More misery, less God

Americans believe in God less than ever—during the same time that life gets more wretched than ever. This is the opposite of what's usually the case...

There’s been a bunch of studies lately about how Christianity in America is set to die off in the next few decades. A third of Americans have quit church. People are noticing that nobody is going to church anymore. People have been leaving religion for a long time, but it’s accelerating a lot now.

At the same time, misery and wretchedness are increasing. There’s actually something called a “misery index” nd it is rising. (I think “wretchedness index” would be a better name, but alas). Addiction, disease, insanity, senseless violence, hopelessness, deaths of despair, on and on—all skyrocketing, with no end in sight. This is nothing new either—wretchedness has been part of life forever.

But what seems new to me is that these two are happening at the same time—a decline in religion going along with a rise in wretchedness. Usually throughout history, when life got more wretched for more people, the masses would turn to Christianity (or any religion), for consolation.

Not anymore. Now people are getting more wretched by the day, but also dropping out of religion more and more.

This, it seems to me, is the worst of all possible worlds—misery rising without even the comfort of religion to get people through it!

I’m certainly not saying I believe in God or Christianity or Jesus or anything. What I believe in is wretchedness—and I believe that I see more and more of it every day. You can feel it in the air. And religion has been the one thing in history that has helped people deal with wretchedness. A world of rising wretchedness but declining religion—what can this lead to? Where is this going? What does it mean?

I guess it means that people have just accepted wretchedness, and don’t expect anything different than just a life of wretchedness forever. People have stopped expecting anything that isn’t wretched. Nobody really cares about the future either. People kind of just want to see how much misery can exist, without even trying to escape from it. All that’s left is to just see how hellish the world can become—and people are intent on looking straight at it, without the refuge of religion. Merging hell with life on earth, as much as possible—that’s what the world today is all about. That’s what the future will be.

Pascal’s Pensees is one of the best books about God because it’s written by someone who was actually smart. A big part of his argument for belief in God is based in man’s wretchedness. How wretched mankind is must logically imply an inverse—a state of being as great and blessed as man’s is wretched and hopeless.

Pascal says: “There is nothing on earth that does not show either the wretchedness of man, or the mercy of God; either the weakness of man without God, or the strength of man with God.”

It is only by God’s mercy that we are not in a world of pure wretchedness. Whenever we see anything or anyone that isn’t utterly wretched, it is only because of God’s mercy—for this world, for us. God can momentarily shield us from wretchedness. But without that, there’s just pure wretchedness, all the time.

Wretchedness without God…a perfect hell. You’ve gotta hand it to us—we know how to make a good hell.