According to the New York Times, while COVID-19 has caused the largest decline in U.S. life expectancy since World War II, as reported by the federal government, although it is not the only cause. In recent years there have been a surge of deaths from what has been coined "deaths of despair." The cause of these deaths is drugs, alcohol and suicide. They note: "For many, daily life lacks the structure, status and meaning that it once had, as the Princeton University economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton have explained. Many people feel less of a connection to an employer, a labor union, a church or community groups. They are less likely to be married. They are more likely to endure chronic pain and to report being unhappy."
Of course, this is saddening. To see a modern society that supposedly seems to have everything to live for and yet suffers such despair. But it also points out, at least to me, the results of a society that has become much more secular and less religious, and certainly less Christian, in the last decades. By declaring ourselves free of past moral restraints and the confines of antiquated faith structures, we thought we found the key to happiness. But we didn't.
