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Research shows religious people are healthier and live longer on average than non-religious people. According to Loneliness, one meta analysis shows it’s going to church regularly, not religious faith or a healthier lifestyle, that gives religious people their edge. (If you haven’t, check out my Twitter thread about the book and recent interview with one of the authors).
As I wrote not too long ago, church is a great way to make friends, and the main source of civic society for most of the US, according to Alienated America.
Trying to take my own advice, I went to church not too long ago with my sister. I had to leave during the sermon when he started talking about Paul’s “If a man doesn’t work he shall not eat.” Which, like Paul telling women to cover their heads in church, or discussing who owed who money, was obviously about a specific group of people at a specific time, not a valid basis for universal ethics or public policy. After all Jesus said feed the hungry, and never once mentioned work requirements. Fuck. That. Shit.
So what’s a person to do if they want all the social support, civil society, and longevity of religious faith without all the bullshit?
Enter Aretéanism, a secular religion started by Colin Campbell. In our in-depth interview, Colin told me he noticed that religious revival was one of the few ways civilizations have rebounded throughout history. Noticing that the existing religions lacked a lot of good stuff and were full of a lot of bad stuff, he created his own. Check out our interview below:
To learn more about the church and Colin, email contact@areteanism.org.
Colin Campbell started his own secular religion