Ep.57 The Decline of Christianity, the Rise of the “Nones” and Philosophies of the Person that Shape Unbelief
Feb 26, 2024
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Discusses the decline of Christianity and the rise of 'Nones' in the US. Covers topics like breakdown of the family, sexual revolution, feminism, and technology's impact on belief. Explores different philosophies of the person shaping unbelief, including transhumanism and transgenderism.
The rise of new religions like pantheism contributes to the decline of Christian belief and the increase in secularism.
Five false anthropological views, such as seeing humans as commodities or cogs, lead to despair and the erosion of Christianity.
Deep dives
The Rise of Declining Religious Affiliation in the United States
The decline of religious belief and the rise of new religions like pantheism influence the decline of Christian belief and the rise of secularism and pantheism. The talk at the conference highlighted five false visions of the human person leading to despair, anxiety, and the decline of Christianity.
Challenges and Optimism in American Society
While American society is becoming more secular, studies show that a majority still believe in God. Despite a drop in religious service attendance, many faith-based communities thrive in places such as worship centers, schools, and nonprofits. The podcast emphasizes reasons for optimism amid challenging times.
Anthropologies Contributing to Unbelief
Key anthropological viewpoints influencing unbelief include plastic anthropology, transhumanism, human being as a cog, human beings as a scourge, and human beings as a commodity. These philosophical perspectives shape beliefs around identity, technology, productivity, environmental impact, and commodification of individuals.
Proposing a Christian Vision of the Human Person
The podcast advocates for reaffirming the goodness of being, valuing each individual as a subject, defending reason and freedom, acknowledging our social nature, and affirming the goodness of the body. It stresses the need to align with a coherent Christian vision of the human person to combat nihilism and false utopianism prevalent in modern society.
This episode of the Moral Imagination Podcast is a talk I gave at AmPhil’s Center for Civil Society conference in November, 2023 on the “Rise of the Nones.” According to Pew Research, those who declare no religious affiliation - None - are now the largest religious category in the United States. In this talk I address several overarching reasons for the decline of Christianity and address how five dominant visions of the human person including person as a cog or scourge, transhumanism & transgenderism, plastic anthropology, and the person as a commodity — also play a key role not only in despair and anxiety, but contribute both to the decline of Christian belief and the rise of secularism and pantheism/new paganism. This talk is a thematic overview and distillation of two longer lectures I give on five false anthropologies and 10 reasons for unbelief and the decline of Christianity. Some of the topics I address include
Breakdown of the Family - specifically decrease in fatherhood participation, and its impact on religious practice
Sexual Revolution - disorients the person and relationships between men and women
Feminism & Smashing the Patriarchy — “Flight from Woman”
Egalitarianism and Pantheism - Tocqueville’s prediction of the rise of pantheism in democratic societies
Technology + Technological Society:
Practical: use of technology and propaganda
Theoretical: Empiricist rationality is incoherent and severs relationship between affectivity and reason
Scientism: vision of a technical solution to evil, sin, suffering
Humanitarianism and what I call “Almost Christianity”
Failures of the Church: scandal, corruption, assimilation, and failure to teach and catechize
Loss of non-linguistic catechesis
When people are leaving Christianity today, do they know what they are leaving?
Confusion about the nature and destiny of the human person and what it means to be an embodied person
Plastic Anthropology —malleable based on feelings
Transhumanism / Transgenderism - combination of biology and technology
Person as Cog
Person as Scourge
Person as Commodity — Everything becomes an object of trade. Del Noce’s concept of Pure Bourgeois
Conclude with several suggestions to address the loss of faith and confusions over anthropology
Re-affirm that Being is good and intelligible - Our bodies are good
Each person is a subject and not simply an object
Defend Reason and Freedom
We are embodied and Embedded Persons— our bodies are not accidental
Thinkers I address include Augusto Del Noce, Joseph Ratzinger, C.S. Lewis, Henri DeLubac, Carrie Gress, Karl Stern, Christopher Palmer, Jaron Lanier, Max Scheler, Joseph Pieper, John Paul II
Leading scholars, philanthropists, and nonprofit leaders will discuss the rise in secularism, decline in church attendance, and other related trends, and... (352 kB)
28% of U.S. adults are religiously unaffiliated, describing themselves as atheists, agnostics or “nothing in particular” when asked about their religion.
Written by
Gregory A. Smith, Patricia Tevington, Justin Nortey, Michael Rotolo, Asta Kallo and Becka A. Alper