Belief and Behaviour: Sadgun, Alex and Chris unpack how religion can positively and negatively influence our behaviour.
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00:00Hi, I'm Dr Chris Deasy and I'm Alex. I'm an expert in the study of religion and I'm a high school student
00:06We're here to ask questions like where does faith and religion come from?
00:11Why do people believe in a higher power and why do a lot of people have no religion?
00:17spirituality science
00:18Conflicts society and life after death. We'll be exploring all of this in
00:23generation Y
00:30In
00:48This episode we'll explore how our behavior is shaped and changed by different beliefs
00:54Something many of us grew up celebrating is Christmas
00:57I would say I'm happier at this time of the year same and I've actually written a book about
01:02Christmas and how it can have a different meaning to everyone
01:05So I went to the world famous Birmingham Christmas market to find out more
01:15It's a few days before Christmas and we've come to Birmingham to find out what Christmas means to people over here
01:21We have the nativity display for a lot of people. That's what Christmas is all about
01:25But in my research, I found that that isn't always the case
01:28It might for example be about giving presents to people that we love and family or charity whether they are Christian
01:35They may be Buddhist. They may be Muslim. They may be atheist. They may be non-religious
01:39So we're here at Birmingham Christmas market to ask people what Christmas means to them. Everyone's just spreading positivity
01:47presents and happiness
01:49Personally I believe as a Catholic that Jesus was born on Christmas Day
01:52Like it's food that's like nothing religious, but just for fun. That's it. It's been very commercialized
01:59It's all just like putting games
02:02Is there something about Christmas that involves change?
02:05We still walk past homeless people in the streets and we still act in the same way
02:09There's something to look forward to. People are super nice in this time of period especially
02:13I don't know why it should be the year-long thing. It just feels good to help people and
02:18I myself, I change I think
02:20I think a lot of people maybe like reach out to their family. It brings people together
02:24Although Christmas is a time for happiness
02:26Many are also concerned about violence and crime
02:30During the winter months the cost of living gets harder for families
02:34Which also makes Christmas a time when we think of charity
02:38I spoke to Kat at Solihull's Inclusive Sports Academy to reflect on the festive season
02:44Some people are very lonely and very worried about
02:48The cost of Christmas, especially with families put too much pressure on themselves about material things
02:53You know, we have had some family members that have been unwell
02:55We could pick your children up so they can still come to school
02:58It's about just having that goodwill, isn't it?
03:00And do you find that a lot of that goodwill extends beyond Christmas?
03:03Yes, I do think I think yeah, I think lots of people try but I do think you see more at Christmas time
03:09For others Christmas can be a really difficult time if you know, they're struggling with money
03:14They've recently lost someone
03:16It can be just sad
03:18So it's important to as silly as it sounds keep that Christmas magic alive
03:22And keep these activities running for children
03:24So that not only can they come here and meet friends and
03:30You know play but also have a nice meal and just have some comfort and warmth
03:39Whatever your intention is is what you're going to give out to the world
03:42So if you're coming to it with
03:44I want to give to people, I want people to enjoy their time with me
03:47I want to make people feel happy
03:49That's what they're going to get
03:50Really happy
03:51Errr, nicer
03:53People are sadder because they don't get a lot
03:59I'm quite humbled because of like I said the materialism and the capitalist side of it
04:04To open my presents
04:06You know, Christmas
04:10Get to spend time with our families and enjoy ourselves and just have a break
04:18As well as bringing people together beliefs can also cause people to disagree
04:23And even people who share the same beliefs can have conflict
04:27As someone who is Christian my religion comes to mind and sport rivalries do too
04:33Yes, people's disagreements can cause a lot of tension
04:36That's definitely what I found when I went to Scotland
04:4037% of people say they have no religion in Scotland
04:44Becoming the most popular belief in the country
04:46Like England and Wales, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism
04:51All increased in their numbers
04:53The Church of Scotland though went from around 42% to 32%
04:57If you compare two big cities, Edinburgh and Glasgow
05:02The number of people who are Church of Scotland are almost the same
05:05But Glasgow has many more Roman Catholics
05:08It also seems like the population are more religious
05:11It's also where the Celtic and Rangers football club rivalries originate
05:16Rangers were formed by a group of rowers wanting a new sport to play
05:20And Celtics were formed by Brother Walford who was Irish and Catholic
05:24And wanted to feed the poor and hungry
05:26It came as many people in Ireland moved to Scotland during the potato famine
05:30And decades later were still feeling its effects
05:33It eventually became a religious rivalry, named the Old Form
05:37When Rangers started to become associated with the Protestant population
05:43Who goes to football?
