developmentIt makes sense that as children learn about the world their need for a god-of-the-gaps diminishes, and occasionally leaves them entirely depending on their upbringing. Teenage rebelliousness may also play a factor I suppose.
However, why is it that during college and later in life, many people seem to swing wildly back becoming evangelized?
I think it goes both ways. Many people become disillusioned, and some give it up entirely but some others go back. I think it just depends on the person and what’s happened in their life. My mother, for instance, was always Catholic but became much more religious after her father died. On the other hand, I became an EMT at 16 and shortly afterwards I had a 9 year old boy die. Our experiences shape our beliefs - my mother took comfort in her belief in Heaven, and I got off the fence and concluded that there was no overarching force to life other than what we make of it.
In short, I don’t think your premise is correct. It’s a fragile time for faith, and depending on the person, how they were raised, and their experiences - they’ll swing one way or the other. I’m not sure there’s anything wrong with that.
While I have noticed with a few of my friends, I wouldn’t say “many” have done this. For those few, it probably has something to do with the fear of the unknown. As a young person experiences more of life and its problems, they continuously seek answers. Many answers from religion feel good. Once you have an answer that makes you feel good and satisfies those concerns or questions about life, it’s easy to stop seeking.
As humans age, they establish and need to establish more social relationships. Therefore, a possible hypothesis might be that post-adolescent children try to make more relationships by becoming members of religious groups (which implies leaning toward theism), and are influenced by their newly acquired religious peers (which results in becoming religious).
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