Lonliness and the City
Kerry Howley point towards this excellent New Yorker article. Check it out.
There’s also evidence to suggest that the religious people who live the longest are the ones who attend services most frequently rather than feel their beliefs most deeply. (It’s not faith that keeps them alive, in other words, but people.)
I would argue that the ability to measure the extent of one’s belief is limited and that even if that were the case, the social and community aspect of religion would not be experienced otherwise therefor faith IS the reason that keeps people alive longer.
Anyway, I only skimmed the article but I take it the point the author is trying to make is that as a society (and particularly, New York) we are lonely due to our increasing reliance on pseudo social networks like Facebook which take up plenty of our time. Making time, even an hour a week for community makes all the difference.
Comment by Dana — November 30, 2008 @ 10:13 pm
Hahaha I just noticed that looks like the same girl you posted a video of, when I made fun of her you took it upon yourself to draw glasses on me. Harboring a bit of an infatuation, are we?
Comment by Dana — November 30, 2008 @ 10:28 pm
Obviously it’s hard to determine “the extent of one’s belief” but I would maintain that such a result is fairly logical. Through interviews one could determine the motivations behind those that attend religous services. Then one would determine the differences between those who attend because they are concerned with Truth and those that are concerned with the community–social–aspect (such as Mr. Darren claims.)
And I’m affraid your skimming has led to a misinterpretation of the article. The article’s point is that larger urban centers, indeed very dense ones, are the least lonely. As the byline says, “urban alienation is largely a myth.”
Comment by Robert S. Porter — November 30, 2008 @ 10:34 pm
Since when does writing a few posts mentioning one person equal an infatuation. Kerry Howley is a libertarian writer. I read many libertarian writers. I write a blog. Therefore I write about libertarian writers.
Comment by Robert S. Porter — November 30, 2008 @ 10:37 pm