Religious Orientations of Modern Kazakhstani Youth

Abstract

The article examines the religious orientations of Kazakhstani youth in the context of modern life. Modern life is characterized by the growing role of religion in society and the strengthening of its influence on the consciousness, worldview, system of life values and religious orientations of young people. On the one hand, young people strive for self-determination and self-realization, and on the other hand, they face a situation of social uncertainty, forcing them to turn to religion. In this connection, the question arises, what are the true motives for turning young people to religion and how does it affect their behavior and life? The purpose of our work is to study the religious orientations of modern Kazakhstani youth. We conducted a survey “Religious orientations” according to the method of I.M. Bogdanovskaya among young people aged 16 to 28 years old living in the Karaganda region, which revealed that the main motive for turning young people to religion is “the search for an ideal and spiritual emptiness”. The analysis of the obtained results showed that the external religious orientation prevails over the internal religious orientation among modern Kazakhstani youth, that they treat religion not as a value, but as a means used in problem situations.