Let's talk about God

I have one abiding memory from my degree in philosophy at Maynooth University. I was chatting with a student of the adjacent St. Patrick’s College, the principal seminary for Catholic priests in Ireland. We'd share certain classes with them. We liked to look upon them with a degree of amusement, as though our worlds were far apart—ours looking to the future, theirs stuck in a dying past. It suited us this way, and we were never in need of questioning. So I struck up a conversation with one of them, safe in my own certainty about these things, and eventually he asked me if I believed in God. I told him no. He kept looking at me, genuinely confused and concerned now, and asked, ‘then, what do you believe in?’ The way he asked struck me. He asked with genuine concern and confusion, and I had no answer. I could feel a gulf open up between us. He had clearly wrestled with these questions. I clearly hadn't.

Our interaction's dynamics flipped. The ground beneath my feet was a lot less solid than I liked to believe. The original ‘no’ I answered became tinged with doubt, and through his eyes, I had an uncomfortable feeling of having drifted off into no-man’s land. He wasn’t just talking about a Catholic God; he was talking about the very concept of God.

At the time, I had no way of articulating the fundamental dilemma he had exposed in me. I had no idea where it fit into the larger story of Western society. But now, after 25 years, I can look back at my journey and see a fantastical,. and in no way unique, wandering around in search of meaning and, ultimately, in search of some sort of divine order to attach myself to.

It leads to this question today:

In our pursuit of progress and reason, have we overlooked something essential to our humanity? Have we neglected the profound sense of meaning and purpose that the sacred and the divine offer?

For me, the answer is yes.

And the consequence of its demise is what is today called the modern meaning crisis.

Let’s consider a definition of this:

The modern meaning crisis in Western society today refers to a widespread feeling of disconnection and confusion about what gives life meaning and purpose. This crisis has been attributed to several factors, including the decline of traditional religious and cultural narratives, the rise of individualism and consumerism, and the rapid pace of technological change. Many people feel adrift in a sea of endless choices and information overload, leading to a sense of existential emptiness and a search for deeper meaning.

The result is a profound existential void left in the lives of many individuals. We've thrown the baby out with the bathwater. We have opened the gates of the city, and into that void, which will have to be filled with something, is rushing all sorts of madness dressed up as progress.

This is the secular age. We are told it is a great leap forward for humanity as it looks back at such archaic and primitive notions as God, religion, and divinity. We are told by the atheist commentators that we are simply floating in the infinite, meaningless void of space. There is a good reason why we are living in such confusing times. I listen in on some of the great thinkers and intellectuals of our age, and even they are grappling with these questions and struggling to keep up with the sheer pace of change and its inherent confusion.

Frederick Nietzsche stated that ‘God is dead’. Though we will disagree with how he proposes to address this fact, with his concept of the Ubermensch, his original statement remains true. All those years ago, he knew exactly the direction we were heading. Nietzsche recognised the inherent religious impulse in humanity; without a divine order and a sacred orientation, something else will fill the void. For the first time ever, in a brief 200 years, we are witnessing a time in humanity’s history where the very concept or possibility of God is denied and where we are constructing a society that has laid aside the central pillar of the Divine and the Sacred Order. This is a new venture, and we are very much in the midst of it.

Where can we trace this all to?

Scientific rationalism is one reason. It has relegated the sacred to the realm of the unverifiable or the subjective, and that has led many to dismiss it as irrelevant or even irrational in the face of scientific progress.

Another example is the movement away from traditional religious institutions. They have experienced an erosion of trust in the Western world, and in many ways, for very good reasons. Yet there are many calling for a reevaluation of the place of religion in our lives. 

At its core, every society revolves around a shared story. Today, in the Western world, that story speaks of the march of progress, a linear progression that ever advances into a brighter, fairer, and happier future for all. We will achieve this by relying solely on human ingenuity, the power of reason, and the ever-increasing sufficiency of our technologies. We are our own masters, or indeed, our own gods. There is no place in this story for a sacred order, nor is there any need for one. But this story is unravelling before our eyes. And people are ‘falling out of myth’ as they no longer connect with or align with the dominant narratives of the Western world. 

Within this context, the fact of religious experience continues to touch people’s lives. We continue to make contact with something beyond ourselves. The impulse to seek is core to our very being.

How this should be framed and how the sacred can be reinstated in our lives is beyond my knowledge, but a good start would be to open this discussion and at least begin to acknowledge this crisis and to begin to question the direction we are heading. At the very least, a reevaluation is required.

Recently, in Guatemala, I had the honour to take part in a ceremony led by two representatives of the Huichol people of Northern Mexico. The Huichol are one of the last surviving native peoples that have maintained their culture, stories, and traditions since pre-Columbian times. Twice during the ceremony, Don Miguel stood up in front of the fire and told the origin story of his people. These were not simple, primitive tales to amuse listeners around a fire; rather, they were the very core of these people's identities and how they chose to live and be on earth. They are the repositories of all their experience and understanding of reality, the moral compass with which they orient themselves and find strength.

We are a society rich in material wealth and knowledge but impoverished by a failing unifying myth that is not serving us.

We are living in interesting times indeed.

Be well