LIE: God is a vast impersonal force

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Lie: God is a vast impersonal force.

Truth: God is the Living Being who created the heavens and the earth, all creatures and human beings in his image.

Truth: Believing that God is a vast, impersonal force reduces us to also become a vast impersonal force.

It’s shocking to see the numbers, but it should come as no surprise that a majority of Christians now believe in a variety of ‘New Age’ beliefs. According to a Pew Research Center’s study from 2017, ‘New Age’ beliefs are now common among both religious and non-religious Americans.

Most American adults self-identify as Christians. But many Christians also hold what are sometimes characterized as “New Age” beliefs – including belief in reincarnation, astrology, psychics and the presence of spiritual energy in physical objects like mountains or trees. Many Americans who are religiously unaffiliated also have these beliefs.

Overall, roughly six-in-ten American adults accept at least one of these New Age beliefs. Specifically, four-in-ten believe in psychics and that spiritual energy can be found in physical objects, while somewhat smaller shares express belief in reincarnation (33%) and astrology (29%).

But New Age beliefs are not necessarily replacing belief in traditional forms of religious beliefs or practices. While eight-in-ten Christians say they believe in God as described in the Bible, six-in-ten believe in one or more of the four New Age beliefs analyzed here, ranging from 47% of evangelical Protestants to roughly seven-in-ten Catholics and Protestants in the historically black tradition.[1]

In a more recent study, the same research group found a decline among those who identify as Christian and a corresponding decline in prayer and its importance.

In addition to the decline in the number of Christians, Smith [Greg Smith, lead researcher of the study] pointed out that multiple measures suggest that Americans’ religiosity, on the whole, is waning. Frequency of prayer went down, as did the number of those who say that religion is important to them.

Today, 45% of American adults pray on a daily basis — a 13 percentage point drop since 2007. In the same period, the number of U.S. adults who say they seldom or never pray went up from 18% in 2007 to 32%.

Even fewer American adults say that religion is very important in their lives: 41% in Pew’s latest survey as compared with 56% in 2007. The number who said that religion is “not too” or “not at all” important in their lives more than doubled in the same period, reaching a new high of 33% this year.[2]

What’s happening here?

And why is it happening? Surely this portends a significant shift taking place. In this article I’ll trace this shift and show what I believe are the major forces behind it. I’ll also show why it’s bad and then how to fight it. For unless our awareness grows we will not know how to combat this. It’s big enough to swallow us up.

What’s happening?

It’s as old as the Bible. God warned us from the beginning in the Ten Commandments, and more specifically the first of the ten. And although it is the First Commandment, for some reason, it’s actually the commandment that’s easiest to forget, especially in light of the second (against idols). But it’s the very first commandment for good reason. In many ways it’s the most important, for if the first is violated, the rest of them will ultimately fall too.

To refresh our memory, here is the First Commandment:

‘I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.’ — Deuteronomy 5:6–7

The first commandment forbids syncretism.

That word may not be familiar to you, but it’s an important word to know.

syncretism — the (attempted) reconciliation or fusion of different systems or beliefs.

To give us some context here, let me quote from an article that I wrote on worship. Here’s an excerpt from that article, LIE: Worship is an experience of God’s presence, part 2:

In this simply-stated first commandment – You shall have no other gods before me – God is saying that, if we are to worship him, and therefore if we are to live rightly and in the way that we were designed to live, we must worship him exclusively. Since it’s true that the One true and living God created and sustains all things, including us, who is all-powerful and who loves us, then we only need him as our ultimate source. All other so-called gods are rivals and fakes and worshiping them too will only serve to dissipate our perception of his greatness. It will also dissipate our awareness of our dependency on him. But the fact is he’s got all the bases covered; we do not need a syncretistic pantheon to do life – we need him. Period. Full stop.

We have to be clear here. Most people do not worship other gods to replace God, but add on gods/idols because God is not perceived to be big enough. Or they’ve brought their pantheon of idols with them and then tack God on, not seeing that he is sufficient for absolutely everything.

