God is Dead?

A few days ago, we started to discuss the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. To open our discussion, Dr. Johnson led with a controversial claim of Nietzsche: "God is dead". Hearing these words made me a little uneasy at first, being a Christian myself, my initial instinct was to immediately shun the thought that God is dead. By the standard of the world today, however, a strong case can be made that if God isn't dead; his word is slowly declining in popularity.

Whether politicians are busy waiving God around like popularity token or some musical artist finds a way to stick "Oh lord" or "God" in their less than religious melodies, God is quickly becoming simply a path to worldly popularity. It's becoming more popular to be a Christian than it is to actually act like a Christian. Not to be mistaken here, I know that no one is perfect but it seems as though it is becoming more popular by worldly standards to do wrong willingly. For example, if a group of people are going out to do a robbery and one guy doesn't want to go, he would be considered lame. Because he is choosing right, he is being shunned by the rest of his so called "friends". Stealing is a sin but in this situation, it is more acceptable for people to do wrong and the ones who do the wrong would be considered "cool".

Every day I am a victim of music and video that promotes wrong doings. Still I look and listen because it is the "most popular" media and because of that I have accepted these un-Godly lyrics and images just so I can fit in with everyone else. Constantly, I have to watch myself so that won’t take on these ungodly values of fighting, burglary, and ill-manners among other things. This media perception to people who don't know what God actually stands for can be detrimental to their understanding of good and evil. Some may even think that some of the evil they do is good and that they will be ultimately ok because all have to do is proclaim to be a Christian. The sad truth is that God is simply becoming a "fad", a bracelet that the most popular of us wear simply to "fit in". In my eyes, what's really dying are God's teachings, values, and morals. What's most unfortunately diminishing is his meaning.