A Web of Our Illusions
“His folly shall not please
him, and his trust shall be
like the spider’s web.”
(Job 8.14)
The Myth of
“Man
as Desperately Seeking God”
If
the World Wide Web
is any indication of our deepest
desires,
then consider
the following snapshot
taken in 2005
and 2021?
A simple search in the form
of a one word query
reveals a good deal more of
the topography of the human
condition than any statistical
analysis of the numbers. It
is a terrain mapped out with
a very clearly defined epicenter
— the human genitalia — and
an equally clearly defined periphery:
God.
Consider the following
results from 8 such queries
in Google in 2005 and May 2021
— the numbers will have increased
since:
YEARS
|
2005:
|
2021:
|
Search term:
|
|
|
sex:
|
350 million pages
|
5,380,000,000 pages
(5 billion, 380
million pages)
|
gay:
|
128 million
|
2,040,000,000
(2 billion, 40 million
pages)
|
porn:
|
90 million
|
3,940,000,000
(3 billion, 940
million pages)
|
lesbian:
|
57 million
|
1,940,000,000(1
billion, 940 million
pages)
|
|
|
|
God:
|
129 million pages
|
2,490,000,000 (2
billion, 490 million
pages)
|
Jesus:
|
49 million
|
842,000,000
(0 billion,
842 million
pages)
|
Bible:
|
46 million
|
619,000,000 (0 billion,
619 million
pages)
|
Catholic:
|
29 million
|
452,000,000(0 billion,
452 million
pages)
|
Protestant:
|
4.5 millon
|
76,100,000 (0 billion,
76 million
pages)
|
Jewish:
|
32 million
|
301,000,000 (0 billion,
301 million
pages)
|
What
does this mean?
-
468% more people
were looking for porn
than are looking for
Jesus
-
636% more people
were looking for porn
than are looking for the
Bible
-
216% more people
were looking for sex
than are looking for
God
-
242% more people
were looking for gays
than for Jesus
-
869% more were looking
for sex than are
looking for the Bible
-
639% more were looking
for sex than are
looking for Jesus
-
More people were
looking for lesbians
than for Jesus or
the Bible
Do the math, and you arrive
at a terribly dismaying conclusion
that flies in the face of the
optimistic but terribly naive
perception that man is desperately
seeking God.
Man, it would appear, by and
large is not searching
for God. He, she, are, with
stunning alacrity, searching
for each others genitals, or
their own. I understand that
this is not a polite conclusion.
It is, however, the ineluctable
conclusion. For its audacity,
it is nevertheless politely
put.
How can this be? Why is it so?
The Summum Bonum
God does not necessarily feel
good. Sex does. To what, we
must ask, are we constantly
urged by our priests, our preachers,
pastors, counselors, teachers,
social workers? To feel
good.” It is the
summum bonum (the greatest
good) understood as “feeling
good? If “feeling good” is the
highest good, then sex is the
highest expression of the good.
Not God.
Perhaps it is better put in
the form of a syllogism: Good
is understood, not as a sentiment,
still less as something moral,
but as a feeling, a physical
sensation.
-
All feeling is sensuous
in nature.
-
Orgasm is the the consummate
sensual experience.
-
Orgasm is therefore the
consummate good.
In subtle, and in not so subtle
ways, we acquire this, learn
this, from our present hedonistic
culture, and it is reinforced,
wittingly in our classrooms,
and unwittingly from our pulpits.
It is our mantra: ?God wants
me to feel good.? From that
premise we proceed through a
very reasonable and syllogistic
protocol to the conclusion that
the notion of sin can in no
way be predicated of the
good as feeling. If
it feels good, do it.
After all, God wants me to
feel good. Sex feels
good. It cannot, then, under
any circumstances be construed
as not good (i.e. sinful),
for it feels good.
The locus of the good — of the
greatest good — then, ceases
to be God, ceases to be extrinsic
to ourselves; in fact, the locus
becomes the very self — and
the highest self-expression
of the good as sensual (since
the sensual is inextricable
from the self) is, of course,
sex.
