Marijuana and alcohol abuse are at record highs, reports the federal Center for Disease Control (CDC).

The substance abuse trend skyrocketed during the pandemic, and the hike only continues. By the end of 2022, the marijuana industry’s expected worth is $32 billion, and its popularity increases.

While the CDC can observe the ever-escalating substance abuse and consequent devastation, they cannot discern its root cause. Yes, surface level causes are identifiable: the boredom, loneliness, fear, anxiety, depression of quarantine. But the root cause is much deeper than that.

Substance abuse is a godless society’s natural consequence. Everyone strives for fulfillment and happiness, choosing between being filled with wine or the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18).  And a godless society chooses the former.

But fulfillment and happiness are not found at the bottom of a bottle, in a puff of smoke or in a syringe. Rather, substance abuse quickly deteriorates lives. Marijuana is linked to depression, suicide, anxiety, and permanent brain damage. In terms of alcohol,  The Harvard Gazette predicts massive increases in cancers and diseases from excessive drinking during the pandemic. What happiness or fulfillment is there in escaping reality, only to come back on a hangover, permanently damaged?

Sadly, substance abuse is the closest a secular, materialist society will ever get to fulfillment and joy. They hold everything to be the result of evolution, the impersonal force of chance, mere material without a god to create it. But if there is no God and everything is only matter, then thoughts and emotions are merely a chemical fizz. If there is no God and everything is only matter, then you are only a byproduct without purpose.

In the cold void of secular materialism, there is no value; Any value a person possesses is subjectively imparted and entirely imaginary. If God does not exist, if everything is indeed meaningless, then substance abuse is expected, and the closest thing to fulfillment and joy. After all, “If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!’” (1 Corinthians 15:32)

In Christianity, however, real fulfillment and joy is found, and substance abuse is not necessary. Christians believe that God personally crafted the world and handed it to man, imparting the teleological purpose of domination and glorification. Furthermore, God providentially sustains everything in the cosmos, intimately caring for the most minute details. The immensity of God’s love is baffling:

“What is man that you are mindful of him? And the son of man that you visit him? For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and you have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of your hands, you have put all things under his feet.” (Psalm 8)

In God there is clear purpose, boundless love, and a personal God looking out for your wellbeing. When people are filled with the Spirit and find value, joy, and hope in God they are never disappointed.