Religion in a Secular World

Friends!

Last week, once again, many of you asked good questions about HOW we can reduce negative bias based on Sunday’s post. Thank you for reaching out and sharing both questions and ideas. The only way I know how is to change the conversation where we seek to find solutions more than problems; where we don't shoot the messenger while eagerly, decently, and curiously debate the message. That's obviously what I am trying to do with this newsletter, hence the title "in pursuit of elevation." Some might feel that this is too small, or that it's not enough. To those folks, I echo Margaret Mead who so often reminded us that:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

This week, I want to bring up something way above my paygrade and reflect on perhaps the longest debate we have ever had in society, one that dates back many thousands of years. The topic? Religion.

It is often recommended to steer clear of politics and religion if you want to have any discussion with anybody these days. So, please bear with me. The purpose in bringing up religion is NOT to judge, value, or opine on any particular religion nor debate whether or not religions are "good or bad." Like all things in life, you can find nuance and meaning, value and purpose everywhere. That is, if you just bother to look.

The reason for reflecting on religion stems from data. The number of people who state that they actively belong to and practice inside an established religion has been falling rather dramatically for several decades. There are now more Americans who are affiliated with the new religion of NONE (meaning, no religion) than any one religious group.

Yet, at the same time, we can't ignore the fact that for thousands of years, MOST people practiced some form of religion, whether they liked it or not. Religion was everything and everywhere. In most cases, rulers were also religiously sanctioned with some form of divine right, so the very tangible framework of our lives and communities was defined by religiosity. Which, in turn, meant that, in most cases several times a day or week (i.e. very frequently), we were reminded that our presence here on Earth was in service of something bigger than ourselves. We remained committed continuously and collectively to that higher purpose for many, many generations.

So, what happens when you remove that habit, that ritual, and that constant reminder from your life? What is it replaced with? Does it need replacement?

I can't help to think that ONE reason for the deterioration of our public discourse relates to the vacuum created by the loss of religious practices. It cannot be filled by reducing ourselves to just ourselves. And I think that is partly what is happening. Many people have lost sight of a purpose bigger than the self.

Below is a great article by Steve Blank that makes a "rallying cry for national service." Additionally, for those of you that have read Startup Nation, the authors of that book attribute a good portion of the incredible success of Israel as a nation (despite all sorts of military and geopolitical challenges) to the fact that the entire population devotes 2-3 years of their lives to serving the nation. We have similar experiences in the United States with military personnel, Peace Corps, Teach for America, etc.

I grew up in Sweden when military service was mandatory. Partly to honor my father who was in the first-ever Marine Corps of Sweden, and partly because it would mean my time in service would be closer to my hometown of Stockholm, I joined the Swedish Marines. To add some levity to my readership (via the painful realization of how quickly time has passed), here is a picture of me from that time!

Military service (or other forms of “service missions”) bring people together from all walks of life. You typically live in rough and basic conditions. It’s not about money or pleasure but rather completely in service of a bigger mission. These experiences shape our views of other people, broadens our perspectives on life, and make us more humble and vulnerable relative to our place in it. I know it certainly changed me. To be clear, I was lucky that I served in peacetime and we should not ignore the enormous negative consequences of military experience during wartime, which is why we obviously should work incredibly hard to avoid wars and invest in peaceful years and types of national services.

While these experiences offer purpose, they also provide another important tool in the human toolkit: rituals. Whether prayer, formations, ways of saluting, making your bed, or cleaning your tools they establish our routines. As the frequent readers of this newsletter have undoubtedly realized, habits would be nominated for best supporting actor in the film “The World According to Mats.” From Aristotle via Gandhi to a host of modern science, there is a tremendous body of work supporting the notion that if you want to be successful, happy, fulfilled, and accomplished, you better focus a lot of your attention on your daily habits.

I am also fortunate that my wife Jessica shares my commitment to habits. So much so that she has become a certified coach helping others (including me) with what I best can refer to as "habit design." For her, the idea of habits came naturally as a professional athlete and later as a dentist, where she witnessed the power of routines and habits in practice, playing, and dental health outcomes. Teeth brushing might be one of the few healthy habits that most people actually stick to. Go figure!

