Greg McCracken- Outside Reading 3- Drifting Back to Tradition

In my Family Interaction class, we read a book by two authors named Rhodes and Wilson called "Surviving Family Life." One thing that I thought was very interesting was that people tend to leave their families when they become independent, only to return to their families when they need them. I have seen many individuals who have done this with the religion they grew up with. They get to a point of independence, and decide that the religion they grew up on was not right for them. They end up becoming athiests or find a new religion for a period of time. It seems after they have experiences with these new religions, they end up going back to their old religion with a new amount of faith. Sometimes it seems like they end up being the most active members of their churches.

Though I find this to be a interesting trend, it does not surprise me. It is understandable for a person to test new waters once they realize that what they considered to be truth is more an option than anything else. Of course, this is after a long period where that religion was accepted whole heartedly as the truth. After searching for new forms of faith, a person probably ends up looking back at their faith of origin. Because they found sense within this religion before, it would make sense that they would feel a high connection to these ideas once again. In fact, I think their faith would be increased after this experience, and it may be beneficial for all people to have a questioning of faith before accepting a particular religion.