by Grace Golds

Created on: October 26, 2008   Last Updated: November 01, 2008

Reading this title I was struck by two interpretations of the term 'old'.

1. Old as something being ancient, that has been around for a long period of time and people have come to recognise.

OR/AND

2. Old as something that people are now tired of hearing about as it has been around for so long and been used to explain away anything that has not yet been explained and now the people need something new.

Approaching this statement from the first interpretation that I had, then the answer is, to me at least, an unquestionable yes, or at least the belief of God has. God as a concept has been around since the beginnings of man even though not necessarily for sound or proven reason. Mankind, I believe has always had that unconcious need for a "psychological crutch", as Freud put it, so as not to feel completely alone in such a vast world. God provides that needed co-existence for us. God has always been an unproven yet necessary comfort for many who look to Him for guidence and support, and although His existence has never been empirically proven, should that mean that the belief should stop? Perhaps this then leads me onto my second interpretation. Perhaps people are now growing tired of putting their faith into a concept that has never been proven and the Church and other religious people keep making excuses for when He refuses to reveal Himself to us. Is this just a lack of faith, a pinch of the doubting Thomas? Or is it a new age of thinking that will bring new ideas - the Big Bang for one example? If the former is the case, then maybe this is because people are now surrounded by new radical thinkers, promoting atheism and alternative views. Perhaps this is what society needs for it to progress and not lay all its hopes and beliefs on a made up psychological desire of not wanting to feel alone? Or perhaps it is a test of faith for those religious believers. The latter seems more likely to me, that people are growing tired of using God as a way to explain everything around them, they want to explore other ideas, they want to break free from the traditional moulds that society has conformed to and want to bring new ways of thinking to the people. God can co-exist with science if only people were given the opportunity to explore it rather than being stopped by those living in the past convinced that it will only disprove their God. It may not, and the only way to know is to enter into a new realm.

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