Experiences of religion

For many of the students it was not an easy task to name some experiences of religion. Almost one third of the students said they did not have any experiences of religion; some did not answer the question at all or gave too general answers, stating only that experiences were positive or negative, giving no hint at all of some abstract or more concrete examples. There were an equal number of good and bad experiences mentioned; only a few students offered both a negative and a positive example. Some answers and examples were neutral in their nature or it was difficult to decide if the respondent regarded it as negative or positive experience.

Experiences with religious people, representing a different worldview from one’s own. Most of the examples given were about meeting a religious

person. Students pointed out that they have noticed the different behaviours or customs of some people, for example not celebrating birthdays; diversity was noticed in baptism, wedding or funeral ceremonies, also history studies about Egypt and its ancient religion were mentioned.

An experience of religion was regarded as negative mostly when meeting a religion or worldview different from one’s own and it was usually connected with proselytising. Believers are regarded as boring and sometimes even frightening. If some special group is mentioned, then it is the Jehovah’s Witnes-ses.

“Some are going from apartment to apartment and sound off about their faith, it makes me crazy (Jehovah’s).” (m-ch-30-B?)

“People who have different religion speak about totally other things that don’t interest me. That is why it is uncomfortable to be with them. A good experience is when someone says something interesting about his religion.” (f-nr-02-A+) The difference in lifestyle and also in understanding life can be frightening. The lifestyle of religious people is seen as negative: explosions caused by Muslims, an unpleasant neighbour, boring lives were mentioned.

“These people are somehow so different and they must follow the things they have in religion and they can’t live their own lives.” (m-nr-21-A+)

From history the fact about Nazis killing Jews was mentioned as a negative example. Some students think that religion is a ridiculous “product of the human brain”, it is only for weak, even mentally disordered people.

“It seems to me that people come to a religion to benefit and because of lack of moral support, so I think that they are morally weak people.” (f-nr-41-B?)

Encountering difference is sometimes seen as a positive, enriching and interesting experience. In most cases it is seen by the students who have studied religious education as an exciting and challenging event. They see religion as providing a possibility for practising tolerance. Many students from School A referred to an excursion and meeting different representatives of diverse faiths as “cool” and interesting. Also students with religious education experience from another school named interesting experiences while travelling or living abroad; or visiting a beautiful church.

“My experiences have been very good, I was living in Canada, where I got to know Muslims and Hindus and learned a lot of new things.” (f-at-65-C+)

Experiences with one’s own religion were mentioned by some Lutherans and mostly by Orthodox respondents, whose answers revealed personal stories, attachment or pain felt in connection with religion. Experiences with their own religion were predominantly seen as positive, only a bad dream and funerals

were mentioned as negative examples. Good experiences of religion were associated with meeting a kind and helpful person, living a pure life (usually a church-related person), respecting or lending a hand to other people.

“People I see in a church are very kind and spiritually mature. They always help, give advice.” (f-or-33-B?)

Personal religious experiences were brought out as positive examples: a baptism, answered prayer, participation in a service. Negative examples in the field of personal experiences were an unanswered prayer, funerals, a bad dream.

“Once I saw a dream about God. I don’t tell it to anybody. The dream was rather terrifying and made me want to cry. I have never communicated with religious people but I believe in God. In our apartment there is a pouf with icons and sometimes if I feel really bad I share my problems with it and I feel that they disappear.” (m-or-28-B?)

Some answers reflected the fact that they did not know if their friends were religious or not and this was interpreted as a positive example. Particularly interesting is that in the context of that question, when tolerance is not asked about directly, not having experience with any religion is seen as positive, not being religious is described as a precondition to having good relations.

“We don’t particularly have people with a certain religion. We all get on well.”

(m-nr-54-C-)

Taking into account that some students did not answer the question and many claimed not to have any experience of religion, positive experiences of contact with religion related to family – there were less unanswered questions in School B, where children had a more religious background. In the comparison between three Estonian-speaking groups of students (with eight years, a few months and no experience of religious education respectively) it emerged that the more they had had religious education the more they found positive examples besides negative ones. Russian-speaking respondents without religious background pre-dominantly stressed the negative impact of religion, as did Estonian-speaking students without religious background or religious education experience.

From the students’ answers they appear rarely to meet or acknowledge religion in their everyday life. Meeting a different worldview from one’s own is largely seen as an unpleasant, boring or frightening experience. While religious self-identification helps students to see the positive influence of their own religion, the chance to study religious education enables them to recognise religion in everyday life and see meeting difference as a positive or enriching experience.