Christianity appears to be in trouble. Young people are leaving the church in large numbers. Seventy percent of young people raised in the church leave after high school. The numbers of “Nones”, those who claim no affiliation with any religion, are growing. Churches are becoming older and more female.
Why?
It certainly appears that our secular, materialistic, hedonistic culture is doing a better job of arguing against whatever Christian beliefs our young people grew up with than the church is in arguing for them. The culture is doing a more effective job of wooing young people away from the church than the church is of holding on to them.
So why is this? Perhaps it's at least partly because of an inability or unwillingness on the part of those who profess to believe the core doctrines of Christianity to explain them cogently to younger generations. As a consequence our culture is becoming increasingly hostile to Christianity, Christian values and Christians.
The irony in this is that on an intellectual level (as opposed to the emotional or hedonic level), the secular option makes very little sense.
We'll talk about why I think this tomorrow, but consider today some of the reasons people give for leaving the church:
1. They had a bad experience with church (disillusionment w/church leaders, etc.). Their doubts aren't taken seriously. Young people are told to just have faith, and nobody at the church can or will answer their questions.
2. Church is boring. There's no sense of purpose or mission. Christianity seems superficial and unconnected to their lives.
3. They perceive a conflict between science and Christianity.
4. Christianity is too strict (exclusivism, homosexual marriage, abortion, etc.).
5. They can't reconcile the standard concept of God with suffering, evil or hell.
6. Some young people just don't want it to be true.They want to be autonomous, they don't want to submit to a higher authority and they find the allurements of the world intoxicating.
#1 and #2 are simply reasons for finding a different church, not for leaving church altogether. #3 is a mistaken perception. There's no conflict between Christianity and science although there may be conflicts between some versions of Christianity and some scientific hypotheses.
#4 and #5 are tougher problems and the church needs to do a better job preparing clergy and laypeople to be able to answer them, but even if no one in the church can handle these challenges young people need to realize that what they've come to identify with Christian belief may actually be wrong, or at least not essential to Christianity. Lots of very devout men and women have disagreed on all these issues for centuries.
I'm not a psychiatrist but I believe #6 is probably the underlying reason why a lot of young people, and older people, leave the church.
Philosopher Thomas Nagel says in his book The Last Word that he is curious "whether there is anyone who is genuinely indifferent as to whether there is a God - anyone who, whatever his actual belief about the matter, doesn't particularly want either one of the answers to be correct ..."
He himself openly admits in the book that his disbelief is not a matter of reasoned thinking about the matter: "I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn't just that I don't believe in God and naturally hope that I'm right in my belief. It's that I hope there is no God! I don't want there to be a God; I don't want the universe to be like that."
I suspect that Nagel speaks for a great many of those who've abandoned Christainity. It's not a matter of "reasoned thinking." It's a matter of believing what they most want to be true, and if someone just doesn't want there to be a God there's not much on the intellectual level that can be said to persuade them otherwise.
If our heart doesn't want to believe it's pretty certain that our mind never will.
I'll have a bit more on this tomorrow.