Just as the Lord had taught Israel to follow only him —

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. — Deuteronomy 6:4–5

. . . and he told them to teach these things to their children and to build an environment that reinforced this exclusive worship of the one true God. —

“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. — Deuteronomy 6:6–9

. . . he also warned them to avoid the gods of the peoples who were all around them:

You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you (for the Lord your God is a jealous God among you), lest the anger of the Lord your God be aroused against you and destroy you from the face of the earth. — Deuteronomy 6:14–15

The power of cultural gods

We so easily forget how powerful the surrounding culture is. And its invisibility only makes it more potent.

Large corporations know this well. In my own company for example, our business leaders are always emphasizing the importance of building corporate culture. It’s a contrived vision of ‘culture,’ but they know very well that there is no greater force, no greater influence on their employees’ attitudes, behaviors and relationships.

The concept of culture is hard to define and grasp, but here’s one stab at it:

culture — The arts, customs, lifestyles, background, and habits that characterize a particular society or nation. OR: The beliefs, values, behavior and material objects that constitute a people’s way of life.

Culture is our attitudes, our assumptions, our language, how we relate and don’t relate, our basic behaviors, what and how we do what we do. All these things are fundamental and largely invisible to us. They’re automatic; they’re absorbed imperceptibly; they just ‘feel right.’ And to do anything contrary to what is expected quickly becomes obvious. It ‘sticks out.’

Culture is our reality. It’s how we see the world and we easily assume it is the only way to see the world.

Our God knew all of this. And he knew our weaknesses and vulnerabilities to the surrounding culture. So he warned his people of the primary cultural forces they were wading into: their so-called gods. He knew that they would be tempted to slowly adopt and adapt — to simply ‘tack on’ — the gods of the nations that they were going into. They would not necessarily be expected to reject their own God, but to simply tolerate, accept, normalize and then assimilate the other gods that control the culture. They were tempted to ‘have other gods before him, that is, along with him.’

This was the perennial issue with Israel. For example, the writer of the book of Kings, in describing that a king did what was right, almost always makes note of the fact that he did not disturb the ‘high places,’ which were places where other gods were worshiped.

Also he removed Maachah his grandmother from being queen mother, because she had made an obscene image of Asherah. And Asa cut down her obscene image and burned it by the Brook Kidron. But the high places were not removed. Nevertheless Asa’s heart was loyal to the Lord all his days. — I Kings 15:13–14

And he walked in all the ways of his father Asa. He did not turn aside from them, doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord. Nevertheless the high places were not taken away, for the people offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places. — I Kings 22:43

Jehoash did what was right in the sight of the Lord all the days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him. But the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. — 2 Kings 12:2–3

Let’s take another example from our own culture and see how this works. I could choose from many cultural assumptions today that shape our view of reality and God: money, digital media, medicine, sex and gender, work, sport, science. But I’m going to use what is a controversial subject in most Christian circles. And I’m using this example to specifically point back to the lie that I started with: God is a vast impersonal force.

The example I’ll use to show how our cultural gods become tolerated, accepted and normalized is — space. That is, outer space. Think NASA, rockets, and the ISS. Yeah, that space.

Now, before you click away, please hear me out. I’m not going to talk about the shape of the earth, Antarctica, or extraterrestrials. And in this article I cannot go into any great detail, but I can point out how this cultural god has fundamentally shaped our view of reality and of God himself.

If only to arouse your curiosity, my purpose is not to convince you but to pique your interest. But I think you’ll agree that the subject of space is continually at the forefront of our media’s attention. It is no small matter.

But first let’s try to define space.

space — the vast apparently limitless, near-vacuum in which planets, stars and other celestial objects are situated; the universe beyond the earth’s atmosphere; outer space.

A ‘near-vacuum’ — a nothing, an emptiness, a void, an absence. This is ‘space.’