I do not argue the point. It
is quite unnecessary. We just
need look at the Web of
our creation ... and
do the math. Postmodern man
is not in search of God. He
is in search of his own apotheosis,
and it is, in a manner of speaking,
within reach; should this not
suffice, it is just a few keystrokes
away.
This Web of our illusions is
very revealing. It is an indictment
of our reluctance, even our
unwillingness, and hence our
failure — a catastrophic failure
— to articulate truth in the
face of “correct” lies we have
no wish to contend with. Our
courage went the way of our
conviction. And our conviction
went the way of the world.
We spun the Web. Would
to God that we behaved more
as men ... than spiders.
Geoffrey K. Mondello
Editor
Boston Catholic Journal
A Reader’s Responds:
I
am neither frightened or intimidated
by numbers. Facts within facts.
Often the reality is something
else... Regarding the statistics
in your article, by and large
I presume, that the pages on
sex on the net are in some way
presented towards a monetary
gain ... in other words, the
ruthless will do anything, use
anyone, in any way in order
to get money ... and sex means
money! That really is the bottom
line ... greed for money, and
no doubt much is utilized on
drugs.
Many of the sites are indicative
of sick minds ... but how much
on these sites is an enticement
to spend money? All kinds of
sexual medications, books, erotic
films, etc. etc. sex toys ...
all money and greed.
God on the other hand is not
lucrative ... His love is free,
by and large many people who
run Christian websites get very
little or no monetary return.
There is the difference! What
do you get from it...?
I am not impressed with numbers
in the least; all through history,
especially Christian history,
it has often been the minority
that was ultimately victorious!
It has often been the remnant
that turned the tide in history.
We need only look to the influence
one person can have on history:
Christ Himself, St. Paul, St.
Francis, St. Athanasius ...
all fought against overwhelming
opposition. It was often said
of the early Church Father:
“Athansius contra mundi”,
“Athansius against the world”
... and St. Athanasius prevailed!
To look at the statistics without
the Spirit can be daunting and
it reveals only part of the
truth, I think.
What you have written is good
and aimed to jolt us out of
our complacency, but it is only
one facet of the diamond of
humanity.
We must not be discouraged by
numbers. We must not let them
frighten us.
Neither do I believe for one
second that those who visit
porn sites, and the like, are
all motivated by evil and that
such things are the breadth
of their horizon. No! So many,
so many, are lured into it ...
many probably also have a longing
for God and the whole battle
is this: who will win? The flesh
or the Spirit?
It is a sickness, as is any
obsession with anything ...
but neither is it, for many,
the end of the journey. We awaken.
Life passes on and other values
come to matter.
I have never visited any of
these sites and I don't want
to, the ones I have been sent
have been disguised in e-mail,
or came to me through browser
redirections in an innocent
search. I just think it is pitiable
to see little children, women
used in such a degrading manner,
its sick ... and for what? For
money. Paying for flesh by the
pound!
If it is true that many live
for just cheap thrills in their
bodies, if they truly do not
want more, why do so many commit
suicide, do drugs, because they
are unable to face what they
have fallen into ... God help
them ...they know they should
have been more, and that there
was more, but they despaired
through the greed and evil of
others.
You may not agree with me, but
its just how my heart responds
to your editorial today.
We are enslaved as never before,
to false idols ... we are witnessing
in this time the fall, the moral
collapse of a civilization ...
we have to be reborn ... and
I trust to God's work, to His
love and mercy, and ultimately,
to His victory over all these
sad shadows.
SMB
Totally
Faithful to the Sacred
Deposit of Faith
entrusted to the Holy See
in Rome
“Scio
opera tua ... quia modicum
habes virtutem, et servasti
verbum Meum, nec non negasti
Nomen Meum”
“I
know your works ... that
you have but little power,
and yet you have kept My
word, and have not denied
My Name.”
(Apocalypse 3.8)
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