Creation (and Personalism) vs Materialism (and Impersonalism)

In the last three centuries or so we've seen the voyage from the Personal to the Impersonal.

- the rejection of Creation for the fool's gold of Materialism has had many negative consequences. One of the great themes that we can see played out is the descent from Personalism into the void of Impersonalism. This process has affected every aspect of human life.

- We can even define Humanism as the move from Personalism to Impersonalism. We can see the expression of this in all things, in all areas of life.

- The examples are manifold; The Personal God (who created all things) is replaced with a Deist (impersonal) god, and this god has been replaced by no god. (i.e. Materialism.)

- The Providence of God was replaced by Natural law, and this has been replaced by law.... and now by legislation. God's moral law (based on god's character has been replaced by morality, and now by civil utility. (So called.)

- this process has gone on in all areas of man's life; the personal becoming the impersonal. (Secular writers sometimes call this, if they bother to address the subject at all, the desacralization of civilization. This misses the point. We don't see the sacred becoming secular; we see the Personal becoming impersonal.)

- the ground of being used to be the Creator and his providential governance of the universe; the ground of being now is the void... the random motion of sub-atomic particles... (or if you prefer, fluctuations in the void.)

- Language used to be founded upon the character and wisdom of God. Words referred to (created) universals. Now words are merely arbitrary symbols, or sounds meant to deceive the naive. Words mean what the political elite say they are... or so we are told. (They mean one thing in the morning and another thing after tea.)

- man as the image of god is replaced by 'man' as an animal... and then as mindless animal... and then by mindless gene carrier... and then by man as a bag of chemicals.

- special revelation is replaced by something called human reason. (Which no one can sensibly define.)

- ethics and morality is replaced with psychology... and then with pills.

- love is replaced with sex.

- art is replaced with mass produced entertainment. (Distractionism for androids.)

- truth is replaced with pr and political hucksterism... (If words don't mean anything you'd be a fool to tell the truth.)

- the family, community and church are replaced by the state.

- responsibility is replaced with the compassion of social workers who know that no one is to blame for anything... as we're all just matter in motion.

- creation is replaced with some kind of explosion we're told... (A perfect symbol for the irrationalism that results from embracing Materialism.)

Notes;
a. this is a vast subject, and it would take a book to deal with it adequately.
b. in our day this move is 'exasperated' by the move from country to city. Man now lives an anonymous existence in a mass society, in an increasingly impersonal civilization.
- the country is replaced by the city...
- owning property is replaced by a ticket to the welfare state...
- play is replaced by spectatorism... (A deservedly ugly term for puerile behavior.)
c. what does all this mean? It means the death of man. There is no room for a personal man in an impersonal universe. (If you think that's extreme, check out the internet and you'll find people who insist that 'we need to become machines...' One wonders who this 'we' is.)