The Myth of "Man as Desperately Seeking God"

 

A Web of Our Illusions

The Myth of "Man as Desperately Seeking God"

If the World Wide Web is any indication of our deepest desiderations, then consider the following:

A simple search in the form of a one word query reveals a good deal more of the topography of the human condition than any statistical analysis of the numbers. It is a terrain mapped out with a very clearly defined epicenter – the human genitalia – and an equally clearly defined periphery: God.

Consider the following results from 8 such queries in Google in 2005 and 2007 — the numbers will have increased exponentially since:

sex:            2005: 350 million pages           /   2007: 783 million pages
gay:            2005: 128 million                     /   2007: 394 million
porn:          2005 90 million                       /   2007: 227 million
lesbian:      2005: 57 million                      /   2007: 185 million


God:             2005: 129 million pages           /  2007: 516 million
Jesus:          2005: 49 million                      /  2007: 179 million
Bible:           2005: 46 million                      /  2007: 162 million
Catholic:      2005: 29 million                      /  2007:  974 million 
Protestant:  2005: 4-1/2 millon                   /  2007:  14-1/2 million                       
Jewish:        2005: 32 million                      /  2007:  87 million

What does this mean?

Sex, in 2005, beat out God by 3 times, Jesus or the Bible by 7 times, and Catholic by 12 times; by 77 times for Protestant, and by 10 times for Jewish.

The figures for 2007 are roughly proportional although "sex" and "porn" increased 200% (doubled), and "gay" and "lesbian" increased by 300% (tripled). Consider the following statistics for 2007:

• 127% more people are looking for porn than are looking for Jesus

• 140% more people are looking for porn than are looking for the Bible

• 150% more people are looking for sex than are looking for God

• 200% more people are looking for gays than for Jesus

• 500% more are looking for sex than are looking for the Bible

• 700% more are looking for sex than are looking for Jesus

• More people are looking for lesbians than for Jesus or the Bible

Do the math, and you arrive at a terribly dismaying conclusion that flies in the face of the optimistic but terribly naive perception that man is desperately seeking God.

Man, it would appear, by and large is not searching for God. He, she, are, with stunning alacrity, searching for each others genitals, or their own. I understand that this is not a polite conclusion. It is, however, the ineluctable conclusion. For its audacity, it is nevertheless politely put.

How can this be? Why is it so?

God does not necessarily feel good. Sex does. To what, we must ask, are we constantly urged by our priests, our preachers, pastors, counselors, teachers, social workers? To feel good. It is the summum bonum. If "feeling good" is the highest good, then sex is the highest expression of the good.

 

Not God ...

• Perhaps it is better put in the form of a syllogism: Good is understood, not as a sentiment, still less as something moral, but as a feeling.

• All feeling is sensuous in nature.

• Orgasm is the the consummate sensual experience.

• It is therefore the consummate good.

In subtle, and in not so subtle ways, we acquire this, learn this, from our present hedonistic culture, and it is reinforced, wittingly in our classrooms, and unwittingly from our pulpits. It is our mantra: "God wants me to feel good." From that premise we proceed through a very reasonable and syllogistic protocol to the conclusion that the notion of sin can in no way be predicated of the good as feeling. If it feels good, do it. After all, God wants me to feel good. Sex feels good. It cannot, then, under any circumstances be construed as not good (i.e. sinful), for it feels good.

The locus of the good – of the greatest good – then, ceases to be God, ceases to be extrinsic to ourselves; in fact, the locus becomes the very self – and the highest self-expression of the good as sensual (since the sensual is inextricable from the self) is, of course, sex.

I do not argue the point. It is quite unnecessary. We just need look at the Web of our creation ... and do the math. Postmodern man is not in search of God. He is in search of his own apotheosis, and it is, in a manner of speaking, within reach; should this not suffice, it is just a few keystrokes away.

This Web of our illusions is very revealing. It is an indictment of our reluctance, even our unwillingness, and hence our failure – a catastrophic failure – to articulate truth in the face of "correct" lies we have no wish to contend with. Our courage went the way of our conviction. And our conviction went the way of the world.

We spun the Web. Would to God that we behaved more as men ... than spiders.

 

(Note: the statistics shown are dated from 2007)

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