By Selwyn Duke

“Skepticism has never lasted two generations,” said G.K. Chesterton in a 1931 debate with Scopes “Monkey Trial” lawyer Clarence Darrow.

“The first generation laughs at the Bible,” goes a later elaboration on the idea. The “second questions the laughter; the third weeps because there is nothing left to laugh at.”

And then, because pain like surprise opens eyes, people may see their way to finding faith again.

This is happening, too, in our time, with many younger people — particularly men — in the U.S. and U.K. embracing Christianity. What’s more, even some “intellectuals” are coming to God. It’s all quite contrary to Darrow’s debate prediction that, under the “light” of science and reason, religion would fade away.

In fact, demographers inform that the world will become not less but more religious in the coming decades. The only question is: Will the now secular West become part of this or be left in the dust of materialism?

Onward, Young Christian Soldiers

As to the West, Nalin Haley, son of former GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley, is certainly doing his part. The 23-year-old South Carolinian has made news recently not just for his robust “alt-right” views. A Christian conversion he experienced — his spiritual journey began as a young child — has also captured attention. And, he says, speaking of his April entrance into the Catholic Church, “It’s the best decision I’ve ever made in my life.”

Nalin could, too, be the poster boy for the phenomenon in question. For as a City Journal title read earlier this year, “Gen Z Is Rebelling — by Getting Religion.” The site then wrote:

After decades of steady decline, the share of Americans identifying as Christian has stabilized. One reason is the unexpected religiosity of Generation Z — young adults born after 2000 — who are not abandoning religion at the rate their parents did. For some, faith has become a form of rebellion against a culture that rejects traditional values.

According to the Pew Research Center’s latest Religious Landscape Study, 63 percent of Americans now identify as Christian — a slight increase from the 2022 low of 60 percent and part of a five-year trend of relative stability following nearly two decades of decline.

The Upside-down

Gen Z’s relative religiosity is reversing some usual patterns, too. For example, among churchgoers, Gen Zers lead the generations in monthly service attendance. The stats are, according to the Barna research group:

• Gen Z (13-28), 1.9 times per month.
• Millennials (29-44), 1.8.
• Gen X (45-60), 1.6.
• Boomers (61-79), 1.4.
• Elders (80 and up), 1.4.

Another reversed or reversing pattern is that while women typically would be more “religious,” now men often are. For instance, among men 18-29, 17 percent now say that “religion is the most important thing in my life.” This drops to 12 percent among that cohort’s women. A mere decade ago, however, the females led in this priority.

As for church attendance, research conclusions vary. Some data show that young men are more likely to attend. Other data indicate that the intersex gap here has narrowed to near parity, but that women still lead.

Catholic Connection

And, as with Nalin, an inordinate number of these converts are turning to Catholicism. As the New York Post informed in April:

According to the National Catholic Register, some dioceses are reporting year-over-year increases of 30% to 70% in new converts. The Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, for instance, experienced a 72% jump in converts just from 2023 to 2024.

This, again, is largely driven by Gen Zers. In fact, the percentage of that group identifying as Catholic rose by six percent between 2022 and 2023 alone. Regarding their motivation, American Thinker wrote Monday:

Many of these younger adults say they are seeking a “stable moral order” and a spiritual depth they no longer find in contemporary secular culture.

Interestingly, this phenomenon is apparent in Britain, too. Many young people are finding faith, but not in the Church of England (which has embraced woke doctrine). Rather, Catholicism and Pentecostalism are getting the converts.

Regarding the stats, in 2018, only four percent of 18- to 24-year-old Brits reported monthly church attendance. By 2024, this had quadrupled to 16 percent. And the male-female gap is especially profound. Men’s attendance went from four to 21 percent, women’s from three to 12.

Why Believe?

So is there method to what secularists would grumble is this madness? Well, there are good reasons to believe and, since “All roads lead to Rome,” people find faith differently. Sometimes it begins with intellectual pursuit; other times it’s an affair of the heart. For me it was the former, and, yes, a few decades back I was that young man exploring faith.

Instrumental in my journey was coming to grasp atheism’s implications. For example (and my longtime readers have heard this before), what is man if we’re all just a cosmic accident? There then is no spirit world. Man would be, consequently, a mere a soulless entity, an organic robot, some pounds of chemicals and water.

What, then, would be human life’s value? What could be wrong with altering an organic robot’s software (social engineering) or hardware (genetic engineering)? What could be wrong with terminating its function (so-called murder) if it becomes inconvenient?

Now, do you really believe this? When gazing into the eyes of your little child, beloved spouse, or loving grandmother, is a robot all you see?

Some people do think this matter through — and draw this materialistic conclusion. Why, when explaining his descent into darkness, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer said he concluded that if we all just evolved out of the “muck,” what’s the difference?

The Psychopaths Are Right?

In fact, atheism absolutely does correlate with moral nihilism (the notion that right and wrong don’t exist). Consider, for example, what a man of my acquaintance once told someone close to me. “Murder is not wrong,” he proclaimed; “it’s just that society says it is.”

How can you, as a secularist, argue against this? After all, if there’s nothing beyond man dictating right and wrong, society is all there is to say anything. Your only intellectually honest recourse is to agree with Mr. Nihilism. (And then, maybe, watch your back walking out the door.)

As a man of faith, however, I can argue against it quite rationally. I can say that murder absolutely is wrong because God exists, has created moral law, and has deemed it so. Oh, Mr. Nihilism can disagree with my premises, for sure — but my logic is airtight. If you’re an atheist, though, your premise is the same as his and, logically, leads to occultist Aleister Crowley’s conclusion. To wit:

“Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.”

“DNA Is Like a Computer Program but Far, Far More Advanced Than Any Software Ever Created” — Bill Gates

Another point to ponder is the nature of living cells. According to Dr. Stephen Meyer (and others), DNA contains “information in a digital or alphabetic or typographic form” — a design. It is much, too, as if you fly over an island and see rocks on the beach spelling out “SOS.” Do you assume it’s some accidental formation, or that a human assembled the stones and needs help?

A design implies a designer.

A video of Meyer making his comments follows.

Arguments such as the above are perhaps why some thinkers are reversing the Darrow trend of intellectuals scoffing at faith. Among them, relates American Thinker in “God Is Back,” are academic Matthew Crawford, environmentalist Paul Kingsnorth, writer and ex-politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and tech pioneer Jordan Hall.

Perhaps these individuals and others are discovering that people without God are like a missile without a proper guidance system. They’ll aim to eviscerate evil but, often mistaking light for darkness, will frequently strike the good. So perhaps it could be said that works without faith are dead — and are, so often, deadly.

For those interested, an entire Dr. Meyer interview, which is well worth watching, is below.

This article was originally published at The New American.