In our uncertain world of pandemics, unceasing foreign conflicts, and economic rollercoasters, is there anything we can hold onto for peace and stability? A world without God might be appealing when everything is going well, but when we start looking looking for answers in tougher times, perhaps it’s no surprise that God and spiritual things are back on the front burner of our society.
If you want to learn more about these issues, we’d recommend finding a Christianity Explored or Alpha Course run by a church near you.
Transcript
Have you ever wondered why everyone is talking about God again? It seems that scarcely a day goes by without some celebrity, public intellectual or influencer talking about how they’ve found faith or are thinking about faith again.
My word, what a surprise from fifteen or twenty years ago when, for those of you who can remember it, the New Atheism was at its height. The likes of Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett were selling books by the truckload, and everybody assumed that atheism and scepticism were here to stay. God was dead. Religion was over. That was the end of the story.
Well, how that has changed. Now we are in a world where, once again, everybody is thinking about spiritual questions. Our churches are filling up with young people again. When I do events on university campuses, you can’t move for young people wanting to explore spiritual questions.
So what has happened? I think the main thing is this: atheism works well when everything is certain. When the economy is doing well, when the world seems peaceful, when everyone seems healthy and happy, it’s easy to start asking, “Do we really need God?”
But since the heady days of the New Atheism, the world has been turned upside down. We’ve had the pandemic. We’ve had wars breaking out everywhere. As I record this, there are wars going on in Ukraine, Iran and the Middle East. Those may not last forever, but then the next thing will come over the horizon. It turns out that the world is a darn sight more uncertain than people thought, and that as humans we actually need certainty and something solid to stand on.
What happens is that you suddenly realise you are mortal and you don’t know what the future holds. Google reported recently that one of the most-searched questions right now is, “Is everything going to be okay?” And suddenly people realise that maybe we do need faith, maybe we do need a spiritual aspect to our lives, and maybe we do need God, because what on earth else can function as that fixed point for us?
So if you are somebody who is thinking about the big questions of life, don’t let anyone tell you that you’re stupid for thinking about spiritual questions, because this is a great time to be asking them.
Let me recommend two things. There are two amazing courses run by loads of churches around the country: Alpha and Christianity Explored. We’ll put a link to both in the notes accompanying this video. They’re great opportunities to get together with other people who are thinking about faith, to ask questions, have food together, and discover what Christianity and Jesus have to say to some of the big challenges our world faces today.