On Easter this year I was watching a program on CNN featuring a priest, rabbi, and the commentator who himself seemed to come from a religious background of some sort, perhaps as a pastor on one level or another. The discussion was basically about the role of Jesus and religion in general in society with the effects of the erosion of the importance of religion on society. One fact was brought out that took me for a start but did not really surprise me all that much. This was that a recent survey of eighteen to thirty five year olds showed that 90% of them define themselves as either atheist or agnostic.
For the general population this percentage has steadily been between eight and ten percent for as long as such surveys have been conducted. If I were to call this a reliable figure I would have to examine how it was conducted, how the questions were posed, etc. But for the sake of argument let us suppose that the 90% figure is accurate. What does this tell us and what does it portend?
I can confidently assert that such a conviction would arise from the self-centered mentality among this age group today. To insert a personal observation drawn from experience, while I was still teaching college last year I noticed that today’s students are definitely goal oriented and this goal is to become a millionaire by the time they are 25, then retire and have fun. Little to no concern is indicated for the welfare of others, raising a family - again predictable given our throw-away society where newborns are cast into dumpsters so as not to become an inconvenience and impediment to their goal of a lifetime of fun and leisure – or any of the usual social or interpersonal concerns most people give thought to.
I compare this with my students from the early 1990’s whose primary goal was how soon was the next party so they could get totally wasted and have as much promiscuous sex as possible. Although today’s student’s are more long range seeing in their aspirations, I do see this as an improvement over those of nearly twenty years ago, but it has fostered a mindset and worldview that places themselves as the center of the universe.
So it is of no surprise to me that phenomena such as abandonment of infants, smugness, reckless disregard everywhere for their fellow citizens, and a general attitude that anyone who goes into anything like the helping professions (even the military which is a commitment to defend the nation) is an idiot because there is no money in it.
I can project that we will see a further shrinking of the birthrate well below the replacement rate (because having kids cuts into their fun), hiring surrogates to do the dirty work for them (which is a major reason why nobody wants to do anything about illegal immigration because if that stopped somebody else would have to do the grunt work), and in the very long term a threat to our culture by aggressive outside elements will become stark and urgent because everyone will be too busy enjoying themselves to stand up against it. I can comfortably predict that sometime in the middle or second half of this century Europe will be overrun in a repeat of the Islamic hordes that invaded the Mediterranean area during the Middle Ages because at that time Europe had been devastated by the Black Plague and was too weak to defend itself. I foresee a return of this only this time it won’t be due to a natural disaster but a pervasive laxity of European culture to do anything to stop it. As an extension of that culture it will happen here but it will take a bit longer but be sure that it will also eventually arrive.