05:45So you're like a football community, yeah?
05:48I joined students at a school in Easterhouse, Glasgow
05:51Who were learning a programme called Sense Over Sectarianism
05:55The hope is that they can stop discrimination and prejudice
05:59Especially within football
06:01A couple of them spoke to me about what they learnt
06:04What is sectarianism?
06:06Bigotry, discrimination and prejudice
06:08If you put all of them together you get sectarianism
06:11We've learned sectarianism based on the Christian religion
06:16But it isn't limited to Christianity
06:19For me, I'm not from Scotland, I'm from Manchester
06:22So I'm a Manchester City fan
06:24What teams do you guys support?
06:27Celtic, some factors that lead into that
06:29I'm Catholic, I like the team in general
06:32I feel it's a good team and they're good
06:34My family do usually get quite excited when an Old Form comes on
06:37I support Rangers
06:39I support Celtic
06:41Me and Jessica are best friends
06:43But we never like...
06:45Celtic's better than Rangers
06:47Because it's just a team at the end of the day
06:49Why should it affect a good friendship?
06:53Do you sometimes think that football rivalry can be a bit extreme?
06:57I've got a park close to my house
06:59And a bunch of people will be going too far
07:04Throwing bottles, stabbing people and all that
07:07I live right next to a football stadium too
07:09So I know how that feels
07:11But it must be really scary for you guys
07:13Especially knowing how much rivalry there is
07:15When it's an Old Form, there's just such an amount of anger
07:19And rage in the air
07:21Part of the workshop was about the future
07:23And how things can be changed
07:25How do you think that can be done?
07:27Parents and everybody should stop singing the songs
07:31I don't think there is going to be peace anytime soon, if ever
07:36People can even become violent towards someone
07:39Wearing certain colours associated with a club
07:42So I went to Celtic Park and Ibrox Stadium
07:45To find out whether they think football can change how people behave
07:49Can you tell me what football team you support?
07:51Glasgow Rangers
07:53Glasgow Celtic
07:55Yeah, I think we can see that playing out
07:57Rangers
07:59Just started supporting them because my dad supported them
08:01Palace
08:03I'm a Chelsea fan
08:04Glasgow Celtic
08:05Do you think rivalry in football can sometimes be a bit too extreme?
08:09I think it's alright when you're giving a little bit of banter in the stadium
08:13But when it comes to the fights and people getting put in the hospital and stabbed
08:18I think that's a bit too extreme
08:20Not that healthy that you have to play at 12.30 on a Saturday
08:23Just to have people feel safe
08:25I just feel like they're a part of my life
08:27I think it's a generational thing
08:29A kind of bitterness that can come with supporting one half of the old firm
08:32And do you think football and religion are closely linked?
