Discussion of Blog Article - "In Troubled Times, Young People Should Turn To Epicurus Rather than The Pope"

Quote from Cassius

It is worth pausing on Hawley’s implicit comparison — between our moment and the troubled times that preceded the triumph of Christianity in the Roman Empire.

Josh Hawley in my view is a typical guy like Plutarch, trying to frighten people with a "meaning crisis" and "decaying moral values" to make people believe in superstition and go back to the good ol' dark ages. All while ignoring that actual root that causes misery which Christianity cannot solve, our cowardice in making friends (which in modern society is not so much because it's hard to make friends but people simply don't want the effort put in), our own reckless desires, fear over things that are not to be feared, and ingratitude for what we have and instead always chasing something new.

From what I understand, the supposed religious revival among Gen Z's is mostly hype. There are some isolated pockets of mini revivals, but the Z's have the least interest in religion than any other generation in US history. Some 1/3 of them are 'nones'.

What they do have is more interest in the supernatural and in DIY 'spirituality' and that might be an opening for a philosophy like Epicureanism that offers coherence, structure and a secular view of life.

And it's a great alternative to Stoicism as many Epicureans come by that route. 😉

I have not fully read the article above, but wanted to comment regarding any idea that Epicurean philosophy would be a better option for an individual interested in Christianity -- I think that anyone who is moving toward Christianity hasn't fully dealt with certain existential questions, and that they have certain psychological desires that they want to see fulfilled. The foremost desire would be for "immortality" since within Christian belief the soul does not die. Asking anyone with that desire to consider Epicureanism would not go over well. A given person in this situation won't accept something that they aren't wanting or ready to hear.

Unfortunately modernity and the larger system what we now exist within, directly or indirectly reinforces the idea of an immortal soul. Maybe the "desire for immortality" is a chicken-and-egg thing, that feeds back into itself - present in religion and present in the deeper mythos of civilization itself.

For what it's worth i also heard it's just hype. It's based on one study which says that among church going people, young people attend 1.9 times a month compared to 1.8 times compared to millennials (wow such a huge increase /s) and a bunch of poor "opt-in" surveys, which are almost always worthless.

All the actual stats seem to show Gen Z still being very irreligious. It's hard to tell from my own experience but generally i see a few religious people being very religious but in general all the older folks being the ones with constant Jesus merch and talking about God, not younger people. But still i live in Florida, which it pretty conservative to begin with so it's hard to say if even this is overblown.

I tend to agree it's overblown. My intuition is that about 50 percent of young people don't bother thinking about religion much and just identify with what ever (some Christian, some spiritual, and some irreligious but mostly irreligious), 20 percent are actively irreligious and another 30 are actively religious (to varying degrees of reading Facebook posts or actual going to church). That's my own read.

If anyone knows Genetically Modified Skeptic (Not Alex O'Connor), he made a good video about this. He basically thinks it's just media companies try to please their religious investors who really want a religious revival like in the 40's to turn people against progressivism. Basically they've been pushing religion hard but haven't seen the big push they've wanted and so are just lying about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7Y-AF-Zt0Y&t=1126s

See 10 minute mark for the whole 1.9 times claim. It's actually funny how much it's been misrepresented.