When a modern individual turns away from the Living God, usually all that he is left with is a confrontation with the natural world. According to the dominant world view of our culture the only reality is physical matter which is ultimately "ruled" by blind, brute chance. So the world of nature which confronts the Unbeliever is a minatory and intimidating world. It is a world which lacks rhyme or reason, sense or purpose. It is a world in which the individual has no significance or place. There is no natural order per se. Any apparent natural order is neither my ally nor friend.
It should come as no surprise, then, that our culture is paralysed with phobias. Michael Crichton, in his book State of Fear, describes it thus:
Has it ever occurred to you how astonishing Western society really is? Industrialized nations provide their citizens with unprecedented safety, health, and comfort. Average life spans increased fifty percent in the last century. Yet modern people live in abject fear. They are afraid of strangers, of disease, of crime, of the environment. They are afraid of the homes they live in, the food they eat, the technology that surrounds them. They are in a particular panic over things they can't even see -- germs, chemicals, additives, pollutants. They are timid, nervous, fretful, and depressed. And even more amazingly, they are convinced that the environment of the entire planet is being destroyed around them. Remarkable! Like the belief in witchcraft, it's an extraordinary delusion -- a global fantasy worthy of the Middle Ages.The more a culture turns away from the Living God the more superstitious it becomes. Nature is hostile. Dread rules. Catastrophes lurk on every hand. It becomes more like the Dark Ages every day. Athens is indeed going backwards into the future.
"Those who hate me, love death," says the Lord.
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