Modern Man's Religion

An exploration of the modern religious crisis and search for meaning

There is a clear decline in religious belief, which has been a constant force all throughout recorded human history. In 1883, the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche made the claim that “God is dead.” His opinion was met with much criticism, but 140 years later, the idea is less debated among today’s younger generations. This is one of the most profound ideological movements in human history that we have witnessed since the rise of Christianity, and no matter our religious beliefs or lack thereof, it is concerning to consider what this could mean for human civilization.

Fundamental in man is an energy that seeks to attain some level of influence over himself and his environment, while at the same time accepting a certain level of submission to nature herself. This is seen in every type of organism, be it your dog, or trees competing for a light source in a forest. Religion and philosophy interact with this desire for influence in such a way to satisfy one's need to have sound reasons to endure the hardships and demands of life. This psychological hunger is as important to our well-being as the need to eat or sleep. However, unlike hunger, it is not a simple desire to fill and does not directly express itself as what it is. Continuous is this psychological need, and it may move further in and out, like an ocean's tide, over different periods of life.

Hardship often entails conditions that bring the tide closer, directing attention to your inner workings, similar to a computer pestering you for a software update, or a check engine light on your vehicle. While modern suffering takes a different form than in the past, it is still present in our lives to varying degrees, and at different points in time. The nature of modern suffering appears to be more of a psychological malady rather than a physical ailment. We are more prosperous, technologically advanced and industrialized than ever before in human history, yet psychologically, we experience the yearning for something which seems to not be there anymore, at least not in the way that it was for our ancestors. This is the great search of modern man, who essentially has to forge a new path, as the ways of the past do not seem reconcilable with scientific discovery and logical intuition.

The wise do not wish to flip the board upside down, and to toss the pieces in the abyss, completely disregarding the happenings, experiences and philosophical insights of the past two thousand years. Our ancestors have collectively produced more insight than we ever could in a single life or generation, and being skeptical of antiquated thoughts simply on the basis of the time which they originated, is foolish. The reason we can (mostly) trust our neighbors, use running water, electricity, roads, and the thousands of other conveniences we take for granted, is because of the retention of things that have worked well in the past. A generation has done their duty well when they take the pieces from previous generations, and improve them to the best of their ability without ruining the game. The board has been set by each generation playing with the pieces they were dealt to the best of their ability.

The act of considering that the board is not already perfect or completed, seems to be a great insult to those from earlier generations, who naturally assume the better posture on the subject of life due to seniority, and who think that a partial rejection entails black rather than simply a different shade of white. The truth is that the board will never be perfect or complete, and it is each generation's duty to play the game, but to also confidently use the pieces they are dealt, and to polish the pieces that have lost their luster, and discard those which cannot be salvaged. Important to acknowledge, is that throwing a piece out of the game is not the same as getting rid of the game itself, and when new pieces are forged, they often are similar in spirit of the piece replaced, and not representing something entirely different.

The move towards individualism in modern times has led to a greater degree of replacement of old pieces, just for the sake of a new piece that can be called a product of its own doing. It is a rebellious energy, and it is seen in the phenomenon of gender identity becoming a cultural focus in younger generations, and in the rejection of religion as a whole by atheists, to the point that they will not recognize anything from the Bible as true, or good, since it was not written by scientists. Individualism exists in relationship to its opposite, which is collectivism, embodied by countries like China. Individualism is to a man sailing out into uncharted waters alone, as collectivism is to a woman giving herself to anyone who takes interest. The former pleases himself at the likely cost of his life, and the latter pleases others, at the expense of her freedom and well-being. Both share a similarity in that they are at the individual's own peril, but by different means.

Historically one's religious beliefs have mostly been formed based on their location geographically, paired with any personal interpretations of the belief which may be slightly different than the norm, but ultimately quite similar. If one's family and local culture subscribes to a belief system, then he too will likely adopt those beliefs, or perhaps their opposite if more rebellious. The further back you go in history, the more important one's beliefs were to his own survival, where if you deviated too much, you would possibly be killed. Beliefs were not like clothes worn, which could fluctuate daily without existential repercussions, but a collective force which demanded submission, unless you preferred to be an outcast.

In modern culture there's a new unit of "family", the collective, which we are increasingly exposed to through the internet. This breeds a sense of familiarity with ideas that have originated outside of our local communities and gene pools, which we would not have normally considered if not exposed to on a regular basis. The internet playing the role of a third parental influence seems to explain some of the divergence away from family norms, almost as if it is in spite of them, as if the expression of our self seeks to be affirmed by other cultures, other people and other norms. A collective pull, more similar to a herding instinct, is inside of us all, just as the individualist pull that would prefer to go live in a cabin off in the woods. The internet, and the ease of information distribution it has brought about, will change the course of the world unlike any other technology we have ever created. It will continue to tug on our herding instinct, that desire to be aligned with the collective, likely to our own destruction, both politically and in our belief systems, in ways that we fail to notice.

The collective effects of society's rejection of religion can be seen vividly in the youth today, and it manifests as the rejection of past events, tradition, hierarchy, authority and masculinity. It can also be described as the rejection of nature, or reality itself. The collective feeling of many from younger generations has been characterized by nihilism, anxiety, depression, apathy, a rejection of the way things are, and the traditions that they were built on, but with no solid plan to move forward through this new world where the idea of a loving God, or an afterlife, is not feasible for most. This is distinctly recognized in Generation Z, where mental issues have become rampant. Their psychological maladies lie parallel to their desire for meaning, for reasons to try in a world that seems void of goodness, full of hate, injustice and inequality. It is through this lens that they view the traditions that thousands of years of civilization have led, and it's through that lens that they want to tear it all down and start anew. This reflects the desire to set fire to the board, to discard all of the pieces, and to claim that the board is something other than a game, but just a "social construct."

