by Levi Ritchie

Created on: June 07, 2008   Last Updated: November 03, 2008

The question "Is God relevant in today's world?" is almost corrupt in and of itself. The fact of the matter is that "today's world" isn't as different from "yesterday's world" as popular culture would have us believe. On the contrary, we still have war, we still have pain, and we are still often cruel to one another for reasons we don't entirely understand. Humanity itself has changed very little. Technology has allowed us, ironically, to be counterproductive more efficiently.

The concept of God isn't something that can be taken as a simple matter of relevance. Relevance depends on perspective. There was a time when your best friend, or your family's best friend family, was whoever happened to live near you. This is no longer the case. Thank primarily to telephones and automobiles, are friend selections are quite diverse. In other words, if someone wants to leave the idea of God out of their lives, they are entirely capable of becoming atheists and using jobs and technology to find friends near them that share their beliefs. It is then possible to use this isolation to convince themselves that they are absolutely right and that there couldn't possibly be a God.

Before I sound like I'm coldly bashing atheists, allow me to also offer critique for the other side. Religious-folk are capable of this exact same isolation, thanks to technology. This leads them to often be extremely closed minded and hypocritical. It's not simply that they are "wrong" about God existing, but that these tight little cliques allow them to be self-centered about their beliefs. Indeed, these sorts of selfish, ignorant Christians are the primary cause of atheism.

We tend to have, especially as technology advances exponentially, a "modern" desire to advance. While, natively, this is is a good thing, quick advances can make us prideful and arrogant. Rapid progress gives us the illusion that we deserve something, or that we've somehow earned the right to ignore the past and belittle those who follow the ways of their ancestors. Anything is easy to believe if it allows you to do what you want, and this becomes more apparent as Christianity, along with other religions, dies out in the United States of America.

The question "Is God relevant in today's world?" implies that if God does exist, civilization can somehow progress beyond the need for God at all. God is largely a mystery, regardless of what religion you call you own. We can't categorize him to fit our personal agenda, though more than a few politicians do.

The idea that God has become irrelevant is manufactured by a culture that likes getting whatever it wants. Arrogant closed-mindedness and shallow minded "modern" philosophies about anything that isn't visible to the human eye are thinly veiled as "progress".

The relevance of God is ultimately dependent on the person you ask. God gave men free will for a reason, and now, more than ever, is the time to break cultural pressures and use that free will for good. The world, including those Christians who use religion for personal gain, is hypocritical. We can't counter that with more hypocracy. Love your neighbor honestly and without agenda and, as simple (and almost child-like) as it sounds, the world will start to change.

God is most certainly relevant to the world he created.

Learn more about this author, Levi Ritchie.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.