08:35Yeah, like where I'm from you're not a normal person
08:38You're either Catholic or Protestant
08:40And if you go into the wrong area wearing the wrong stuff
08:43Or if you have the wrong name you could end up getting badly hurt
08:47No, not at all
08:49The famous Jock Stein said that this jersey fits anybody
08:58People can go to extreme lengths to support something
09:01They can, and hate crime in England and Wales is increasing
09:05We really have to be careful not to take our views too far
09:08Or someone can get hurt
09:09Yes, and although a small amount of people do extreme things in the name of religion
09:14The majority of people practice kindness and acceptance
09:18Misunderstandings can fuel hate and abuse online, on social media
09:22And can even lead to extremism
09:24And I think the key is understanding each other's point of view
09:28Without this there can be serious consequences within our society
09:38Extreme views can lead to violence
09:4123 people died and more than 1,000 people were injured
09:45At the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing
09:48While fans left an Ariana Grande concert
09:51The attack had a huge effect on Manchester
09:54But people living here aren't letting hate overshadow what we can do as a community
09:58The Glade of Light is somewhere where people can lay down flowers
10:01To remember the people who died
10:03And I'm going to speak to people about the impact it had here on this city
10:07I think it brought everyone together
10:09Everyone got their Manchester B symbol tattooed on them
10:12Everyone just kind of reclaimed the work of B
10:14We did an assembly at primary school because we were in year 6 at the time
10:17We literally walked past where the bombing happened every day to get to college
10:20You don't notice it at first, but when you really think about it and you're walking past it
10:23It's quite strange when you think something so horrible happened here
10:27And you just walk past like nothing ever happened
10:29Yeah, it's quite weird sometimes
10:32When it kind of came right to our doorstep, it was just shocking, you know
10:37I knew a few people that were there, one of which got injured
10:41And even though I was young, it still affected me in a way where I was scared to go into town
10:47Do you have any connections to the attack?
10:49Yeah, well, there was a friend who was there that evening
10:53And my brother had actually been to college with Salman, right?
10:59With the attacker
11:00And there was a lot of like, it's not us, it's the other mosque
11:06You know, tensions kind of get divided and stuff
11:08But then, since then, I've seen where I sort of move around
11:12I see a lot better of a change than even before it
11:15Is there anything you'd like to say about acceptance?
11:18It's one of those things that it really hurts, you know
11:21And it really hits you in the heart
11:23But closure and sort of, you know, grievance and stuff
11:27It's not just a personal thing that we all have to go through
11:30But it's a wider sort of collective thing
11:36It's so important that different communities support each other
11:39Especially at a time of trauma
11:41Looking forward but still remembering the past is how society progresses
11:46And conversations like you had are a positive way of doing that
11:49Well, we'll be talking more about beliefs and how they can change who we are
11:53In our Generation Y group chat
11:55So, stick around
12:01Welcome back to Generation Y
12:03In this episode's group chat
12:05We went to St George's Church of England School in Kent
12:08Yes, I spoke to a journalist with a Jewish background called Jamie
12:12Christian teacher and artist Samantha
12:15Professional footballer Emily
12:17And Alex, an expert in extremism
12:19Sadgun got some great audience questions
12:22And I spoke to four students
12:24Rhys, Shaya, Oli and Ruby
12:34Does sport kind of bring people together?
12:36Do you sort of see it as potentially something that can be quite divisive?
12:39Beliefs should just be left out of the game
12:42There's competition and then there's going too far
12:44That sense of belonging is a big one
12:46Where people are defending something that is holding their identity
12:49And when you get into people's identity that is very personal
12:52And of course people are going to get defensive
12:54It is really local parts of the community that are doing important work
12:57So that's the good side of it
12:59The bad side of it is, and there's a lot of crossover
13:02When I start to think about extremism and things like that
13:05With the way in which in-groups are portrayed against out-groups
13:09It's us against them
13:10And actually that brings me on to something I wanted to ask
13:13About the way family can influence people's religion
13:16With Judaism as well it's an ethno-religion
13:18Which means that it's also kind of an ethnicity as well
13:21So whereas I'm not a practising Jewish person
13:23I'm still in the culture in the sense that I'm born into the bloodline
13:26I mean I was brought up Jewish, I had a bar mitzvah at 13 years old
13:29But after that I also made a conscious decision to say
13:32Well I'm not really interested in that side of things
13:34So that was that for me really
13:36I don't think there was really another religion I could practice under the household
13:40And that's not to say they were strict or anything
13:43But it was just my whole life
13:44It was everything that I'd been exposed to
13:46And then when I got a bit older in my late teens
13:49I was able to consciously make the decision to become a Christian
13:52But it is a heavy influence
13:53I mean how do you all feel about the relationship between religion
13:57And some of those negative things that have just been touched on
14:00The relationship between violence and war
14:03Some people might think that Jewish people are intrinsically linked to Israel
14:06I mean I myself would say that I don't feel any sort of link to that sort of country
14:10And that's my belief
14:12I feel that there are obviously wars being fought in that part of the Middle East
14:17Because of this kind of belief that Jewish people have a God-given right to that land
14:23But I feel like that is obviously intrinsically linked to religion
14:26And that's something we can't get away from
14:28Even in the Bible there's examples of war and conflict created by religion
14:32And I think it's actually devastating
14:34Because a lot of religions, as we watched earlier
14:37Actually preach about kindness, happiness and being good to each other
14:41It's impossible to escape the fact that a lot of violence around the world
14:44Is undertaken in the name of religion
14:46So some researchers far smarter than me
14:48Came up with what they call the 3N framework
14:50Which they call needs, narrative and network
14:54So religion for a lot of extremists is the narrative
14:57The needs, the individual predispositions
15:00How related someone is to committing violence or committing some kind of hate
15:04As well as the network, the sorts of people they engage with, local communities
15:07And it's usually a combination of those three things
15:09Rather than just religion itself
15:11Please tell us your name, age and the question for the panel today
15:14Hi I'm Harry, I'm 14 years old
15:16And my question is
15:18Why even though religions are so similar between Catholics and Protestants
15:22Why are they fighting over just a football game?