Now, is it possible that this concept of space is mistaken? incomplete? false?

Yes, absolutely.

Allow me then to poke four small holes in the current view of space:

1 Space is only reproducible via sophisticated media. Space is a concept based entirely on a media that is inaccessible to us. All images of planets, galaxies, nebulae and other celestial objects are created by graphic artists. The earth itself, the most popular known image of which is called ‘the blue marble,’ was made famous as the screen saver on Apple iPhones. But true telescopic images of planets and stars do not resemble what is depicted in popular media.

2 Evolution based on random, chance mutations requires vast amounts of time and space to be conceivable. The idea of a limitless vacuum is based in part on the theory of the origin of the universe, which is popularly called the ‘Big Bang’ theory. This theory says that ALL matter — planets, galaxies, molecules, elements — originated from a single explosive accident/event that happened several billion years ago. Before that singular event an empty expanse of space existed. The Big Bang scattered everything into this vast emptiness.

This theory is based on the assumption that, to get evolution to work, requires vast amounts of time and space. So without a vast amount of space, there would not be enough space for all the needed randomness to produce at least one planet — earth — that apparently, randomly, is able to support and produce life.

Actually to make evolution seem more plausible, scientists have invented the theory of the ‘multiverse,’ that is, multiple universes, each with its own evolutionary forces and outcomes.

3 A vast, empty space matches the character of a god who also happens to be a vast, impersonal force. If evolution is true, the only conceivable god is the miracle of the universe itself. As Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz asked, ‘Why is there something rather than nothing?’

The universe with the hundred million suns and galaxies must have been created to sufficiently compete with and overcome God. Yes, the earth is massive in itself, but navigable, map-able. But the Universe with a capital ‘U”, or even the Multiverse, must be massively overwhelming, indescribable, ineffable, mysterious, unattainable, without known limits. Arthur C Clarke called it the ‘aweful immensity.’ Apparently, only this immensity can compete with the true and living God.

4 The concept of limitless space tells us that the earth and the profusion of life on it, including human beings, is nothing really special (though of course we intuitively know that we are). We are told that, because of the vastness of space, we probably are not the only ones to evolve. Astronomers say that they’ve found 1089 planets similar to earth that could ‘support’ life.[3]

Now, have I convinced you that space is a false construct? Probably not.

But at least do you see that this concept of space could be used to support and promote the godless evolutionary foundation that, if there is a God, he/she/it must be some kind of vast, impersonal force, like space?

But space is not the only wildly promoted vast, impersonal — lifeless — concept to attempt to eclipse, overshadow, and transcend God himself. By my count there are at least three other powerful, world-altering, reality-creating, God-hiding forces:

AI
transhumanism
Nature (with a capital ‘N’)

AI — Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence includes a broad spectrum of technologies — machine learning, natural-language processing, neural networks, complex algorithms and others. Its promise, depending on who you listen to, is that it will either save mankind or destroy him (or a combination of both, save the elite and destroy the inferiors).

I really don’t need to go into any detail about AI. All I need to point out is, AI is also a vast (interconnected through the Internet), impersonal (though some say, falsely, that it may eventually develop sentience/consciousness — they are wrong), force — claiming to ultimately dominate human existence.

So what am I saying?

The power and promise of AI reshapes the world and reality, claiming the place of God. Only this ‘AI god’ happens to be a vast, impersonal force. AI is increasingly recognized, though imperceptibly, as god and so ‘godness’ gets redefined as a vast, impersonal force.

Transhumanism[4]

Whereas AI is a technology that ‘wants’ to transcend its technology limits and take on (mimic) human abilities; transhumanism is a humanity that ‘wants’ to transcend human limits and take on technological abilities. Transhumanism is the other side of the same AI coin. And so, although AI and transhumanism are indeed two separate things right now, eventually, as these two forces progress, they will end up being the same thing!

