Americans Lost Sense of Meaning After Leaving Church Says UC Berkeley Researcher

What was said

"60 70 years ago, 90% of Americans went to church and you go or synagogue or whatever your practice is and you would go in and that's inquiry, you know, how do we think about these big questions about life and existence, life and death and what's divinity. And we have in some sense lost that and it really needs to be reintroduced."

Dr. Keltner identifies the decline in religious participation as a key factor in America's meaning crisis. He notes that places of worship provided structured time for contemplation, community, and reflection on themes larger than individual concerns. The loss of this ritual, combined with productivity culture's emphasis on coding over reading novels, has left people adrift without spaces to consider life's bigger questions.