Religion and political consciousness of students (based on the results of the sociological research of students in St. Petersburg)

Sociology

Abstract

In 2013 the Department of Sociology of Youth and the Youth Policy of the St. Petersburg State University conducted a study devoted to the research of the political consciousness of the modern students, including the religious aspect of the topic. There were interviewed 500 students from some universities of St. Petersburg. The obtained results of the degree of the religiosity of youth confirmed the facts of numerous studies conducted earlier. Thus, the number of evaluated themselves as «fulfilling all religious rites and rules» amounted 2,3%, «believe in God, though not adhering to rituals and rules» — 54,4 %, «considering that there is a supernatural beginning of the world» — 24,6 %, «atheists» — 18,8 %. In general, one can speak of the amorphous and — diffuse religious concepts beyond the certain concession. Political activity of the modern college students is still very weak — only 4,8 % of the respondents answered that they were «politically active». Wherein the data characterizing the political activity of the group of deeply religious persons show that they are even more than young people in other groups do not participate in political activities (this answer was given by the 36,4 % of the respondents in this group), among the atheists such persons are one third (33,3 %). The issues of patriotism have been also raised in the study. The results allow talking about the influence of the degree of religiosity on the sense of patriotism — more believers are more patriotic. In general, we can talk about the lack of the involvement of young people in the political sphere of the society because of the weakness of the development of the political consciousness. However, the results of our study evidence of the influence of the degree of religiosity on political consciousness and, above all, it refers to the patriotism.