I have a new column this week on OnlySky. It’s about the alleged trend of young people going back to church, and whether there’s any substance to these claims.
America’s nonreligious population – the “nones” – grew rapidly in the first two decades of the millennium. But in the last five years or so, that previously red-hot growth seems to have slowed down, if not plateaued. Religious apologists have pounced on this, claiming that atheism has reached its limit and that Gen Zers are about to turn back to God in a massive, spontaneous religious revival. One published survey, the so-called Quiet Revival, claims that it’s already happening.
Is there any reason to believe this? You can probably guess.
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After years of declining church attendance, aging and dwindling congregations, and a widespread falling away from faith, revival has come to the West. Faith is cool and countercultural again. More young people are rediscovering God, and they’re flocking back to church in droves. There’s going to be a new Great Awakening very soon.
At least, that’s what religious apologists want us to believe. They’ve written no end of stories insisting on it. For example, there’s this triumphal headline from the alt-right, anti-feminist magazine Evie, “God Is Back And Gen Z Is Leading The Revival”.
There’s plenty of room to debate why the growth of the nones might have leveled off. Are there natural limits—a core of American religiosity that can’t be overcome? Are there broader economic or cultural trends pushing people back to church—as an antidote to the loneliness epidemic, or people in search of a safety net? Was the New Atheist movement the catalyst, and now that it’s faded from prominence, the growth of the nones is stalling?
If you asked me to guess, I go with: the core of American religiosity is rooted in ignorance. You have more kids in education, you have better access to information, and you have more kids moving to cities to make the big bucks, then obviously as they encounter reality, religion falls away.
Except in America education is being gutted, the information you have access to is being poisoned more than ever before, and fewer people can afford to move to (or remain in) a city. The rich prefer the peasants stupid and god-fearing, and the rich’s influence on society, and in particular on American society, has never accelerated like it has in the past decade or two.
This is why the suggestion that young people are turning back to religious faith doesn’t immediately sound my bullshit alarm – it’s all too credible given the demonstrable decline in the average intelligence of the typical American, demonstrated by their choice of government.