Secondary school students' belief in God and its reflections

This study aims at determining how precisely the nature of the beliefs of the secondary school students in years 11 and 12, their perception of God in their world of imagination, believing in the existence of God and having faith in Him affect their emotions and behaviours individually. The study also covers up the religious culture and ethics teachers and imam hatip high school vocational course teachers as well. The research was made in the 2021-2022 academic year on 330 students in 11 out of 21 public schools of secondary education located in the town center of a Province in Western Black Sea Region. The results indicate that a big majority of the students believe in God, some are skeptical about religious issues, and only quite a few students disbelieve and they show agnostic approaches. It was observed that the students' perception of God are naturally shaped as they grow up in a traditonal way and the main source of their information is mostly their parents, and that they do not have sufficient religious knowledge about the existence and the oneness of God. They try to explain their rational and logical justification for the existence of God with cosmological laws, which are not basically based on true knowledge. Unfortunately, it is a clear fact that the existed educational processes do not meet the requirements of the students on a satisfaction level and contribute for them to conceive the existence of God and believing in Him. Religious culture and ethics teachers and imam hatip high school vocational course teachers state that they could be more actively involved with the students for them to learn about faith issues regarding their needs. The teachers claim that the students should be provided with a better material as a textbook easy to understand, and the book ought to illustrate the abstract notions with more scientific, rational and logical arguments to teach the students about the existence of God and having faith in Him. In this study, a qualitative research method has been used to reveal the relationships among the data examining them in all details. In addition, significant issues are taken up in the study such as the type of the research made, the group of the students worked with, the data collection tools benefitted, the data analysis, and their validity and reliability. While determining the study group, a maximum variation method has been used to investigate the problems from a broad perspective as a purposeful sampling model, and a case study has been carried out in the research as aqualitative type of research to achieve better results. The data obtained within the scope of the research have been analyzed using the "content analysis method" and presented within the framework of logical consistency. In the research, an utmost care has been taken to ensure that the factors of method, process and result are in a structural integrity. A detailed record of the research process has been kept and all the data have been preserved in such a way that it could be analyzed again. Also an attention has been paid to keep away from making a subjective evaluation looking from an impartial point of view. Keywords: Belief in God, Agnosticism, Atheism, Deism, Student, Teacher, Religious, Culture and Ethics.