Man has been diminished. What I mean by this is that in Western culture, we see humanity diminished in favor of concepts such as “democracy”, “equality”, and “animal rights”, among so many others. One could argue that this comes from a sense of humility in the grand scope of the universe, but I believe this is a false humility.
What I mean is that human kind is different than the animals or the plants or any other thing on this world, living or otherwise. We are a cut above the known, visible world. We can think on levels that not even Gorillas can dream of. We are capable of complex thought patterns. We can just barely perceive the origins of things and of knowing exactly what makes life tick. No other animal is even close to this.
Most people would agree that we are superior to animals, despite our physical inferiority to most other animals. At the same time, the West has believed that we are animals despite observable evidence to the contrary and that we are a virus on the planet. Interesting dichotomy, isn’t it? That we are animals yet not a natural part of this world.
This is one of the most damaging ideals that our corrupt culture has ever produced. In the decades that such a notion has taken hold of the mainstream masses, we have seen a general sense of loss and hopelessness that has not been observed in hundreds, if not thousands of years. Losing one’s own sense of self has a tendency to do that I suppose.
There are millions of Americans taking anti-depressants. The vast majority of them could be taking a sugar pill and not notice a damn difference. Despair is, by and large, a spiritual disease. And if spiritual diseases could be fixed by a drug, Jesus would have started a pharmaceutical company.
The point is, we have diminished what it means to be human. We know that something is wrong but we do not recognize the problem for what it truly is: a spiritual or soul sickness. Most of us embrace it and live for the moment, trying to capture the happiness emotion by any means necessary. Indeed, the core of the moral code for the secularist is the pursuit of happiness no matter the cost to others or yourself.
But happiness is only one emotion. There are others. There is fear, anger, hope, passion, joy, frustration, and sadness. There are so many others. They are the experiences that help us to properly process the world around us. Pursing positive emotions, however, is a symptom of the spiritual sickness.
That sickness is the loss of our place in this world. We have lost our sense of what it means to be human, to be a man and to be a woman. It is more than just making money or having a family or going to church or whatever else we do. We are created in His image, which makes us special in comparison to all creation.
He made us a part of Creation but set us apart for some higher purpose. I do not know the entirety of that purpose and have had only glimpses of what His plans are. I wish I knew more, but He has not revealed it to me. I don’t believe that Rick Warren has it entirely right though when he claims that we are meant to solely worship and obey God. I get a sense that this is the default position, one that is expected of us regardless of whatever else we do. I believe that there is more to our existence than that.
In any case, we have lost our sense of who we are in this world because we have lost our connection with God. We are born into sin and, as such, are separated from God at birth long before we are separated from our mothers. God separates Himself from that which he finds abominable and so we lose that connection.
With the widespread belief that religion is private matter, compartmentalized and boxed in only to be opened on a Sunday (or Saturday) where we sing praises we don’t mean because we really want the emotional high rather than the spiritual one, it is no wonder that the Western man is a shell of what he could be.
The only thing that can be done is to fight back against the forces of death and destruction. They are rampant though and can be seen in every form of entertainment and at all levels of government. The fleshy beings of this world hate everything. They view themselves as unworthy of love and as such will murder anyone who behaves otherwise.
Those of us who still believe in the sanctity of life because we love God more than our own lives are the ones who will be targeted. But we must stand against such monsters and actively defy and attack them. Civilization depends on us uprooting the evil among us and making the good acceptable again.