God in the modern world

By Jameke Brown

Seminarian

Modern people have progressed in numerous ways. Over the centuries, we have undergone global transformations through the industrial, scientific, and technological revolutions drastically altering how we interact with each other and see the world.

Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker argues in his 2018 book Enlightenment Now that, with regards to metrics such as life expectancy, global poverty, child mortality, literacy, education, health and disease control, there has never been a better time to be alive in all human history. From the Christian perspective, however, this raises a fundamental question: What exactly do we mean by “better”?

We have progressed by so many of the metrics listed above, but with regard to us in the Western world, we have declined in some important ways. A 2021 study published by The Ballard Brief research library indicates that both anxiety and depression disorders have increased by 63 per cent from 2005 to 2017.

The Kaiser Family Foundation, the leading health policy organisation in the United States, has measured a 16 per cent increase in the suicide rate from 2011 to 2022, moving from 12.3 to 14.4 deaths per 100,000 individuals.

Looking back further to 1999, there was a substantial 37 per cent increase from a rate of 10.57 per 100,000. These numbers raise troubling questions: ‘If we are in fact living in the best time in history, why are increasing numbers of people now choosing to end their lives?’ and ‘If we seem to be thriving in so many metrics, why has mental health declined?’.

The answer is undoubtedly multi-layered, but I believe it lies at the very foundation of the Christian story. In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew 6:33, He says “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.”

In this brief but poignant statement, Jesus is giving not just an instruction but also indicating the way in which our lives must be rightly ordered for our flourishing. He effectively emphasises that the fundamental human need is not material but theological.

This need for God must be sought before all others because it is through the appropriate pursuit of this need that all others are rightly oriented. The reality is that each of our human stories, while beautiful, is tainted by the proclivity to sin, and Jesus, understanding this reality, knows that if we take our eyes off of Him as our foundation, we have the capacity to destroy ourselves in a myriad of ways.

We seem to have lost a sense of this right ordering in our modern world and just like the Israelites of the Old Testament, we have elevated many golden calves in place of God under the guise of progress. We have largely failed to recognise that the most profound longings of the human heart cannot be satisfied by created goods but only by God. As St Augustine aptly puts it, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

I encourage you in this New Year to take ten practical steps to order your lives Christologically:

1. Do not compromise on attending weekly Mass.
2. Set aside at least one hour each week for Eucharistic Adoration.
3. Visit the Sacrament of Reconciliation as often as needed.
4. Pray together intentionally as a family.
5. Actively seek opportunities to help someone in need.
6. Actively decrease the time you spend on social media.
7. Set aside time to read the four Gospels slowly and prayerfully.
8. Before you speak, ask yourself: “Is this necessary, true, or kind?”
9. Treat every person you encounter as made in the image and likeness of God.
10. Filter all knowledge through the lens of whether it increases your capacity to love God and others.

Pinker’s assessment of the world is not incorrect but incomplete. Technological progress only renders human life “better” insofar as it increases our capacity to love God and neighbour, for this is the true purpose of our being.

Given the unprecedented power of modern technological advancement, not least within the field of Artificial Intelligence, it is more urgent now than ever that progress be rightly ordered, lest it hasten our demise rather than our flourishing.