“Religion is part of the human make-up. It’s also part of our cultural and intellectual history. Religion was our first attempt at literature, the texts, our first attempt at cosmology, making sense of where we are in the universe, our first attempt at health care, believing in faith healing, our first attempt at philosophy.”
-Christopher Hitchens
America is seeing a decline in church attendance and in the amount of faith being displayed. There were 30 catholic churches closed in New York; there were also 200,000 Baptists lost as of 2014! These numbers and incidents are just a few examples of secularity. Frankly, it is sad. The reasons for the loss of faith are a lot more complicated then one might think; as are the solutions.
Are people leaving the churches, or are the churches leaving the people?
Is it possible that the reason people are leaving their churches is because of an absence of firm truth? The people want a faith that will stand and abide by their beliefs; not a church that is going to alter doctrine according to what is popular at that time.
By no means am I saying that the Catholic or Baptist churches are changing their doctrine, resulting in their current decline. What I am saying is that holistically, churches may be trying to preach according to what they think the people will like; when in reality, the people look at what is being preached as unstable and untrustworthy word.This is more of an underlining reason for the decline in faith.
The more overt reason would be the uprise in modern atheism. Many have turned to science believing that it disproves the existence of God. Others claim that they do not need God in order to succeed. This subject matter will remain to be heavily studies as Religion is one of the biggest factors in America.
If you have any thoughts please leave a comment!
Wish you well,
-Drew