Young Secular Americans Struggle To Think Morally

Dennis Prager writes:

Last week, David Brooks of The New York Times wrote a column on an academic study concerning the nearly complete lack of a moral vocabulary among most American young people. Below are some excerpts from Brooks’ summary of the study of Americans aged 18 to 23. (It was led by “the eminent Notre Dame sociologist Christian Smith.”)
“Smith and company asked about the young people’s moral lives, and the results are depressing …
“When asked to describe a moral dilemma they had faced, two-thirds of the young people either couldn’t answer the question or described problems that are not moral at all …
“Moral thinking didn’t enter the picture, even when considering things like drunken driving, cheating in school or cheating on a partner …
“The default position, which most of them came back to again and again, is that moral choices are just a matter of individual taste …
“As one put it, ‘I mean, I guess what makes something right is how I feel about it. But different people feel different ways, so I couldn’t speak on behalf of anyone else as to what’s right and wrong …
“Morality was once revealed, inherited and shared, but now it’s thought of as something that emerges in the privacy of your own heart.”
Ever since I attended college, I have been convinced that either “studies” confirm what common sense suggests or that they are mistaken. I realized this when I was presented with study after study showing that boys and girls were not inherently different from one another, and they acted differently only because of sexist upbringings.
This latest study cited by David Brooks confirms what conservatives have known for a generation: Moral standards have been replaced by feelings. Of course, those on the left believe this only when a writer at a major liberal newspaper cites an “eminent sociologist.”
What is disconcerting about Brooks’ piece is that nowhere in what is an important column does he mention the reason for this disturbing trend — namely, secularism.
The intellectual class and the left still believe that secularism is an unalloyed blessing. They are wrong. Secularism is good for government. But it is terrible for society (though still preferable to bad religion) and for the individual. Read on.