I’ve noticed that when people stop believing in God, they don’t stop believing in everything. They usually replace him with something inferior.
As our culture moves into a post-Christian era, people are just as religious as before. They simply have new do-it-yourself religions of their creation.
The new religion for many is “science,” or more specifically, whatever the accepted science is at the moment. Why do I say that? Because science, by nature, is constantly changing. We are always discovering something new and revising old assumptions.
So to put absolute faith in “science” means the ground is consistently shifting beneath you. You take it as “gospel truth” only to notice it’s completely changed a year later.
“You should eat only low-fat foods to lose weight” the following year became “fat is not the problem. It’s carbs.”
In the 70s, it was “pollution is leading the earth into another Ice Age,” only to now become “pollution is leading the earth into Global Warming.” When they noticed their predictions kept shifting, they finally called it “climate change,” which could conveniently cover any eventuality.
Science is never really “settled”–it’s constantly in flux.
However, others today find science lacking in poetry. It lacks the sense of wonder and imagination they used to get from Christianity. So they moved backward into the dark ages, before scientific or spiritual enlightenment. But since they grew up used to the personal God of Christianity, they project his characteristics onto their new religion. They are the New Pagans, and they worship earth and nature.
For instance, the belief that the “Universe” will send you good things if you do good things. This automatic “Karma” sounds odd to me, because I have yet to understand how an insentient collection of matter and gases (the actual universe) is supposed to know that you did good and then have any ability to send good things your way.
It sounds more like Santa Claus than the Cosmos.
Sorry, but that’s only something a personal God with a mind and will can pull off. Christianity promoted this idea in Galatians 6:7 when the Apostle Paul said, “you will reap what you sow.” But for that to happen, a Supreme Being interested in people’s daily affairs would have to set things in motion. In other words, the very Judea-Christian God that many people wish to leave behind. The problem was they didn’t like it when he paid them back for sowing bad things. Instead, they want an impersonal “universe” that never sees sin but somehow only wakes up to bless us when we happen to do good.
I watch friends all over social media, assuring themselves and others with this homegrown brand of voodoo. I’m amazed they could fall for something so filled with wishful thinking and hang all their hopes and dreams on nothing but thin air.
But the universe is not coming to help you. It can’t. It doesn’t know you exist. It’s just a bunk of rocks and gas. Seriously.
I guess I don’t have enough faith in rocks, planets, or magic to believe in these modern-day fairy tales. I’m an adamant atheist when it comes to the power of the “universe” to help me.
So I apologize, but I just don’t believe it. And it’s time I put my cards on the table about just what I don’t believe…
I don’t believe in “positive energy,” so sorry, I won’t send you any. And I’m pretty sure I’ve never had a “chakra,” unless that’s some sort of Greek pastry.
I’m not sending you “healing thoughts” if you’re sick, Not because I don’t care, but because my thoughts don’t have the power to heal me, much less you.
How do you figure “karma?” You believe in an impersonal, benign “universe” instead of God. But then you think this impersonal universe will take a very personal interest in paying you back for good or bad actions.
So which one is it, an impersonal one or a personal one–what universe are you talking about exactly?
I’m not “visualizing world peace” anytime soon. Since I’m not Yoda, just thinking about peace is not going to make it happen, any more than your thinking lifting the car in your driveway makes you Luke Skywalker.
I’m not “looking inside myself to find the answers.” I’m not even sure of all the questions yet, but I know the answers aren’t in me. I am finite, mostly clueless and full of contradictions.
I know you say you’re “spiritual, not religious.” But what does that mean? If what you believe has no face, no name, and is without definition, you’re pretty much making it up as you go along, aren’t you? Improvisation is great with jazz music, but lousy to base my entire eternity on.
I know you keep telling me to respect “your truth,” but how can I? It’s so subjective. I’ve noticed that your truth often sounds very much like whatever is convenient for you at that given moment. Come on.
People can rationalize any action, no matter how selfish or evil. And to be completely “truthful,” most of us can completely ignore the plight of our fellow man and snack watching Netflix while the world starves.
So, get real.
Oh, and as for “believing in myself,”–that’s no help either. Pretending I have some supernatural power inside me won’t change a thing, because I am merely human. No, there’s no “magic in me,” so please stop telling me there is. You only set me up for disappointment…and yourself as well.
But…I believe in One, the source of all energy and healing. He is completely “other” than me, though I believe he now lives within me and guides me.
If you are sick, what I will do is pray for you. That’s because there is one Healer, so I go straight to the Source because you matter to me.
He’s also the one source of real peace, for the world’s questions are all answered in him and him alone. And the world will never find true lasting peace outside of him.
He is infinite, limitless, and Truth incarnate.
And one day, he will return to judge every person and every action, and whether we genuinely used our time to serve him and help others, or just help ourselves. That’s not called karma. It’s sowing and reaping, as in “you will reap what you sow.”
He is beyond the magic of all your inanimate talismans—he is miraculous.
But trusting in myself is a con game that only brings hubris and self-destruction. That’s why I trust in Jesus. He is all that matters, and without him, nothing else matters.
I hope you’ll stop believing in these fancies of your own imagination, and trust in the only One who really can make all dreams come true.
It’s time to grow up now, my friend, from childhood to adulthood, from fantasy to reality, from darkness into the light. The universe is not coming to save you. It can’t. But 2000 years ago, God stepped out of heaven and set foot on earth for that very purpose. For him, caring for you is not random but very personal. So he will use all his resources to guide you in the right way.
It’s time to stop trusting in a bunch of rocks and look to the Rock of Ages again. For he is the only rock who can truly hear and help you!
–Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash
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