the same gender. I've met and am friends with a whole bunch of gay men (and women) and I have not met a single one whom I would not care about as a friend. These are people first and foremost. If the world is short on anything it is short on love. If two people love each other enough to stand all the persecution that goes unnoticed by the law and avoided by the politicians, they should get to be with that person. They deserve the same rights as any spouse.

Children are becoming less indoctrinated. When people are left to make the choice themselves they tend to stray away from religion because they can objectively see where the logic fails. The very idea that the afterlife could even be explained to us in our words is ridiculous. Our language is proof of how primitive we still are. Remember we only use %10 of our brain capacity.