As Elon Musk has said: “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.”[5]

If that’s true, what I said earlier about AI being a vast, impersonal force, can also be said of transhumanism. It is the transformation of humanity into a vast, impersonal force. So this AI/transhumanism is the primary cultural force to re-make humans into something very different than what they are today.

The fact is God created persons with a unique personal ‘I’. Adam and Eve both claimed the personal pronoun, ‘I’. And that was the risk, not that they would develop as an I with personality and choice and originality and grace, but that the ‘I’ person would claim its own sphere of separate individuality. God ‘risked’ personality — he sought to elevate persons to be his images in the earth to represent him. The devil simply wants to destroy personality, to ‘recreate’ it into a vast impersonal force.

Nature

It may seem strange to throw ‘Nature’ into this mix. How could nature be a ‘God-hiding’ force? Wouldn’t it be the very opposite? Doesn’t the Word say that ‘the heavens declare the glory of God . . . ’ ?

Absolutely!

Yes, the million-faceted wonders of nature — mountains, streams, birds, creatures, photosynthesis, migrations, stars — is stunning and magnificent and should cause us to stand open-mouthed and worship our great and awesome God.

So how could nature itself switch from revealing and glorifying God to hiding him?

Let me give you an example.

Several years ago, our family bought the DVD set of the BBC Series, Planet Earth. This is an absolutely stunning production of the various geographical domains — mountains, jungles, fresh water, caves, etc — each episode dedicated to one of those domains. The script for these productions is masterfully read by David Attenborough, who weaves the grand narratives around these wonders that very few people have ever seen.

Of course Attenborough describes these wonders with the normal evolutionary assumptions, but it’s done with such vivid and powerful images, the focus never has to leave nature itself. Of course, there is no mention of God; it’s all about the glories of Nature — with a capital ‘N’.

Nature as a highly-produced media experience glorifies only nature.

As we increasingly dwell more in inside spaces, our experience with nature is less and less with nature itself, but with mediated images of nature. And these mediated depictions of nature are wrapped in narratives that describe it in terms of its new elevation. God is never mentioned. The unspoken message is: Nature IS god. God IS nature.

The depersonalization of God as Nature obviously lets us off the hook; we’re no longer accountable to a God who could judge us. Or it may not be the wholesale depersonalization of God. It may only be the reduction of God into a vague, inchoate God — a god completely unknowable, mystical, which then releases us to resign ourselves to the forces at work in us and in the world.[6]

The mystique of Nature is both real and promoted. It is real because nature is indeed imbued with the glory of God. But it’s also promoted endlessly in print and online with narratives that always leave God as Creator out.

Effects of this belief on Christians

As I said at the beginning, a majority of Christians now believe in a variety of ‘New Age’ teaching. Things like reincarnation, astrology, and spiritual energies. But I’m not saying that those Christians have stopped believing in Christ, or that they are therefore no longer Christians. Christians have cobbled together their worship of the true God with the worship of other gods. They have violated the very first and most fundamental commandment:

You shall have no other gods before Me.

We have listened to and swallowed the big lies of space, AI, transhumanism, and ‘Nature.’ We have gone too far down the road, listened uncritically for too long, become biblically illiterate, and accepted the grand narratives, the reality-creating/warping narratives designed to exclude and ignore the living God and which exalt a vague god/force that is vast, impersonal and soulless.

If I’m right — or even only half right — we are in deep trouble and I’m afraid we’re not even aware of it. If we as Christians are gradually becoming syncretists, and idolaters,[7] we must stop now and turn from this grave sin. If we continue down this road, we are in danger of becoming like our gods.

We become what we behold. Psalm 135 makes this plain:

The idols of the nations are silver and gold,
The work of men’s hands.
They have mouths, but they do not speak;
Eyes they have, but they do not see;
They have ears, but they do not hear;
Nor is there any breath in their mouths.
Those who make them are like them;
So is everyone who trusts in them. — Psalm 135:15–18

So is it any wonder that we walk about like zombies, staring into a three-by-five-inch black mirror, barely able to speak, to listen, to see, to think, to feel?[8] We are becoming like our tacked-on gods — we as Christians are becoming a vast, impersonal force.