15:24I think they've been led to believe that
15:27Because of the rivalry, that's how
15:30Because each team has a religion
15:33That's how they've gone against each other
15:36When it comes to tensions between Catholics and Protestants
15:38This is something that's gone back more than 500 years
15:41And has involved tremendous violence from both sides
15:44And that all plays into how people are brought up generation after generation
15:49Hi, please tell me your name, age and the question for the panel today
15:52Hi my name is Madsabah, I'm 14
15:54And I'd like to know how young people come to have extreme views
15:58Yeah I think isolation plays a big role in this
16:02If people lose their sense of belonging
16:04Often times they look to something
16:06It doesn't matter which movements we're talking about
16:08Whether it's jihadism, the far right, the incel movement
16:10Separatist movements, things like that
16:13People tend to be slightly more zealous in their late teens and early twenties
16:18And that tends to mean they have a bit more conviction
16:21To follow through on their kind of ideas
16:23They're kind of the most extreme versions of themselves
16:26One of the things that I research is whether
16:28Social media algorithms may be pushing up bad content
16:31When we researched on YouTube
16:33If we started following some hateful accounts
16:35That YouTube would push up this kind of content
16:38And we'd be more likely to see it
16:39I think social media can be good and bad
16:41I think the good things, you can watch things you enjoy
16:45And the things you like
16:47But I think the bad side is
16:49If there's quite a controversial topic
16:51Then they can push you to believe in that as well
16:54I mean as a teacher, as someone who works with children
16:57The things that they tell me they are seeing
16:59I'm like, oh that is awful that you're able to access that
17:02But it is normal now
17:03Hi I'm Kira and I'm 14 years old
17:06And do you feel that Christmas has lost its religious meaning?
17:10For a lot of my family and my community
17:13It never has and I don't think it ever really will
17:15Of course if you view it as a country
17:17And when you look at films and Christmas films
17:20I think truly again I'm going to have to say no
17:22Because even if you watch the cheesiest Christmas film
17:24At the end it's all about loving each other and family
17:27My name is Raj, I'm 13
17:29And how's it like being a professional football player?
17:33I started playing football in a team when I was about 5 or 6
17:38But it always started because my dad, he plays football
17:41I love the journey, I love what I'm doing
17:44I think there's definitely ups and downs
17:46It can be really hard but it's brilliant
17:49And you have to be really committed but I love it
17:54Can you guys tell me a little bit about your beliefs?
17:56I'm Sikh and we believe in quite a few different gods
18:02I'm an atheist but I just find it interesting
18:06About all different religions and how they work
18:08And how similar they are
18:09I'm a Christian
18:10I'm an atheist but my family's Christian
18:13Do you guys think that religion can sometimes be associated
18:16With violence and war?
18:18I think that it can lead to that
18:20But I think some parts of religion
18:22It's just good because you get to express your emotions
18:25And be one with your good
18:27I'd say it can because several attacks or prejudice
18:31Happen because of religion
18:33And that can affect everyone's day to day life
18:35Do you think people can believe in a sports team
18:38Similar to a way that they can believe in a religion?
