Gallup: U.S. church membership dips below 50% for first time
Although I believe religion is outdated and in many ways I&#x27;m happy to see it in decline in the West, I do worry about the side effects the decline of religion has.<p>It seems to me that people my age today (late twenties, early thirties) are extremely self-centred and struggle to see any higher pursuit in life than self-satisfaction. This is in contrast to the few religious people I know who are far more family focused and believe in self-sacrifice in the pursuit of what they believe to be morally good - charity, children, community, etc.<p>As a teenager who went to a catholic school I often found myself in trouble for mocking things we were taught from the bible, but as I&#x27;ve grown up I&#x27;ve come to appreciate religion and the role it has historically played in our society.<p>For example,  my sister has made a lot of bad decisions in life - drug use, having a child to get a council house, arrested for violent behaviour, etc. Something that made me reflect on my attitude towards religion was that I realised my sister would likely be in a much better place today if we lived in a more religious society. Many of the legal things she did for self-satisfaction would have been look down upon just a few decades back and if that happened she may not be the way she is today. I see this all the time as someone who grew up in a poor area of my city, the lack of religion promoting family values and self-sacrifice is clearly hurting those on the lower end of the socioeconomic ladder the most. Almost everyone young female in my family is a single mother living in government housing today, many struggling with drug addiction and mental illness. This just wouldn&#x27;t have been the case in past decades.<p>If you educated and middle-class you&#x27;re far more able to go a bit crazy in your twenties before you you settle down in your thirties. If you&#x27;re able to responsibly navigate between self-satisfaction and self-sacrifice then religious values are less important and perhaps even seen as a burden in your life, but if you have less self-control and perhaps don&#x27;t have the intellect to form your own secular spiritual meaning to life, then what else is lack but the pursuit of self-satisfaction?<p>Sorry for the ramble. This is a topic I think about a lot because I&#x27;m so split in my thoughts towards religion today. I don&#x27;t think we should go back to religion, but I suspect we might need to find a substitute for it.