To those who had seen hell, vague pieties had nothing to offer. New Age religion may well be the modern equivalent for the ex-hippy, but we'll only know for sure when this age is gone. Any system that is new, is most probably one of these. Every society encourages conformity to the group. Ours is just the same.
People feel very safe just doing what everyone else they associate with finds acceptable.
But these sets of values change, perhaps every 50 years or so. Let's face it, every society thinks that it is the crown of evolution. The Victorians certainly did. The values of our society were not reached by rational processes, but by political pressures. So I think we must reject the values which are popular, simply because they are contemporary, and will cease to be believed in, just as soon as they cease to be popular.