18:41I think so
18:42If a team's based by a religion
18:47I have a Scottish team called Hearts
18:49And say if I go up there and go to a certain part of Scotland
18:51And I say that
18:52Then people might get a bit angry
18:55Yeah, that's what I found when I went to Scotland too
18:57Yeah
18:58Do you guys think that people can take sport too far
19:02And it can cause prejudice and hate?
19:04I think it can because sometimes
19:06At football matches and stuff
19:08People get angry
19:09But I also feel like when they have alcohol
19:11It doesn't make it any better
19:13At the same time
19:14Do you think sports and religious beliefs
19:17Can come together in a positive way?
19:19Yeah, I think everyone could be civil
19:24And that we can enjoy our religion and sports
19:28Do you guys think family has sometimes
19:31Too much influence on your religion?
19:34Yeah I do
19:35Because if you're brought up in a certain way
19:37And brought up with a certain religion
19:38And say like
19:39It's the same with football
19:40Say your dad supports
19:42Or your mum supports your team
19:44And you want them to be proud of you
19:47So you sort of have that pressure of supporting them
19:50I'm guessing you guys play video games
19:52And you're on social media quite a lot
19:54Yeah
19:55So do you think video games and the online world
19:58Can contribute to violence and extremism?
20:01Not as much video games
20:02But I believe social media can
20:04Because a lot of people have a large following
20:08Which means a large influence
20:09So they could say something
20:11And it can affect the way people act
20:14How do you think someone can come to have extremist beliefs?
20:18It's just the way that they've been influenced by other people
20:22How do you think we can stop extremism from happening?
20:25Just accept everyone's different
20:27Everyone has their own opinions
20:28I think having a multi-faith community
20:30So it's very inclusive
20:33And takes everyone for who they are
20:36Shona, do you think that education and extremism
20:40Can help stop it?
20:43I think in some places it can
20:45But I feel like some people are so strong
20:47With what they believe in
20:48That sometimes it won't work
20:50Have you guys ever experienced prejudice and hate yourself?
20:55Yeah
20:56Could you tell me what happened?
20:58It's just some people have been brought up
21:02To not like other religions and beliefs
21:07And then when they see you
21:10They say what they've been brought up with
21:13I've seen friends and people that are quite close to me
21:16Go through that
21:17And then I see how that affects them
21:19And they can get quite sad and emotional
21:22I haven't seen anything
21:23I've had some friends and close people who have
21:26And I think it just comes from a lack of understanding
21:29Do you guys think extremism is on the rise or is it falling?
21:33I feel like it's on the rise
21:36More and more people have been influenced
21:39To not like other beliefs
21:43People that they surround themselves with
21:46Would be a bad influence
21:48I think it's because of COVID and all that
21:52And all the isolation
21:53That people haven't been able to go out and see their friends
21:57So they haven't been able to interact with other people
22:00So they don't really have people to change their minds
22:03On the things that they're thinking
22:05And it depends on what stuff you're looking at on the internet
22:08That can influence what you're doing
22:10If you don't have any human contact at the time
22:12Speaking about social media
22:14Have you guys ever seen anything like extremism
22:17On social media yourselves?
22:19Well I've seen some things
22:21Where people say it's banter and stuff like that
22:24But most people probably won't take it that way
22:26I think some people just get carried away on social media
22:29Because you can make a fake account
22:32And no one will ever notice you
22:35Even if they get banned
22:36You can easily make another free account
22:39And when you're seeing them on there
22:41You're hoping it's fake
22:43Because you don't want to be seeing that for real
22:45I think that the larger creators on apps like TikTok
22:49Could have a bigger influence
22:51Because a lot of the people that they're viewing
22:54Take what they say, not personally
22:57But they do what they say
23:00I think there could be precautions put into place
23:04To stop people from experiencing hate
23:14That was an amazing conversation
23:16It was
23:17And interesting to hear what people have to say
23:19From their different points of view
23:21Well that's all we have time for
23:23So join us next time on
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