About seven minutes into Taylor Swift’s movie “The Eras Tour” something remarkable hap-pens. Swift says to the cheering crowd, “LA, you’re making me feel excellent right now.” Then, with a smile on her lips, she says, “Let me try something.” She points her finger at the left side of the SoFi Stadium, and all the fans on that side go totally crazy. When she points her finger at the right side, all the fans on that side scream. Still smiling, Swift responds, ” I mean, this is getting dangerous. This is about to start going to my head real fast. I mean, you just made me feel so… so powerful.” Then she kisses the muscle on her left arm.

No, I’m not a fan and haven’t watched the movie beyond that scene. I’d like to ask those 100,240 fans what’s so special about Swift’s movement to go nuts over. Honestly, all she does is sing and entertain. Equally, I’d like to ask Swift what it feels like to be worshipped by millions of people. Almost like a goddess. – Almost?

Again and again scholars tell us we’re experiencing a deep meaning crisis. I certainly find there’s a void inside of me I don’t know how to fill, and there are lots of people out there who, just like me, desperately want to fill their emptiness with meaning. Being in this world without a sense of purpose is hard, and it makes you wonder why to even bother struggling through this life. It’s no coincidence bookstores are stuffed with self-help books on how to be happy, and people have become particularly susceptible to radical ideas.

My husband and I spent the Thanksgiving Week at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky, about an hour from Fort Knox. We’d been there a few times before, and every time we attend the monks’ prayers, I can’t help thinking they’ve found their purpose in life. Every day they follow the exact same schedule, regardless of the current president, the climate crisis, soldiers dying in wars, thousands of Swift fans screaming in the SoFi Stadium, and the many other things happening on our planet. Seven times a day they pray to God, starting at 3:15 a.m. and ending at 7:30 p.m. Yet despite chanting along with them and having spent twelve years of my life at a Catholic school, I can’t bring myself to believe. I do want to have faith – I really do. But the truth is I don’t, and I’ve been unsuccessful at forcing myself into believing.

Every human being seems to have a natural need for God. Our secular high-tech world can’t change that. In the absence of faith, we need to substitute God with a different “religion” we can worship. Typically, it’s something we feel a burning passion for; something that gives our life some sense of purpose. For Swift fans, their religion is worshipping their goddess Taylor and supporting everything she does as her devoted disciples. Other people have found their God in other role models they blindly imitate, which explains the insane boom in influencers all across the world.

But how can some humans have such God-like power? Because their disciples enable them to. If everybody ignored Swift, she could move her finger as much as she wanted. The same is true for every Tik Tok “star” or YouTube politician – they’re only powerful if we worship them. And if we take a deep breath, it’s legitimate to ask what we actually idolize them for. They really don’t have any more intrinsic value than the rest of us. And one day they will die, exactly like the rest of us.

Following influencers is just one way of filling the emptiness inside of us. Other people have declared activism their “religion.” The activist group The Last Generation, for instance, lives for radical acts such as blocking airports to force politicians into putting the environment above every-thing else. Or some animal rights activists break into barns, commit vandalism, and threaten farm-ers or hunters. And yet some other people have found their “religion” in believing in a flat Earth. Or they’re insanely rich and try to fill their void with more money and power. And in Silicon Valley we can find visionaries devoting their lives to turning Artificial Intelligence into a new God guiding us humans…

Like all those people I, too, have been restless. I simply can’t figure out why God threw me into this world. Being on such an endless search is exhausting, and yet I know it’ll continue until I allow myself to have faith. Even if I found a God in Taylor Swift, A.I., Flat Earth, or activism, all these “religions” would be mere substitutes for God. And God can never be substituted. God is the only one who can fill the emptiness inside of me with meaning.

If we worshipped God, our world would look quite different. Trusting God means loving Him, loving each other (and I mean all of God’s creation, including nonhuman creatures) and remembering what is important in life. No, it’s not money or status or power or pushing your cause through violence. Important is filling the emptiness with love and living our full potential by treat-ing each other and all of God’s creation with love and kindness. Honestly, I can’t think of a more meaningful purpose than this one

Daniela Ribitsch teaches German at Lycoming College.