What would happen in a society, in a human culture, when a sizable portion of the population loses contact with God? What shows up? First, consider what living faith does. There are at least four activities that happen in the life of a human being with genuine faith in God: one takes time to pray or to meditate; the person does deeds of charity and kindness; the man or woman lives according to reason rather than to fleeting emotions or the opinions of others; and personal virtues are developed and vices such as hatred, lack of self-control, promiscuity, drug and alcohol abuse, stealing, deceiving others, are overcome and rejected.
What shows up when human beings ignore the living God and do not have faith working through love? The opposite effects of what we just noted. First, a man or woman without openness to God will not genuinely pray or meditate in any form. Substitutes such as television watching, endless chatter, constant socializing, large doses of entertainment in one form or another, drug or alcohol abuse, constant busyness, restless money-making, take the place of prayer, meditation, and spiritual reading. Without the heart and mind grounded in God, deeds of charity, kindness, and generosity give way to bouts of ill-will, hatred, sheer lack of consideration of others, greed, deception, telling lies, and so on. Third, and of much significance, without a right grounding in God or ultimate reality, the life of reason within the mind and in a person’s life breaks down into foolishness, spiritual blindness, self-deception, inability to discern truth, dabbling in substitute mental drugs such as public myths, loads of entertainment, video gaming, and other activities divorced from reality. For without the life of reason, which is grounded in the divine, the mind must and will find substitutes—in a word, escapes from reality into fantasy or substitute realities of one kind or another. Also, without the life of reason guided by genuine spiritual openness, one becomes prey to all the forces of destruction, excessive passion, emotionalism, despair, depression, and the like, to which every human being could be subject without the governing of right reason. And finally, what shows up in people without God’s presence and right reason would be: erratic behavior, lack of self-control, self-indulgence, egotism, a self-centered life, grandiose claims about oneself, greed, violence against others.
In our American culture, consider what shows up in public, and one can see in some individuals, in crowds, in the mass media, among political leaders, an evident loss of contact with God and reason. At times, it seems to me that we Americans are sinking ever more into the quicksand of self-absorption, self-centered lives, hedonism, love of power, greed. Also evident is unrestrained and manipulative emotionalism, often in public. Observe how some cry and carry on to get their way, or to promote some person or product or their “team.” Watch how some politicians keep using the “I-word,” and are so absorbed in themselves that they cannot interpret or understand reality. The loss of contact with God is evident for those with “eyes in their head.”
What shows up when human beings ignore the living God and do not have faith working through love? The opposite effects of what we just noted. First, a man or woman without openness to God will not genuinely pray or meditate in any form. Substitutes such as television watching, endless chatter, constant socializing, large doses of entertainment in one form or another, drug or alcohol abuse, constant busyness, restless money-making, take the place of prayer, meditation, and spiritual reading. Without the heart and mind grounded in God, deeds of charity, kindness, and generosity give way to bouts of ill-will, hatred, sheer lack of consideration of others, greed, deception, telling lies, and so on. Third, and of much significance, without a right grounding in God or ultimate reality, the life of reason within the mind and in a person’s life breaks down into foolishness, spiritual blindness, self-deception, inability to discern truth, dabbling in substitute mental drugs such as public myths, loads of entertainment, video gaming, and other activities divorced from reality. For without the life of reason, which is grounded in the divine, the mind must and will find substitutes—in a word, escapes from reality into fantasy or substitute realities of one kind or another. Also, without the life of reason guided by genuine spiritual openness, one becomes prey to all the forces of destruction, excessive passion, emotionalism, despair, depression, and the like, to which every human being could be subject without the governing of right reason. And finally, what shows up in people without God’s presence and right reason would be: erratic behavior, lack of self-control, self-indulgence, egotism, a self-centered life, grandiose claims about oneself, greed, violence against others.
In our American culture, consider what shows up in public, and one can see in some individuals, in crowds, in the mass media, among political leaders, an evident loss of contact with God and reason. At times, it seems to me that we Americans are sinking ever more into the quicksand of self-absorption, self-centered lives, hedonism, love of power, greed. Also evident is unrestrained and manipulative emotionalism, often in public. Observe how some cry and carry on to get their way, or to promote some person or product or their “team.” Watch how some politicians keep using the “I-word,” and are so absorbed in themselves that they cannot interpret or understand reality. The loss of contact with God is evident for those with “eyes in their head.”
