Religion, Revival, and Controversy: This Week in Review

Soul Science Week in Review

Lately, the news has been saturated with big stories. Here’s a review of some recent religious news events.

Pope Francis Health Update

Pope Francis has now been in the hospital for nearly a month. It looked like he wasn’t going to make it through for a while with reports circulating that the pope was experiencing kidney failure.  EWTN news personality Raymond Arroyo cited hospital sources that the pope had less than 72 hours. That was more than a week ago.  Recent reports now say the the pope is on the mend and out of immediate danger. But—reality check—the pope remains in the hospital and no indication has been given as to when he might be released.

Catholic Lent—In Your FACE

We are now entering our second week of Lent.  And not without controversy.  Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared on Fox News on Ash Wednesday. And with a big fat cross tattooed on his forehead, the public display of Roman Catholic exotica was just too much for some people. What’s your opinion on the matter? Take a look for yourself.

Does the West Need Religion?

Does the West need a religious revival? That was the question being debated last week in Austin at an event sponsored by the cool center-left Bari Weiss publication, The Free Press. Ayaan Hirsi Ali teamed up with New York Times columnist Ross Douthat to defend the affirmative against atheist Michael Shermer and comedian Adam Carolla.  Much of the debate was concerned with a point made by Douthat in his opening statement:

“As Douthat stated in his opening statement: ‘The convergence of secularization with political derangement and cultural despair is not a coincidence.’”—The Free Press

If you follow SOUL SCIENCE, you probably know where I stand on Douthat’s point.  I made exactly the same point in my first book nearly ten years ago. And I have reiterated that point in different ways here at Patheos.

Honestly, I didn’t think that the atheists countered Douthat’s point very effectively. Carolla probably had the stronger reply:

“But, later in the discussion, Carolla countered that point: ‘I think the uptick of despair is more physical. We were meant to go out and work and be on our feet and be in nature. And in the last 10 minutes, we took everyone and put them in a cubicle and blasted air-conditioning at them and told them to do data entry on a computer and we started eating our own brains.’”— The Free Press

While I agree that Carolla has a valid point, the fact remains that the de-Christianization of the West predates the digital age by decades,  and the cultural rot was evident even then. This was the subject of Philip Rieff’s classic The Triumph of the Therapeutic, which was published in 1966.  Carolla’s point sidesteps an essential talking point of Christians—the moral and cultural corrosiveness of the sexual revolution.

Michael Shermer’s reply to Douthat was weaker still. He flatly denied that any research existed that positively linked depression and mental health to loss of religion.  I have cited the Harvard Nurses’ study several times. Check out SOUL SCIENCE EPISODE #1 here: 

Kudos to Ayaan Hirsi Ali for pushing back against Shermer’s baseless claim.

The audience gave the victory to the atheists, but I honestly disagree.  See the debate for yourself, and tell me who you think won the debate.