{"id":7806,"date":"2019-04-02T21:42:52","date_gmt":"2019-04-02T21:42:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/?p=7806"},"modified":"2019-04-02T21:42:52","modified_gmt":"2019-04-02T21:42:52","slug":"losing-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/?p=7806","title":{"rendered":"Losing faith"},"content":{"rendered":"

For many young adults, the post-secondary years are a time of reflection about their identity, beliefs and values. Religion can play a role in finding your identity, whether or not you decide to follow it.<\/strong><\/p>\nP<\/span>rofessor at the University of Toronto for the study of religion and philosophy, Rabbi David Novak, recognizes this can be a difficult time for young students of any faith.<\/p>\n

Novak says in his personal experience of growing up in a Jewish household he eventually realized it wasn\u2019t himself who lost faith, but his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey weren\u2019t anti-religious, it just wasn\u2019t something that was terribly important. My parents were not taking something seriously that was meant to be taken seriously and it seemed to me it should be that you take something seriously or just drop it all together,\u201d says Novak.<\/p>\n

Novak describes how the relationship between universities and religion has changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to realize that in universities today, people of faith are very marginalized, a lot of the people regard religion as a thing of the past,\u201d he says. \u201cIn the old days universities had a religious character but now they don\u2019t so to be a person of faith you really have to have some kind of self-confidence and realize you\u2019re going to be challenged by people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Novak also explains that one of the biggest challenges in faith is doubt.<\/p>\n

He says doubt shows real intellect in a person but advised that when you begin to disagree with more of what is said than agree, it may be time to re-think your faith.<\/p>\n

Industrial design student Adam Brown is a member of Humber North\u2019s Christian Church, The Embassy, and admits he had questions at a young age as he tried to decide whether to continue practicing his parents\u2019 religion.<\/p>\n

“If they grew up in the church, they become too comfortable and they rely on this support structure that has been there their whole life and once they move out of that they haven\u2019t prepared themselves and they don\u2019t know how to deal with that not being there,\u201d says Brown.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n

Rabbi Novak has some advice for students looking for answers about faith.<\/p>\n

\u201cNumber one is there should be a lecture you heard or presentation by a faculty member that absolutely made such an impression on you that years later you remember what was said, you remember what the room looked like, you remember what the person looked like and this really had a tremendous impression on the way your thinking is going to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also encourages students to read.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere should be one book that blows your mind, there should be a book that you read that absolutely gives you sleepless nights because it challenges everything you believe in,\u201d Novak says. \u201cIt forced me to examine my faith in a renewed light.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown agrees doubt is a normal part of practicing faith and people shouldn\u2019t blindly accept everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there isn\u2019t something for you to question what your faith is, what is your faith based on?\u201d Brown asks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For many young adults, the post-secondary years are a time of reflection about their identity, beliefs and values. Religion can play a role in finding your identity, whether or not you decide to follow it. Professor at the University of Toronto for the study of religion and philosophy, Rabbi David Novak, recognizes this can be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":7818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[141],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7806"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}