Learn by Topic: Fear

Myopia in the Modern World

To a disturbing degree, Modern Man has become blinded by science.  In a few generations technological advances have dramatically changed how humans live.  Today, Man in the developed world lives with sensory overload: media (movies, television, internet, video games, music) and ever-advancing technology (computers, smartphones, gadgets).  Men have become fascinated with shiny things, myopic with short attention spans, idolizing the material.

This modern myopia has resulted in the loss of a sense of the Divine.  One clear example of modern myopia is pervasive use of the word ‘awesome’.  The mundane or trivial is routinely labeled as ‘awesome’.  But when everything becomes ‘awesome’, nothing is ‘awesome’.  The First Commandment declares that only God is to be worshiped and warns against worshiping false idols; becoming blinded by material things and using sacred words to describe the mundane is a form of idolatry. “Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God” (CCC 2113).

Seeing Clearly – The True Definition of Awesome (more…)