Religion Failing to Hold Believers During Scientific and Economic Progress

In dark ages of poverty and ignorance with no appreciable human progress – it is easier to pin hopes on religion and a better afterlife.  But in an age where scientific advances teach us to expect proof, and material life keeps getting noticeably better and easier – with progress in some areas like computers and light bulbs on a yearly basis – organized religion finds that many people are shifting their faith towards human progress.

The Number Of Americans With “No Religion” Has Soared 266% Over The Last 3 Decades

“Over the last 30 years, there has been a mass exodus out of organized religion in the United States.  Each year the needle has only moved a little bit, but over the long-term what we have witnessed has been nothing short of a seismic shift.  Never before in American history have we seen such dramatic movement away from the Christian faith, and this has enormous implications for the future of our nation.  According to a survey that was just released, the percentage of Americans that claim to have “no religion” has increased by 266 percent since 1991…”

“According to a different survey, two-thirds of Christian young adults say that they stopped going to church at some point between the ages of 18 and 22…  These are the exact same patterns that we saw happen in Europe, and now most of those countries are considered to be “post-Christian societies.”

I never expected to see a trend where 6-10 thousand churches per year close down in the United States, while the opposite trend occurs in formerly atheist, communist Russia.

“The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) has been expanding at the rate of nearly 1,000 churches a year, according to its head, Patriarch Kirill….

Photo below – Rebuilding Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow

The position of the ROC under the presidency of Vladimir Putin has strengthened considerably and it is increasingly identified with a nationalist agenda. Putin himself revealed in 2012 that he was illicitly baptised as an infant at the behest of his mother against the wishes of his staunchly Communist father at a time when the Church was still out of favour…. According to a 2014 Pew report, between 1991 and 2008 the share of Russian adults identifying as Orthodox Christian rose from 31 per cent to 72 per cent.”

I would have thought that progress in science and in material comforts would make the largest impact on religious beliefs… But Russians have seen huge increases in progress and comfort since the fall of communism yet they are heading in the opposite direction compared to Americans.  Perhaps the biggest factor is simply loss of faith in old ways.  Americans were religious, but now tend to question it.  Russians had been forced to abandon the traditions of Holy Mother Russia and put their faith in the communist State, which failed them – now they are shifting to religion.  Perhaps this is a social phenomenon having more to do with pendulum swings between extremes than anything else….

In my perception, America fought against ideological evil in WWII, and became much more aware of dehumanizing atrocities in the rest of the world.  This helped Americans define themselves as being the opposite of their enemies, with a trend towards goodness, altruism, and compassion.  I’m not saying it turned America into a legion of angels, but it helped.  The cold war against the Soviet Union also helped Americans define themselves as the opposition of tyranny and godless communism.  But now the former enemies are no longer embracing Nazism or Communism or atheism.  Germany, Russia, China, and Japan are modernized and embracing capitalism while America struggles to maintain a moral compass.

This related article lists dozens of reasons/signs showing the moral decline of post-Christian America: 40 Facts That Prove That America’s Moral Collapse Is Spinning Wildly Out Of Control

Are movies and cell phones and video games eroding our ability to wait for answers and results?  Are the youngest generations neurologically unprepared for anything that doesn’t offer immediate gratification?  Some of these social changes also stem from tolerance, diversity, and multiculturalism.  These are by no means inherently bad ideas.  But in promoting the belief that all ideas, religions, cultures, and ways of doing things are equally valid – it helps destroy cultural norms that once gave support to a more cohesive, more universally shared set of values and beliefs.  If post-modern America is going to be post-Christian America, I sure hope something meaningful replaces what the country once had with a new set of moral and ethical core values before confusion and apathy erode the culture and take the people down the drain.

I would love to see comments and suggestions on what could develop next.