In the 21st century, church attendance, religious belief, and religious observance have all decreased, while loneliness, depression, anxiety, and other psychological maladies have all increased. Conservative and religious people assert that these two trends are related, and even some atheists and secular people think they have a point.
I won’t presume to know all the answers, but I think this conclusion is wrong-headed. Of course religious conservatives think we need to “religion more” when a problem emerges, they think that’s the solution to every problem. I would know, I grew up among them.
The problem with trying to make yourself believe in a deeper purpose that you don’t naturally believe in is that it usually doesn’t work. Adding words like “objective” or “transcendental” or “Godly” to your daily activities does not add a secret sauce of fulfillment.
I’ve known of clergy people who have felt unfulfilled in their work, not because they didn’t believe in God anymore but because the work they were doing was unfulfilling. They changed jobs (still within the church) and immediately felt purpose again.
In this way, humans don’t need “deep, transcendental, divinely-ordained” purpose, but context and immersion in everyday life.
Even the most devout Christians spend long stretches of their day not thinking about God at all, and it doesn’t make them depressed. What’s more, there are countless religious believers who are perfectly happy working menial jobs. Some of them rationalize their work with religious meaning, but most of them just don’t think their work has anything to do with God.
And just as there are religious people who live life this way, there are also secular people. I know because I’m one of them! I got this way by involving myself in relationships and activities that I authentically love and appreciate, not by throwing myself at legacy “community organizations” like churches because some D.C. policy wonk said they were correlated with improved personal outcomes.
At 31, I feel the benefits: I love sports, running, reading, and writing little blogs like this. I love my fiancé because I love my fiancé and it’s so fulfilling to love my fiancé. Yes, that’s tautological. Isn’t that beautiful?
The people who are sad, depressed, anxious, and without meaning aren’t that way because they don’t have faith in God, but because they’ve lost an important context of their life: a job, a loved one, a community. Or, they have a disorder of the mind where they can’t feel immersed in a situation.
We’re seeing all of these negative societal outcomes increase because social media breaks the immersion necessary to form meaningful context and community with others. That’s why I heavily regulate my own social media use. As a result, I’m doing much better than I was 5-10 years ago.
All to say: Not everyone will benefit from joining a church, but everyone will benefit from logging off.