The front page of todays Blue Mountains Gazette, which I don't often quote from, has the main headline, "Losing Our Religion", a piece that is responding to the findings of the 2021 Census in Australia. It notes that the number of Mountains residents having "no religion" sits at 46.5%, a rise from 2016 of almost 11%. This is higher than NSW averages.

Of course, having no formal affiliation with a religion does not mean that a person is an atheist nor that they don't ponder spiritual questions from time to time, but is is indicative of a world (predicted by Nietzsche) in which the material trumps the metaphysical. Meaning is derived from engagement with the material world.

The loss of meaning that religion once gave people was much the subject of existential thinkers like Camus and Sartre. If no meaning can be derived from faith in God, then what purpose is there in life. The question answers itself in part, because if there is no purpose handed down from a higher authority, then it is up to the individual to create meaning for themselves. This is fine for smart philosophers in Left Bank cafes, but for many people, it is a terrifying prospect.

Loss of meaning and an enduring inability to find purpose are the cause, in my estimation, of much of the unhappiness of contemporary humans. There is only so much business, in the form of work, shopping, entertainment and other diversions that will provide that fix. It is temporary at best.

A friend of mine loves to characterise God as "the imaginary friend in the sky." I don't mind at all, but I can't help but think that this is but one device for staving off the inevitable, that time that will come when the discussion is front and centre and all jokes have ceased.