I was raised in the Catholic Church but have since studied comparative religious services in several European countries, Asia, Japan, Africa, NZ and AU. My sister was a catholic nun but converted to the Orthodox faith.
I believe I have discovered the common trait which
all services and religious communities share. It is universal. It is money. For some reason all religious groups require vast amounts of money. All groups managed to request money within five minutes.
I was talking to a black fellow, a member of the Shona tribe, in Zimbabwe. Peter had converted to the Latter Day Saints but had returned to his traditional religion. I asked him why and he said he could not afford to go to the Christian Church because he was a poor man and the demand for money was constant. The local shaman would settle for a chicken but the LDS wanted cash.
He then asked me a question. As a safari guide he meets people from all over the world. He asked me why the French stink and why the British were cheap and never tip. Peter is one of my favorite people and demonstrated great insight into many aspects of human behavior.
BTW, if you followed WWll, you might note that God was supposedly on the people on all sides of the conflict. Many of the countries that suffered the most are on the list. I think once you have seen first hand man’s inhumanity to man (and beast)it is difficult to believe God gives a rat’s ass about you personally.
That is most accurately said about WWI. The Nazis did not claim that God was on their side, but the various royal cousins who set their countries to war during WWI thought so.
WWI poets such as Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen gave voice to the pointlessness of it all and the seeming slence of God. The loss of faith of Europeans is rooted in the meaningless losses in the trenches of WWI.