Where Has the Wonder Gone?

Believing in God gives me a great sense of wonder. I see the world through supernatural eyes (symbolically speaking), recognizing there are things beyond the mere material. I know angels exist and assist people unseen. I know Jesus walked this earth with miracles flowing from Him like a river of love for those He touched. I know He was murdered, and rose again in a new, resurrected, eternal, “walking-through-walls” kind of body! WOW! The wonder in that alone is something I can spend long moments pondering. What really boggles my mind, and is something I believe I will never grasp for all of eternity (which will keep the wonder alive), is how God is a Triune person who has existed for all time—the only “Uncreated Creator” of everything. Now if that doesn’t fill your mind with awe, I am afraid you’ve lost your sense of imagination!

All the access we have today to view anything (online) has not brought us closer to this reality. In fact, it’s made us loose a sense of wonder in things unseen. Sadly, the world is full of people who have lost their sense of imagination. Click To Tweet With the rush of new technologies gaining rapid access into our daily lives, digital images replace our own. We used to read more often because there was nothing competing with a good book. In the act of reading, our brains create images and spark creativity. But today, we can watch anything online, from video games to You Tube to porn. (Porn has completely removed the sense of awe regarding the sexual act. In fact, studies are showing it actually causes harm to a normal, healthy sex life.¹) We’re more entertained than ever before, and yet we’re unhappier. I don’t have to quote statistics for you—the rate of random violent behavior toward innocent people alone is enough to realize there are too many messed up people among us. Suicide rates are up along with the use of anti-depressants. Why?

I have a theory. It’s not anything I will back up with research or academic sources. It’s just from my observation and general studies I’ve been doing the past several years. I think we’ve lost our wonder in some ways because society has elevated science socially to the status of the only “truth tellers.” Don’t get me wrong—I love science for its practical applications. This computer I am typing on is great, and the advances in medicine and technology is unsurpassed. Where I am troubled with science, however, is the area where it has spilled over into our social constructs, becoming practically an orthodox belief in itself. This is called Scientific Naturalism, and it has shaped our culture’s view of how the world really isn’t. It’s says the only reality is empirical, or what you can test through the five senses. I also have a problem with science and its insistence on the evolutionary theory being the only possibility for the origin of life (based on naturalism which is biased against anything ‘supernatural’). Naturalism says truth is only found by the scientific method.

For years now, scientists, or the “new priests,” have told us that we’re the product of random chance through evolutionary mutations. Everything is boiled down to material existence. Science tells us that love is merely a biochemical response toward another person for the sole purpose of procreating; consciousness is also a merely biochemical reaction that does not survive death. You have no soul; when you’re gone, you simply cease to exist. So… “eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die!” (1 Cor. 15:32.) This snowballed into a mindset that there is no real meaning in life except what you create for yourself—your pursuit of the “right to happiness” (whatever that entails). Is it any ‘wonder’ then why people act as they do? They live for the pleasure, indulging in things they think will make them happy since that’s supposedly all there is to life.

Where has the wonder gone? It’s gone to the meaningless existence of pleasure seeking because we’ve been indoctrinated to believe the material world is all that exists. The ironic thing about this Naturalism, however, is that many people find their “happy” by doing things this materialistic worldview says should not even exist—altruistic behaviors. Altruism does not fit the Theory of Evolution’s motto of “survival of the fittest” — it merely shows a selfless concern for the well being of others. It’s unselfish. It’s expressed by giving to others less fortunate, serving people in careers that benefit people, like medicine or teaching. Others are altruistic with the talents they’ve been given: some perform in the arts simply because it brings others great joy. When done for the sole purpose of creating beauty (not because someone wants to get rich), these things are altruistic in motive. A famous line that comes from Dostoevsky’s novel, The Idiot, is often quoted: “Beauty will save the world.” It’s attributed to the main character, Prince Myskin. This prince serves as a Christ-like figure that, in the midst of his suffering, glimpsed a paradox: suffering can bring a clearer vision of beauty. It’s when we’ve lost something when we realize how precious it is, or like Christ, something must die to bring about a new, better life.

Skeptics often think those with faith in God are idiots, blindly following an age-old tradition without using rational thought. However, today with the advent of apologetics, that argument is lost. There are plenty of reasonable assessments and conclusions to the contrary. Faith is not some blind indoctrination into a myth! But if being an “idiot” is anything like Dostoevsky’s novel, I will take being an idiot any day over being a fool, for a fool says in his heart “there is no God” (Psalm 14:1). But the fools are without excuse. Romans 1:19-20 says “…what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” Can you look at the beauty of the natural world, from the colors of a sunset to the fragrance of a rose, and tell me that’s random? If you do, your wonder is gone.

My wonder has only blossomed since becoming a Christian at 25 years old (having being raised a secular humanist). I marvel at the wonderful mysteries of God’s invisible qualities. God has invited us to know Him, to ‘wonder’ in His eternal power and divine nature, to never stop using our imaginations to create under His guidance since we are made in His image. We can have this eternal life in Jesus Christ. Those who don’t believe in God have suppressed the truth, and God has allowed their minds to become depraved, doing what should not be done (Romans 1:28). Look at the results of this kind of thinking (v.29): envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossip, slander, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, boastful; inventing ways of doing evil; disobeying their parents; no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.

It seems hopelessness has replaced wonder today as we watch as humanity slide into despair. It doesn’t have to be this way! Wonder is found in the supernatural, the wonderful, mind-blowing mysteries of different dimensions, where our three-dimensions are expanded into numerous planes of existence—eternity—where time is not counted by minutes but by moments in God’s presence. Open up your sense of awe to the reality that there are things unseen, that God really does love and know you personally! You will be enjoying His divinity forever in a place where the sands of time stop slipping into the hourglass.

1. ^{https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/inside-porn-addiction/201408/how-porn-really-affects-relationships}