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| Image from Cross Currents for illustration purposes only |
Ronald F. Inglehart’s findings in his article, “The Global Decline of Religion,” will not surprise many of us. He tells us about his previous research on data available between 1981 to 2007 that showed that “industrialization and the spread of scientific knowledge were not causing religion to disappear, as some scholars had once assumed.” In fact, it was growing stronger in many countries.
That, he says, has changed radically and rapidly. Those same countries more recently have shown a drastic decline in religiosity. Significantly, the United States, formerly touted as one of the most religiously committed countries, has led the charge out of G-d’s corner. “Near the end of the initial period studied, Americans’ mean rating of the importance of God in their lives was 8.2 on a ten-point scale. In the most recent U.S. survey, from 2017, the figure had dropped to 4.6, an astonishingly sharp decline.”
Rabbi Adlerstein challenges Inglehart’s lack of sources for those numbers. But I fear that they are pretty accurate based on what I have observed about the cultural changes we have been going through over the last few years. Which is one reason why gay marriage is now so accepted.
This is one of the pitfalls of increasing our knowledge of the universe. The more we are able to use scientific inquiry to explore nature and find explanations for heretofore unexplained phenomena, the less need there is for a Supernatural Being to be the explanation. I believe that this overly simplistic way of looking at the world is one of the primary reasons people are abandoning God. That - and a culture that is more interested in pleasure and human rights than it is in obligations.
Once you have doubt about God’s role in the universe, you begin to question the values that are recorded in His name through the bible. And then question if not outright reject the notion that the bible is the Divine word of God. Especially if you are constantly bombarded with the idea that mankind’s ethics have evolved and are far superior to an archaic bible. Which is increasingly being seen as written by man as though it was God who authored it.
The thinking is that we are much ‘smarter’, more ‘enlightened’, and ‘more ethical’ today than an ancient book that is paternalistic , misogynistic, tolerates slavery, and orders Sabbath violators and blasphemers to be stoned to death. In a country where freedom is king, a book full of archaic rules is the last thing we should be looking at.
But I am highly suspect of Englehart’s motives. Which I believe colored his findings. From Cross Currents:
As unexpected as it may seem, countries that are less religious actually tend to be less corrupt and have lower murder rates than more religious ones.” So we have learned, it seems, that we certainly don’t need religion to create a more stable society. So we walk out.
We don’t need religion to provide meaning and purpose either. “Evidence from the World Values Survey indicates that in highly secure and secular countries, people are giving increasingly high priority to self-expression and free choice, with a growing emphasis on human rights, tolerance of outsiders, environmental protection, gender equality, and freedom of speech.” That, implies the author, should provide all the goodness quotient that people need.
More. “In a world where people often lived near starvation, religion helped them cope with severe uncertainty and stress. But as economic and technological development took place, people became increasingly able to escape starvation, cope with disease, and suppress violence. They become less dependent on religion—and less willing to accept its constraints…as existential insecurity diminished and life expectancy rose.”
This compelling argument for abandoning God in one’s life is rife with his obvious anti religious bias. Belief in God does not default down to what is and isn’t rational. Nor does it boil down to how much good can be done in the world without God.
Belief in God means belief in a Creator. Who created man in His image. As such God is involved in our every day lives requiring us to follow His laws - with ‘reward and punishment’ incentives. That is what gives mankind purpose and meaning. In this world and beyond. This is not a juvenile exercise designed for the simplistic mind. Creation is the ultimate explanation of existence. Which I firmly believe science can never explain other then to say matter and energy itself is infinite. Which is another form of deification.
Unfortunately this kind of thinking is increasingly becoming the accepted Orthodoxly among academics. I believe Engehart is a true believer in this Orthodoxy.
The majority of Americans seem to have bought into it too. They now support values that are contrary to the values of the bible. Modern man - who now knows so much about the physical universe no longer needs to accept God. Especially one that tolerates all of the abovementioned negatives. We now can explain most physical phenomena and no longer need supernatural explanations. So the entire enterprise of a Creator is rejected. And thereby a bible which they increasingly see as manmade. We thus now have a new set of ethics and morals – which are humanistic and more tolerant.
I cannot accept that as an ultimate truth. While I might question why the bible considers ethical - things which no longer seem to be, doesn’t mean I reject them. It only means that I don’t understand them.
The idea of existence without meaning and purpose… of being born, living and dying and that’s it... makes no sense to me. Generation after generation of the same meaningless end until the sun explodes and humanity ceases to exist is too horrible a fate to comprehend. It cannot be that thinking rational human beings were generated as a random act of nature exclusive of a Creator. There is a reason we exist. And a purpose and meaning to our lives as servants of our Creator.
Warning
As always this blog assumes belief in God and His Torah. Arguments to the contrary will not be tolerated. Thank you for your cooperation.