Jordan Peterson & Clay Routledge

 The JBP Podcast S4 E54:Death, Meaning, and the Power of the Invisible World

1. Nostalgia is good for you and can be motivating.

2. People need to feel like they are contributing for their own emotional well-being. This can help with suicide prevention. Often people who feel alone are surrounded by people who love them, but they don't feel like they matter, like they aren't making a contribution to the world around them. I think this is one reason that people are happier in church when they have a calling.

3. Church helps people in ways that are completely separate from the doctrine. It gives them structure, meaning, purpose, and interaction with others. It gives them ways to help others and be accepted in a group. It limits the number of decisions one needs to explore in order to move forward (cuts down on the exploratory phase of life and gets to the actually doing something).

4. With the huge decrease in numbers of people who attend church, businesses have begun to worry that without a reason for ethical decisions, the foundation that our free economy is based upon will be impacted negatively. Our economy will become an ugly place if people base their decisions solely on getting money without regard to honesty or the well-being of others. Businesses have therefore, started having conversations about the need and perhaps training of "ethical leaders."

5. People who leave churches replace their need for someone or something to which to turn for control or meaning. They often replace it with politics: there's no God, so the government should fix everything. They're often more likely to believe in UFO's.

6. Not everyone is as "spiritual" as others. BUT, there was a time when that was okay. Everyone went to church because it was your duty as a part of your community. You saw others there, you had a commonality, you could care for each other there. Now people think if they can't believe it, they shouldn't be there or even try it. Perhaps it would be better to think of it like sports. We know not every kid is an athlete, but we think its good for all kids to do some sports--they benefit from being on a team and getting some exercise. Everyone can benefit from church, too, even if faith doesn't come easily to them.

7. TV and movies used to be a community-building part of society. But now with the explosion of options of things to watch, no one's watching the same thing at the same time. It further alienates us from one another.