The atomization and reduction of humans into nothing more than sacs of complex organic compounds reduces man into another animal of Nature, which can then be manipulated and recreated into an impersonal thing. The fact that man is getting shallower, more superficial, more incapable of thought, action, communication, etc, flattens him, and consequently makes him more adaptable and destructible, to swallow him up into ‘Nature.’

Even though we may not consciously think of God as an impersonal force, and may still intellectually believe in his personhood, in our practical ways, we give ourselves away. Do you pray? — beyond the perfunctory prayers expected of us? Do you expect him and ask him to comfort you, teach you, forgive you, heal, send, lead or save you?

Jacques Ellul comments on Luke chapter 18, the parable of the widow who importunes the judge for justice. He says prayer is crucial for faith to survive:

But immediately: “when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?” — an apparently unnatural question in this context. Now it is just this interrogation which seems to me to relate directly to the commandment of prayer. That is the true, crucial responsibility.[9]

When prayer declines or even disappears, faith in the living God and his Christ also declines and disappears.

What should we do?

We should never forget that our God has demonstrated his love in that while we were sinners Christ died for us. He is good and he is full of grace.

The spurning of the First Commandment means we must go back to the beginning, the basics, the fundamentals: Who is this God? How has he revealed himself? What is the meaning of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ?

I am convinced that if we see our God aright — who he truly is, and what he has done — we will spontaneously fall on our knees and adore him for who he is. Yes, adore him.[10] The truth of God himself, in which he himself becomes present: this is what we need, and what the world so desperately tries to hide, ignore, obscure, minimize, confuse and deny.

How do we see him, hear him?

There is no formula, but when all else fails, in the simple yet difficult act of getting alone and quiet in a quiet place, in time he reveals our true self and his true self; our sinfulness, our waywardness, our stupidity, but his love and grace and compassion.

And one last thing: and this is perhaps the best evidence against the vast, impersonal force ‘god’: THERE IS NO LOVE THERE. How do you love a force, a blob, a space?

You can’t.

If love is what we’re all looking for, if love is the highest human expression, if there is a love stronger than death, if the ‘greatest of these is love,’ where did this all-important universal love come from? Well, I know one thing. It did not come from a vast, impersonal force. If love is anything it is personal. It only exists as a person-to-person thing. This instinct of love comes from the One who loves you and surrenders his life for you.

We love him because he first loved us. — I John 4:19

[1] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/10/01/new-age-beliefs-common-among-both-religious-and-nonreligious-americans/ captured on 5 February 2022.

[2] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/how-immigration-secularization-and-other-forces-are-reshaping-american-religion/ar-AARRqr8 captured on 5 February 2022.

[3] https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/discovery/exoplanet-catalog/ captured 10 February 2022.

[4] I’ve already written quite a bit on transhumanism in other articles. See for example, What is the Mark of the Beast? part 1, part 2, and part 3.

[5] This is apparenently Neuralink’s mission statement. See https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/elon-musk-neuralink-mission-statement-for-artificial-intelligence-brain-chip/articleshow/76871062.cms captured on 9 February 2022.

[6] There are a number of variations that describe a god as nature: pantheism, panentheism, creation sprituality, witchcraft, religious naturalism, etc, etc.

[7] The Second Commandment against idolatry logically follows the first. Accepting other gods along with the true and living God, will eventually lead us to make idols and images of those gods. See also my articles: Lie: Idolatry is rare, part 1 and part 2, and Lie: I can become a god, part 1 and part 2.

[8] This was also the prophesy given to Isaiah. See Isaiah 6:8–10.

[9] Ellul, Jacques, Prayer and Modern Man, Seabury Press: New York, 1970, pg 108.

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