God, Science and Reason - Finding the Light of God Amidst the Darkness of Atheism and Dogmatism

Surveys conducted across broad swaths of young Americans over the past several years reveal insights about your generation that are both fascinating and disturbing. Generally speaking, you are brimming with self-confidence, hopeful about the future, and you want your lives to make a difference in the world you live in. However, you are also uncertain and confused. You are skeptical. You are frustrated. You are cynical. You are hurt. You are unfulfilled. You are impatient. You are disengaged. You are stressed.

Most of you believe in God but claim that you are not “religious.” Although only 6 percent of you identify yourselves as atheists and believe there is no God1, another 26 percent of you claim to sometimes have doubts about the existence of God.2 Most of the rest of you, including many who identify themselves as Christians, don’t know who or what to believe when it comes to creation, life, spirituality, science, religion, evolution, God, and immortality. Nearly two-thirds of you have concluded that “religion” is a waste of time, and if you set foot in a place of worship at all, it is to attend a traditional holiday service, a wedding, or a funeral.

When asked questions in surveys designed to understand this social phenomenon emerging among members of your generation, you have consistently answered that you find “religious people,” especially Christians, judgmental and hypocritical, and that you are too busy to pursue spirituality. Many of you have also become intellectually skeptical about the truth of Christianity.3 Research organizations like the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, LifeWay Research, Gallup, and Time magazine now say that 65-70 percent of Protestant teens are leaving the church after high school. Why? Most of you say that the religion of your childhood has become irrelevant to your lives and does not satisfy your spiritual needs.4

Between 2004 and 2006, the Barna Group, a leading research organization focused on understanding the dynamics at the intersection of faith and culture, conducted thousands of interviews of young adults to gain insights into your views on spirituality, faith, and Christianity. Your viewpoints were candidly presented in the book unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity… and Why It Matters. Following are just a few insights gleaned from their findings.

Nearly nine out of ten of you (87 percent) said that the term “judg-mental” accurately describes present-day Christianity.5 A majority of you (57 percent) say Christians are quick to find fault with others.6 Three-quarters of you said that present-day Christianity could accurately be described as old-fashioned, and seven out of ten believe the faith is out of touch with reality. Most you say that Christianity is confusing. Two-thirds of you say that faith is boring.7

A majority of you believe that the spiritual world is too complex and mysterious for humans to understand, and that life itself is too complicated to really grasp.8 Only one-fifth of you believe that an active faith, as defined by the currently available versions of Christianity, helps people live a better, more fulfilling life. This means that eight out of every ten of you believe that the versions of Christianity currently available do little to help you find meaning, purpose, and fulfillment in your life.9

Despite the importance of personal relationships to your generation and your real-time digital connectedness, nearly half of you say you are still trying to find a few good friends. One-eighth of you claim to be lonely. One fourth of your generation feels unfulfilled and has a sense of emptiness in their lives. Nearly half of you say you are stressed out, which is double the proportion of the “Baby Boom” generation of your parents.10 A distinct minority of you live with an inner desperation that leads toward personal destruction. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among those of you who are under the age of twenty-five. (In a 2005 study, one out of every six high school students claimed they had contemplated suicide during the last year, while one out of every twelve high school students said they had attempted suicide in the last year.11)

In their book The Millennials, Thom and Jess Rainer reported the results of another extensive survey of young adults in America. In that survey, seventy five percent (75 percent) of you described yourself as “spiritual, but not religious.”12 However, only 13 percent of you consider spirituality to be important in your lives. Most of you claim that you never think about religious matters at all.13

When asked to categorize your religious “identity,” 65 percent of you expressed a broadly Christian preference. Six percent of you claimed to be atheists, believing there is no God. Another 8 percent of you categorized yourselves as agnostics, claiming some doubt about the existence of God. 14 percent of you claimed no religious preference at all. Broadly speaking, three out of ten of you claim no religious identity. However, seven out of ten do have a “cultural” religious identity, with Christian being the over-whelming majority. Only 7 percent of you identified yourselves as Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Wiccan, or pagan.14

Though most of you identify yourselves as cultural Christians, many of you have little esteem for the Christian values as you understand them, and you reject the Christian lifestyle because you feel rejected by Christians. You see Christians as arrogant, angry finger-pointers who believe they are better than you, who have extreme social and political agendas, who cannot live peacefully with anyone who does not believe exactly as they do, who are inwardly focused on their church and not outwardly focused on helping people in their communities, who are preoccupied with end times and hell, who are known more for criticizing the ills of society than trying to solve them, and who withdraw from society into Christian enclaves where they “eat their own” over doctrinal disagreement. You believe Christians are anti-science. You also believe they indulge in the depravities they condemn when no one is watching. These same Christians suggest that you attend wor-ship services at their church so you can be “saved” and become “better people”—like them.

Many of you attended church, Sunday school, vacation Bible school, and church summer camps when you were younger, and are familiar with the stories about and the teachings of Jesus. Though most of you see Jesus as a compelling figure, you have been “turned off” to Christianity for many reasons. You may have been spiritually wounded by words or actions of professing Christians that you believe were unwarranted, hurtful, overly critical, or even punitive. Many of you can identify with Mahatma Gandhi, the Hindu political leader of India’s independence movement in the 1940’s, who kept a picture of Jesus hanging over his desk, and who told the British colonial leaders of India: “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

Because of your perception that arrogant and judgmental Christians dominate individual churches today, most of you believe the church is one of the last places you should go if you are seeking God. You often see the church as an impediment to both spiritual growth and personal freedom, and as an institution that has become irrelevant. Through your generation’s eyes Christianity is viewed more as a “consumer brand” than as a way of life, and a “bad brand” at that. In the middle of a youth culture where Christianity has come to represent judgmentalism, anti-intellectualism, insensitivity, bigotry, and hypocrisy, most you want nothing to do with it, and those of you who have kept your faith and who disagree with these characterizations of Christianity are more often than not embarrassed to admit to your peers that you are a Christian.15

These surveys have revealed that, although you see Christianity as a bad “brand,” spirituality is still important to you, but not nearly as important as other aspects in leading a successful life. Fewer than one out of ten of you mention nurturing and sustaining faith as your top priority in life.16 Though marriage, parenthood, and other adulthood experiences have reawakened spirituality in some of you, the fact remains that a large percentage of you who are under the age of forty have put issues of spirituality and faith on the back burner of your lives, infrequently thinking about them, and rarely acting on them.

Many of the questions that do arise in your mind are not about Christianity, but about Christians. Why are some Christians so dogmatic and sanctimonious? Why do others come across as judgmental and hypocritical? Why do some seem to have split personalities—salty, selfish, and worldly during the week—then sweet, loving, and holy for a few hours on Sunday morning? Why do a few of them come across as certifiable “loons” and “wackos?”

Why do Christians seem to focus mostly on “feel good” issues while ignoring, and sometimes even mocking, the mind and the intellect? Why do some Christians call physics, chemistry, and biology atheistic lies? How is it that many church leaders do such a lousy job of teaching what it...