People are less and less religious. Why? What will change this?

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People are less and less religious. Why? What will change this?
 
I think that applies only to first world nations.

When people are fat and happy (and also distracted) they tend to have less awareness or perceived need of God. (See OT)
 
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Actually, the non-religious are bottoming out because they don’t have kids.
 
Technology and scientific advancement are probably the two driving forces.
 
I already have depression so I guess I’ll have to welcome you guys to the club.
 
It is no longer politically nor socially correct to express religious beliefs and feelings. Those in the younger generation who grow up without explicit instruction in religion no longer have a secondary source, their peers or general culture, from which to learn about it, or that it even exists. A good public relations campaign to help? Probably not. A genuine revival of searching for the ultimate truth and finding the answer in the Catholic Church.
 
A secular school system tends to create godless people as does a secular media.

Faith has to be lived in a culture.
 
The developed world has certainly become more secular. Worldwide, however, the trend is in the opposite direction because religious people have more children.
 
Sadly but this is quite a true description of our situation today. Religion is not taught and among peers, it is not cool. Compounded by the fact that there is no secondary sources for our youth.

Without seeds of faith being planted in our youth, it is quite a challenge to be religious today. With religious foundation, we can hope for a renewal, without it, it really needs to start all over. To bring back our youth to believe and to the Church is a big challenge indeed. The world is a strong force against religions and in many ways offer attraction that religion cannot superficially give.
 
abucs said:
A secular school system tends to create godless people as does a secular media.

Faith has to be lived in a culture.
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I don’t know… Working in a public school has driven me to a much deeper prayer life!

😱 😱 😱

Seriously, though, it’s amazing to me how ignorant many of the children are of any religious concepts. The kids with religious training in the home or church/mosque/temple understand allusions in literature – and when they comment on it, the look of confusion on the faces of the other kids is always a bit alarming to me.
 
There are long-term and short-term trends. Since the late 1700s religious practice has been declining in ‘the West’ and places like Japan. It also declined massively of course where there were socialist governments. The collapse of the Soviet Union has not been followed by a rebound to past religiosity. In general I think the long-term decline is due to the elimination of physical persecution of non-religious people, the assertion of freedom of belief, the separation of Church and State and the impact of scientific understanding that has reduced the size of the ‘god of the gaps’ that is, the god that is said to be responsible for everything we do not understand. Short term trends are religious fragmentation - for Christianity most clearly in the protestant religions but spending int he Catholic Church too with, e.g. the SSPX etc. I can think of no action that can be taken to eliminate the long-term trend except religion gaining power over the state as in Muslim countries. Of course I think that would be a bad thing. I think the short term trends are really manifestations of the long-term trends as people try to remake religion to meet modern conditions. They will not succeed, I think. There is no evidence I know of that Catholic, or other Christian education leads to a very much greater adherence to religion as people reach adulthood. The massive investment by the Catholic Church in education cannot be shown to produce useful results. They could maybe try something else. We live in a world that is more secular than it was 50, 100, 1000, 10,000 years ago. The trend is clear.
 
Christphr said:
People are less and less religious
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I don’t think so. Muslims are quite religious and have been for some time. The Muslim woman continues to dress modestly in most cases. And many Muslims still pray several times a day. The Muslim religion is growing quite rapidly and new Mosques are being built in many places all over the world today.
 
Yes, that probably is quite right. One can say that there is a revival among Muslims in their practices and belief of their religion, perhaps beginning around the late seventies. On the other hand during the same period, Christianity, especially in the West, has experienced a sharp decline.
 
God is on the other side of the gaps. The greater part of modern Christian history (regarding this issue) has been dedicated to closing that gap.

It is the secular narrative taught in the secular dominated schools and media which prevents peole from knowing this. At some point the fallacious narrative and authoritarian control will fail.

The fall of communist Europe has shown this.
 
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I think too much is made about schools on this issue.
Many parents think they can outsource their duties to others in passing on the Faith. This is a big mistake. There are plenty of people who attend Christian schools and even homeschooled and they wind up lukewarm at best. The problem is parents aren’t witnessing why Faith is important.
I’m the product of public secular schooling from kindergarten to university, yet I’m quite the opposite of what people would expect. In many ways, the challenges deepened my Faith.

Media is to blame. The TV, movies and music industry are all dominated by an elite that is hostile to religion and willing to smear and distort facts to achieve its goals. News media aren’t better. But this is in no way to say people can’t be immune to those. Immunity definitely can be achieved. Again, engaged parents are the solution.

And Faith definitely has to be lived in a culture. Church communities can be a counter-culture.
 
Speculating wildly here but in the first world at least we are less dependent on one another, some describe an atomised society and epidemic of loneliness. A lot of modern seekers are going to prefer some kind of self help option rather than submission to a religious community.
 
I have taught in both public and Catholic schools and found faithful Catholics in each and unfortunately an aggressive secular ideology in both.

Parents should be the key. Sometimes it is difficult if they are isolated in a secular dominated environment without a Christian cultural life for the children to see in practice.

I also have attended (and taught) in the secular school system and believe me there are people there wanting to sideline Christianity almost as an act of faith in secular ideology.

Six hours a day teaching from an increasingly militant secular ideology for a dozen years or more at the important formation ages of people has had a huge influence.
 
Christphr said:
People are less and less religious. Why? What will change this?
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I’m not sure if “vital piety” is any more or less present in today’s society than it has been in the past. What I think has changed is that many formerly Christian nations have turned their back on their Christian heritage.

What this means is that in the past many people could receive social and political benefits by being members of church and, at least externally, professing Christian faith. Today, the social and political benefits are much less than they used to be.

Many people who in the past would be “nominal” Christians are today choosing to be unaffiliated with any religion because doing so does not exact a political or social cost.
 
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