This conversation between Drew Mariani and Ross Douthat is a fascinating discussion about whether faith is making a comeback, or if we’re just hitting rock bottom and looking up. (Classic human move.)

Here’s a link to the whole conversation with Ross.

🔥 The Big Idea:

Douthat, a Catholic columnist for The New York Times, has spent years writing about religion’s decline in the West. Now, he’s cautiously optimistic that something’s shifting. No, we’re not in the middle of a great revival, but the cultural obsession with meaning, spirituality, and even dark mystical stuff (looking at you, astrology and New Age weirdness) suggests people are craving belief.

⛪️ COVID, Church, and the Pendulum Swing

Drew points out the obvious: after COVID shut churches down, a ton of people got used to watching Mass at home and never came back. That looked like the final nail in the coffin for organized religion. Thankfully, now we’re seeing numbers tick back up. People are showing up again. Why? Is life getting so tough that folks are running back to God?

Douthat thinks COVID just sped up the inevitable. The rise of the religiously unaffiliated (“nones”) might have kept growing until, say, 2032. Instead, the pandemic fast-tracked that collapse; now that we’ve hit the bottom, there’s nowhere to go but up.

Science vs. Faith? No: They Actually Go Hand-in-Hand

Douthat takes a sledgehammer to the idea that science and religion are enemies. In fact, modern physics has only deepened the mystery of existence:

The universe is fine-tuned for life in a way that shouldn’t happen by chance.

Consciousness is still a total enigma; science can’t explain it.

Materialist atheists thought science would make religion irrelevant. Instead, the more we learn, the weirder everything gets.

Douthat argues that this points not to a meaningless universe, but to a deliberate design: aka, God’s handiwork.

🌌 Are We Alone in the Universe?

Drew asks the big question: Is the universe made just for us? Or are we eventually going to be intergalactic missionaries? (Paging St. Obi-Wan Kenobi.)

Douthat’s take is that if intelligent life was common, we’d probably have found some evidence of it by now. So, either we’re one of the first civilizations to get this far… or we’re it. Either way, the human story is far from over. Maybe we’re on the brink of a new chapter where our mission expands beyond Earth.

✝️ Final Thought:

People are realizing that a godless world isn’t the utopia we were promised. Anxiety and emptiness are at record highs, and the search for meaning is making faith compelling again. Douthat isn’t saying we’re in a religious boom, but he sees signs that we’re hungry for one.

So, is society becoming more religious? Let’s keep praying… the tides are turning. 🌊

🔥 Your Move: Feeling the pull back to faith? Maybe it’s time to lean in. You’re welcome back to Mass this Sunday. 🙌

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