In both business and life, we end up repeating habits and processes, regardless of whether they are "good or bad". And they are difficult to change, hence the sayings: "hard habit to break," "you can't teach an old dog new tricks," etc. So, if you want to have good outcomes, you'd better pay attention to your systems and processes.

As any good system designer would know, prompts, reminders, and loops play critical roles in helping us mortal humans stick to a plan. I witnessed the power of well-designed systems as a young crew person at McDonald's. Fred Turner, the master architect of the McDonald's operating system, was a genius system designer. Otherwise, how can you explain the successful scaling of a rather simple idea to consistent execution in over 100 countries in close to 40,000 restaurants? You can't. You can look at many other areas of life, such as checklists for pilots, surgeons, and construction projects, and you will find remarkably few failures given the scale and scope of these industries. Much thanks to well-designed systems.

The key point here is that religion used to be a critical part of the "human operating system." For many, it still is. For more and more, it is not. I have much to say about why religions are failing in connecting with their audiences. But that is, perhaps, for another day. Today, I wish to prompt a conversation about what the erosion of religious practices means to all of us and what we can do about it. The late Rabbi Sacks, (in the talk posted below) talked about many of our religious habits and practices as the "choreography of altruism."

To some extent, we are all religious. Most societies and their laws have strong inputs and imprints from religious texts. Most people subscribe to the golden rule which exists in similar forms in all religions. Our society wouldn't function without something like that. Think of them as ethical frameworks. Human beings need them. And I also believe we need frequent support from one another, someplace where we can come together in our communities and be reminded of where we came from, the struggles that got us here, and what shared behaviors we all need to live by in order to make this big tent work well.

So, what to do?

Below, I list a few things if you are interested in this area of exploration. I think our human condition requires it. In its simplest terms, it’s deeply important for all of us to recognize our human inability to figure this out on our own. We need to be placed in the context of something that inspires us to think in terms of “we” rather than just “me.” We need systems and frameworks that balance our own incapacity for thinking beyond our own lifespans, for properly juxtaposing our own needs with the needs of others, and for rooting ourselves within the context of our broader shared humanity.

• Steve Blank's post (referenced above) on a "rallying cry for national service."

• Please watch Alain de Botton's TED talk from 2011 about Atheism 2.0. He "unpacks" religious practices and makes some of the cases I am making above in incredibly powerful and funny ways.

• Sam Harris made a 2010 TED Talk about why he believes science can answer moral questions better than religions. (I am personally not sure, but in line with the spirit of this newsletter, I think it is important to consider all sides of arguments.)

• Rabbi Sacks’ (in blessed memory) TED talk from 2017, where he discussed what we can do to bridge our current divides. While not a religious argument, it is rooted in much of what I discuss in this post.

• My good friend Dov Seidman founded The How Institute for Society. While not a 'religion,' of course, it does seek out to host and inspire conversations, gatherings, and education around moral leadership. You can find many inspiring conversations here, and I will point to this one in particular that I think you will find highly relevant to the topics raised this week and last around the role of journalism.

• For those more interested in the "debate" about whether humans need a moral framework and whether or not religion is best suited to help us with that, I can highly recommend these discussions between Jordan Peterson and Sam Harris. There are 4 of them. I watched all 4 and found them to be fascinating and informative. If you only have time for one, I would recommend the last one. First in Vancouver here, second in Vancouver here, third in Dublin here, and the final one at the O2 arena in London. They filled up stadiums (before the pandemic), and I find it humanly hopeful and encouraging that so many people are interested in both the form (2-hour discussions) and the topic. Cool!

• Atul Gawande's great book, The Checklist Manifesto, has a lot of powerful examples of the importance of systems and processes. Not a book about ethics or religion per se but more around the importance of systems design.

• Since I value people who try to balance and write positive stories when there are reasons to do so, I wanted to share Fred Wilson's post about vaccinations from last week. Short and sweet.

• Based on last week's post some of you reminded me of the Solutions Journalism Network which is trying to "tilt" journalism more towards solutions than just "shouting about the problems."

So, perhaps that was "rich." But so is life. And so, hopefully, is the nature of this conversation. As I know many of you agree, we do need to improve our public discourse. If you have ideas or thoughts on which types of experiences and practices (religious or not) you believe could help build social cohesion, reduce current division, and help nudge some of our worst human tendencies towards more goodness — please share.

Thank you!