Loneliness.

God says in the Book of Genesis, "It is not good that man should be alone," and decides to make a fitting companion for him. The Old Testament discourses at length about the benefits of fruitful multiplying, and about the intricate attachments and intrigues between men and women, parents and children, friends and kin. Modern evolutionary biologists, who have developed their own creation story, also emphasize the need for human beings to be together. They offer evidence for the genetic advantages of sexual reproduction, the adaptive benefits of prolonged attachment to parents in childhood, and the survival benefits of belonging to complex groups. The human ability to form strong emotional attachments has a long evolutionary history, which is why people can be seriously hurt if their attachments are disrupted by rejection, separation, or death. The Bible and biologists share a major premise: It isn't good for people to be alone. This evaluation bodes ill for modern industrial societies, especially the United States, where the divorce rate is soaring, geographic and social mobility are high, and an unprecedented number of adults of all ages are choosing or being forced by events to live by themselves. Many social commentators and popular writers have inferred from these statistics that alone means lonely and use the terms interchangeably. In The Broken Heart: The Medical Consequences o f Loneliness, psychologist