Politics are often used as a substitute for the lack of a religion, or life philosophy. This can be seen in modern leftist-extremism, where the idea of Utopia on Earth is seen as something attainable, as something noble that we must all strive for. Isn't it strange, that these ideas have coincided with declining belief in an afterlife? Spiritual aims are being directed towards the political world, and they are losing connection to reality, probably with a desire to fulfill the psychological need for meaning, to devote oneself to something bigger, the collective. On the surface, this sounds like a good thing, but the desire to submit oneself to the national collective, no matter its whims, is a suicidal stance of a mad man. This is why communism only tends to take hold in nations which are not religious, because they project God onto the collective, which makes them happily submit to it.

God is an idea that will continue to evolve, while also not straying from the true meaning. What God represents to us psychologically, seems to be where more nuance needs to be found in modern times. The idea that there is a man-like figure in the sky, that consciously picks and chooses who is sent to heaven or hell, is not reconcilable for many of us in a literal sense. God is thought of as an omnipresent being, something that is in everything, and always around us, should we notice. The atheistic rejection of this idea is what has lead to the rejection of religious traditions as a whole, all eminating outwards from the desire to feel autonomous, to feel liberated, like one has control over his own body and mind. It's almost as if the same thing that brings one closer to religion, is the same thing that drives some of us away from it; it's the same psychological hunger, that manifests in different ways. This speaks even more to the existence of the underlying desire we have to be harmonized psychologically. Often what replaces the atheists view of God, is Nature. Even atheists accept that they must submit themselves to nature, and there are clearly dualities in nature, where one can live according to it, and not. This is the central idea of the stoics, which posit that we should strive to live according to our environmental demands, and do so virtuously. At the intersection of beauty, goodness and truth, lies all that is positive in humans and society. These are our higher ideals, which many of us strive towards, and it seems to embody the idea of God, or the divinity found in nature. Even in the perceived absence of God, those living good lives are typically led by the omnipresent desire to be a positive force in the world.

With the idea of God and religion being under attack, forming belief systems today is typically an act of piecing together your own from personal experiences, people you know, philosophies, politics, books you've read and things you see on the internet. It's more personal, and individualistic than ever. Everyone has a belief system, even if they claim that they don't, or if they don’t intentionally form one. If you don’t do so with intent, you will be programmed by the collective will of your time, which may or may not be mad. We have become psychological scavengers, searching for bits and pieces of separate information to integrate into our internal operating systems. To individualists, this sounds great, but there are problems with this.

Piecing together your own belief system based on intuition alone will lead you down a path that is not built on a solid foundation. It is human nature to not finish things, and the same tends to happen to our personal beliefs if not acting with intent. It allows you to completely reject ideas from tradition, and pick and choose which beliefs you will adopt, essentially flipping the board over and collecting your own pieces based on your whims. Naturally, it would seem, that we would cultivate a belief system that is the easiest for us to follow, but possibly not the best for us in the long run due to taking the path of least resistance. The submission to a belief system that has already been tried and tested for thousands of years, and remains popular due to its own merit, should still be a starting point for one who seeks to nourish his search for purpose or meaning. Only after submission to ideas bigger than oneself, can one eventually develop their own interpretation of the ideas, after they’ve gained more experience from their direct practice.

Religion and philosophy represent our various human operating systems. The purpose of respecting old religions or philosophies that have stood the test of time, is to act as a bridge, carrying what is of utmost importance from the past, and ensuring future descendants can inherit the psychological tools and world views that took hundreds or thousands of years to become fully refined. When these legacy ideas are completely ignored, individuals become like singular nodes, disconnected from wisdom of the past, wandering into the future with great pride, where a humility would serve both himself, and his fellow men, all the better. Due to the nature of growth and decay in the universe, it should be no surprise that in another two thousand years, the landscape of religion and philosophy would look completely different. Ideologies follow a path, and each one leads to another, like the perpetual cause and effect we are all subject to in the physical world. Therefore, it is in pride one claims to have actually found the truth, but in humility that one does their duty to carry on tradition, modifying it where necessary to fit into the distinct void sculpted by time passed, just for their descendents to do the same.

Modern man finds himself in a psychological field of landmines, where one must be aware of the collective pull towards our lesser traits. It is our duty to continue building the bridge that extends from the past to our present, and ensure that it is built on a solid foundation, since our descendents will encounter the same questions, and same psychological hungers as we. Refusing to traverse back in time, as if nothing can be learned from it, reflects a pride that is all too human, and it is a condition we must all recognize and vanquish in endeavors of learning about the world. The pursuit of truth, beauty and goodness are the essence of what it means to be religious, and that is still alive and well in society, but it is under continuous attack by those who seek to dismantle the board, and torch the pieces. The duality of nature and our history as a species suggest that good and evil do exist, and the battle is fought on a personal level, as well as on a collective level. The shift in modern beliefs reflect a potential pendulum swing back in the opposite direction which Christianity took the world, and it is up to the divine within us to not only forge great values, but to be living embodiments of them. It is sometimes a path one must be willing to walk alone, depending on their surroundings, but it is the most important path one can ever take in the cosmic dance of life.