Great essay. I feel the central conflict that is driving our "loss of faith"(and trust) is the acceleration of change driven by the early days of the digital age. For example, it took 70 years years from the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 to women finally getting the right to vote, but a mere 11 years from when Massachusetts became the …
Great essay. I feel the central conflict that is driving our "loss of faith"(and trust) is the acceleration of change driven by the early days of the digital age. For example, it took 70 years years from the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 to women finally getting the right to vote, but a mere 11 years from when Massachusetts became the first state to legalize gay marriage to when all 50 states legalized it. In terms of "women's liberation" it was all talk and every little progress from Seneca Falls until the Pill was introduced in 1958 and in 10 years the sexual revolution was in full gear. So that general concept of accelerated change as a social disrupter is central to my thinking. (I read Future Shock when I was a kid, loved it but forgot about it...until about 7 years ago and BOOM, it made perfect sense.)
I agree with the need for a strong secular moral compass that can match the spiritual fullness of traditional religion, without its superstitious, authoritarian and abusive tendencies. Many secular efforts that provide "the secret of life" turn into abusive cults themselves. Although I'm aware of "Secular Saturday's" in which spiritual secularists have readings and lectures that are often organized by former pastors, I've never attended one. But I have watched online to "Civic Saturdays" by Eric Liu's https://citizenuniversity.us and this seems like an interesting model to build community and social bonding, without the religious baggage.
But I fear we can not handle the accelerated pace of change and old norms and institutions will fall before we have built (or even conceived of) new norms and institutions. I think the classic notions of what it means to be conservative--embracing order and traditions--or to be a progressive--embracing change that will improve society--are obsolete. Conservatives embracing 17th thought to govern 21st century realities or progressives spouting utopian notions about the internet in the 1990s are two short-sighted examples in which "both sides" have failed us.
So as technology accelerates, we lose faith and trust in EVERYTHING, we are left exposed until we build new institutions and norms for a new age. It is this period, which in my amateurish way I've dubbed "the soft shell period" of history in which we as a society are at our weakest point (like a crab or lobster that molts it's shell and is vulnerable to predators until it grows a new shell).
Yes! I think Jesus' time and the centuries (yes, alas, centuries) the followed it were another "soft shell period" of history. Maybe this is also why we have Buddhism and Hinduism. The transition of Christianity from its Jewish roots, how it subsequently confronted changes in Western society, how it descended at times into atrocity, and how grafts itself onto other cultures provides endless food for thought.
For my own rather dour peace of mind I've adopted an attitude of mournful acceptance to the coming catastrophes and social collapse (which I myself probably won't live to see.) I'm looking way beyond that and imagining ways that we might once again establish productive, just and respectful civilizations and religions in the upcoming centuries.
And so my current project is to imagine the sustainable, healing and inspiring global religion(s) that might arise. There are seeds we can plant now, and many of them come from the fruits of past traditions.
Great essay. I feel the central conflict that is driving our "loss of faith"(and trust) is the acceleration of change driven by the early days of the digital age. For example, it took 70 years years from the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 to women finally getting the right to vote, but a mere 11 years from when Massachusetts became the first state to legalize gay marriage to when all 50 states legalized it. In terms of "women's liberation" it was all talk and every little progress from Seneca Falls until the Pill was introduced in 1958 and in 10 years the sexual revolution was in full gear. So that general concept of accelerated change as a social disrupter is central to my thinking. (I read Future Shock when I was a kid, loved it but forgot about it...until about 7 years ago and BOOM, it made perfect sense.)
I agree with the need for a strong secular moral compass that can match the spiritual fullness of traditional religion, without its superstitious, authoritarian and abusive tendencies. Many secular efforts that provide "the secret of life" turn into abusive cults themselves. Although I'm aware of "Secular Saturday's" in which spiritual secularists have readings and lectures that are often organized by former pastors, I've never attended one. But I have watched online to "Civic Saturdays" by Eric Liu's https://citizenuniversity.us and this seems like an interesting model to build community and social bonding, without the religious baggage.
But I fear we can not handle the accelerated pace of change and old norms and institutions will fall before we have built (or even conceived of) new norms and institutions. I think the classic notions of what it means to be conservative--embracing order and traditions--or to be a progressive--embracing change that will improve society--are obsolete. Conservatives embracing 17th thought to govern 21st century realities or progressives spouting utopian notions about the internet in the 1990s are two short-sighted examples in which "both sides" have failed us.
So as technology accelerates, we lose faith and trust in EVERYTHING, we are left exposed until we build new institutions and norms for a new age. It is this period, which in my amateurish way I've dubbed "the soft shell period" of history in which we as a society are at our weakest point (like a crab or lobster that molts it's shell and is vulnerable to predators until it grows a new shell).
Yes! I think Jesus' time and the centuries (yes, alas, centuries) the followed it were another "soft shell period" of history. Maybe this is also why we have Buddhism and Hinduism. The transition of Christianity from its Jewish roots, how it subsequently confronted changes in Western society, how it descended at times into atrocity, and how grafts itself onto other cultures provides endless food for thought.
For my own rather dour peace of mind I've adopted an attitude of mournful acceptance to the coming catastrophes and social collapse (which I myself probably won't live to see.) I'm looking way beyond that and imagining ways that we might once again establish productive, just and respectful civilizations and religions in the upcoming centuries.
And so my current project is to imagine the sustainable, healing and inspiring global religion(s) that might arise. There are seeds we can plant now, and many of them come from the fruits of past traditions.