Are God and Religion still relative today? Of course ... and thank the Lord for that!

God is not only relevant today, but so crucial that if there was no God we’d have to invent one. Not only for our daily lives, but for our posterity and the very future of the human race.

It is civilization that separates us from the animals and a civilization can’t exist without morality. And there is no morality without a moral authority. Non-believers, of course, counter that with the honest and intelligent question, “but why can’t we drop the religious hocus pocus and just be nice to each other, and let our own conscience be our moral authority?”

And the answer is … for the same reason the utopian concept of communism, where every man shares equally in the success of all and there is no God, was corrupted to become just another feudal system with a privileged ruling class living lavishly off the backs of the working class. Communism was supposed to be a step forward for civilization from the competitive dog-eat-dog world of capitalism; instead it was a step backwards. Just as the abolishment of religion would set our culture back.

If several thousand years of recorded history tell us anything it’s that it is human nature to strive for whatever power and wealth can be achieved regardless of what it costs others. Atila the hun, Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Hitler … the list is endless and still growing. The people who become leaders are individuals who thirst for power, and their thirst isn’t slaked until they die, are killed, or run up against a divided congress or term limitations (thank God for constitutional democracy).

To put it in simpler terms, which relate to Joe Workingman as well as Adolph Hitler, humans are selfish and self-centered and can rationalize anything if it serves their desires. How many stories have we read of people robbing pension funds, swindling elderly people of their life’s savings, or men already filthy rich destroying an entire company to become more filthy rich? The stories go on ad nauseum.

For Christians, this self-centeredness is at the root of what we call “original sin.” Adam and Eve had literally everything in the world, but they wanted more. So they stole the one thing their creator had denied them. Insatiable greed is as old as mankind.

This concept has also been expressed in more secular ways. Catch phrases such as “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” For my generation perhaps Bruce Springsteen, in “Badlands,” put it best: “Poor man wanna be rich, rich man wanna be king, and a king ain’t satisfied until he rules everything.”

If there was no God, the only real power in the world would be that of mankind, meaning the government. And how many students of history did that just send a shiver up the back of?

Although corrupt leaders have used religion to whip ignorant mobs into a frenzy, religion also gives individuals the authority to fight for justice beyond that which our human leaders have declared. To fight for justice based not on the fickle current morals, but on morals that has withstood the test of time. Such as the Quakers in colonial times who not only fought against slavery, but helped slaves escape and taught blacks to read when that was illegal. Slavery was a profitable and successful industry and brought great riches to the men in power. But in the end it was defeated by men of morals, and those morals came from their religious beliefs. Even though those beliefs were at the expense of their wallets.

Without an ultimate authority, as in the Bible (the morality of which the U.S. government was founded upon because it was so embedded in the culture) morals slip and slide with the times. This slippage reflects both the whims of the current generation and whatever their leaders believe will render them the most power.

Because of the basic self-centeredness of mankind morality needs an anchor. For while some are naïve enough to believe that a hedonistic utopia can be achieved if we throw off the “chains of religion” for whatever desire strikes our fancy, anyone who’s lived more than a couple of decades knows better. Morals exist not to enslave us, but to allow us to live together and to teach us the lifestyle that is the most fulfilling in the long run. You either learn from your elders or learn from your mistakes; the former is a lot easier.

In the case of the Bible, whether it is a book of wisdom written by an ancient society or inspired by an all powerful God, the model of humanity found within is the one that works. Because whatever we might want to think, humans haven’t changed in the last two thousand years. And anytime someone declares a “new morality” or “sexual revolution” they are only repeating the mistakes of some past culture. i.e. The vast majority of the 1960’s communes failed (another old concept declared new by each generation) because humans are “hard wired” to be most happy in a family begun by the marriage of a man and woman with children who honor their parents. Family is defined by our nature, not by our momentary sexual desires or whims. And it is only belief in God that offsets our self centered desires and allows us to think of something beyond personal pleasures and power.

And it is religion that drives us to sacrifice and do great things. To paraphrase my pastor, nobody fighting alcoholism emerges from an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting declaring that it was an understanding of evolution that made them win their battle against addiction. No person who has won a battle with cancer proudly proclaims that an understanding of quantum physics gave them the strength to carry on through the pain of chemo therapy. Mother Theresa lived in poverty and dedicated her life to serving the poor because of her faith, not because she saw the truth of the big bang theory.

And no one lying upon their death bed takes comfort in the belief that they are soulless and about to disappear into a chasm of dark non-existence.

But thank God that there is a God, because if man had to make one up that god would just be another tool of corruption and personal gain. Instead of a God commanding us to look out for each other and care for the poor, and putting our soul and faith to Him above our allegiance to the government … well, you can imagine what kind of religion humans in power would develop. Paying taxes would be a sacrament, submitting to any authority but the king would be an unforgivable sin, and the greatest glory would go to those who commit suicide on their last day of work so they won’t be a burden on the ruling class.

And in the end, while we can debate forever about whether or not religion has been good for society or if God is relevant, if God exists – as the vast majority of Americans and people worldwide believe – then the debate is moot.

Because if you believe that “gravity is no longer relevant” it doesn’t mean you can just stretch out your arms and soar into the cosmos. Denial doesn’t empower you to break the laws of physics.

And if God is real, you can’t say “God isn’t relevant” and cease to be His creation or to live in His world. Because you will still be under his authority and living by his plan, whether that means judgment or salvation, eternal life or eternal darkness, or whatever awaits us after this life.

Regardless of your self centered desires. Sphere: Related Content