The Melting Pot, a Positive or Negative?

I wanted to expand a little regarding what I finished with last post. There is no doubt that the decrease in religious participation has coincided with a deterioration of cultural values worldwide and in the US in particular. Let me just explain that I am not a fanatically religious person. Yet I do believe that participation in a faith based community is important and especially so for the population of the US as compared to other countries. I will explain why.

Last post I discussed the culture of gluttony and overconsumption we now have. If we humans are simply a bunch of carbon atoms amassed into molecules, cells, and organs. If we are basically glorified gorillas which have evolved larger brains and walk on two feet then I can understand why we overconsume. It is a matter of Darwinian survival, every man for themselves. I will overspend, overeat, and overconsume because there is no incentive to care about my neighbor as he is just a competitor in survival. If we are to survive as a group we must find ways to interconnect.

This is where religion plays a critical role. It connects people to each other in a way that secular institutions cannot. It connects people to each other within their church, within their community, and within their faith both nationally and internationally. It also connects people to each other through the belief that we are all products of god's creation resulting in connections between religions. Being part of a faith based institution is not only about faith but more importantly about establishing connections between people.

In any other country where there is uniformity and everybody is Icelandic or Swiss or Russian there is an inherent connection between all its citizens. People would be less likely to overconsume at the expense of their neighbor. On the contrary, this country is formed by numerous disconnected groups. This diversity provides great advantages but also results in a disparate and fragmented society. In the US people overconsume without guilt because they are disconnected from their neighbor who may be negatively effected by their overindulgence. They do not see and do not care about their neighbor only about there own sense of entitlement. It is all about them, what the individual can amass, without seeing the larger results of their behavior. This individual disconnectedness is especially inherent in this country due to its diversity and why the need to connect through religious organizations is so critical to our survival.