Atheist vs Christian vs Spiritual Thinker: Is Not Believing In God Causing More Harm Than Good?!

Nine in ten young people in the UK believe that their life is lacking purpose, and a lot of people are turning back to religion. There is something going on.

This is about the most important thing that anyone could ever find out about their life, and God has made us for a purpose, and the purpose flows from that meaning.

I kind of reject that 'cause this is a perfect example of a solution being provided without explaining exactly why it provides a solution, and that's what people are doing in religious traditions.

I hard disagree. For me, finding meaning and purpose is, like, a very practical thing.

And that's what I wanna talk about today.

We are joined by an atheist, Christian, and spiritual thinker...

... to find an answer to the purpose crisis millions are facing today.

One of the reasons that I'm a Christian is because it's the best explanation for the way things are.

But if Christianity were true, we would not expect the kind of suffering that is present in the world.

So, I'm very curious, what if I died f- from cancer at one years old?

So, someone violated God's commands and that had an impact on the world.

So, children get cancer because a few million years ago-

Yeah, well-

... someone ate a fruit. If you want religion to provide existential comfort for people who are suffering, you have to do more in the face of children dying of cancer than some reference to mythical human beings.

But if your worldview does not have a way of making sense or our moral intuitions about suffering, it's not an adequate worldview.

What I would say that science and spirituality can really add is it's effective in terms of reducing suicidality, improving resilience, giving them a reason to wake up in the morning, and we'll get into that.

And Alok, if someone's listening now and they feel lost in their life, is there any advice that you could give them?

So, as an atheist, I'm offering a psychological explanation, so I would recommend that they (censored) .

You're spot on, Alex. So, the first thing to understand is it is an internal feeling. We found in our study that if you (censored) , your sense of purpose increases by 68%.

Alok, Greg, Alex. The reason I wanted to speak to all three of you today is to discuss meaning and purpose, and there's some stats that I wanted to share that kind of frame the discussion. Three in five young Americans believe that their life lacks purpose. Nine in ten young people in the UK believe that their life is lacking purpose. And when I look across other stats as it relates to things like mental health, 59% of Brits said they lived a meaningful life compared to just 25% who said they did not. In an October 21 survey, 34% of men in the UK said life had no meaning compared to 18% of women, and 50% of the same group who said that their lives lack purpose and meaning said that their poor mental health was linked to not knowing what to do with their life.