The attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, brought us a new part of the American story: an era of chaos, nihilism and mistrust.
Millennials, those born between the years of 1981 to 1996, were the first victims of this era of uncertainty. The War on Terror made them lose some trust in the government, but the 2008 Recession pushed them over the edge.
These same millennials did what they were told: they went to college and tried to get a good-paying job. What did they get in return? They ended up buried in debt in a market that was destroyed by big banks.
The system failed them. To some of them, life had no meaning. So, they looked to dismantle the systems in place, aligning with a spiritual nihilism. Namely, they sought to destroy traditional faith and anything else that aligned with it. New Atheists, like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, captivated college students with the idea that religion was the source of the problems they faced.
These New Atheists solidified their ideology in the minds of part of the generation. You can see effects of this in the decline of church attendance in the early 2010s and the rise of the “nones” – people who don’t align with any religion.
What does this mean? We have a generation that’s been burned by the system, has no meaning and is looking to destroy each of their perceived enemies with no truly visible moral boundaries. We have a nihilistic society.
Until recently, Generation Z, those born between the years of 1997 to 2012, was in the same place. Gen Z lives in a system that does not care about them. We did what our parents told us to do. Now, we have the same kind of debt and live in the same market that millennials did. We even had our own catastrophic event that changed the way we will live the rest of our lives: COVID-19.
The only thing that’s different is our approach to God: we’re starting to believe in Him or at least are open to hearing Him out.
From the silent generation on, each subsequent generation had more religiously unaffiliated people than the last. However, this trend has stagnated with Gen Z, and it might even be reversing. Twenty-four percent of Gen Z is religiously unaffiliated, which is slightly lower than that of millennials (25%).
We are seeing unexpected growth in church attendance, especially among young men. We are also seeing Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Non-denominationalism and Pentecostalism making significant gains in baptisms and attendance all throughout the Western world.
What we can gather from this is simple: many Gen Z people are looking for a transcendent experience, something that is somewhat countercultural in this nihilistic age. Others in Gen Z have stake in naturally unstable anchors, like hookup culture and hyper-political activism. These things will eventually burn out. Many are lost trying to navigate this chaotic world without an outside source of morals.
If this is the case, the solution is an objective moral lawgiver. A faith like Christianity provides this. Yet, why would anyone find meaning in God in this broken world? Well, one of the reasons is that God gives you hope for the future. In a world full of unjustifiable war, disease and other types of evil, the idea that God will set things straight – either on this earth or in the afterlife – is compelling for many.
Religious beliefs also give you many sources of connection: to God, to the history of your faith and to people all across the world.
Almost every week, I speak with someone that’s searching for connection and transcendence in anything they can find, but they come up empty. If chaos leads people anywhere, I hope it pushes them towards God.
