On Our Dehumanization and Rejecting God

We are not much different from Boxer from the story: Animal Farm. “I will work harder!”

As we pause and evaluate man’s position in world history, it won’t be difficult to see that civilization is experiencing the peak of psychological distress; both as a society and as individuals. When speaking of the etiology of psychological disorders, I always come back to the theory of human needs by Erich Fromm.  We, as human beings, have basic needs to satisfy. Do check yourself out base on these needs and maybe this can give you the answer as to why you’re feeling low or why you are feeling empty.  It shows that you have been frustrated on one or more of these needs:

  1. We have a need to know who we truly are (Identity)
  2. We have a need to connect with others (Relation)
  3. We have a need to belong to a group or community (Rootedness)
  4. We have a need to rise above challenges and sufferings (Transcendence)
  5. We have a need for variation and adventure (Excitation)
  6. We have a need for constancy and consistency in our reality (Frame of Orientation)

As I reflect on these human needs, the more I see that society is failing to satisfy these and thus, we are technically going through the state of dehumanization.  Through the frustration of basic human needs, we cope by accepting lesser and lesser levels of satisfactions.  This process is happening as we speak; so if nothing is done, don’t be surprised when we suddenly find ourselves normalizing eating bugs and drinking cockroach milk!  We were already guilted out of eating animal meat, what’s going to stop the world from making us unworthy to eat vegetables?  We are slowly becoming less and less human, why are we still surprised that mental disorders are on the rise?  Depression, suicide, divorce, addictions, crimes, and even apostasy are at an all time high simply because our level of humanity has reached an all-time low.

Have you observed the decreasing levels of quality human contact?  We become more and more stuck with our devices and screens that we communicate, we hold classes, we go to dates through these devices! Heck, we even have tech moguls who are aiming to keep us prisoners living inside virtual worlds! What about the absurd vision of using AI robots to be used for counselling?  Are we now going to learn from a machine how it is to be human?

This image is from the series Black Mirror. One of their best episodes entitled: “15 Million Credits”

If the world cannot get us imprisoned inside virtual worlds, what about getting us stuck in other worlds such as the rat race? In almost any society, we are made to run in circles working 60 hours a week just so we can make ends meet!  Tell me, where is the humanity in that?

As the world turns away from God’s word, things become more and more relative and confusing. As Biblical definitions and structures are abandoned and called “old fashioned”, being progressive means allowing the old structured to be tainted by nuances. Through this ‘progress’, the concept of sexuality becomes warped, good and evil are interchanged, and now, even the very foundation of humanity is shaken.

So what does it mean to be human?

We can start by admitting that we don’t know how to live as one.
Jesus came so that we may have life and have it more abundantly – this is what Christ came to offer: our humanity. He personally came here to show us what a human being should be. The Person who is 100% God and 100% Man gave clear instructions and even commandments on being human and He mercifully summarized it as love.  This is what it means to be human: it is to Love one another.  Now, how can we love if we’re stuck in the rat race or busy debating the definition of what a woman is?

Man has always been focused on SELF. Click here for the article: Why is The Forbidden Fruit Forbidden?

The world is here to go against anything instituted by God; hence, if The Lord shows us true humanity, the world and its ways are designed to lie about those truths. The world and its ways aim to dehumanize people.
The world seeks to ‘conform’ us to its image of what it wants a man to be (a robotic slave running in endless circles of meaninglessness).  It’s a far cry to what The Creator meant us to be: we were supposed to be the carriers of God’s image. Look where we are now. How did we even get to this point?

I submit to you that the world around us seek to dehumanize us. To subjugate and insult the very image of God (If you still believe that. Remember what they’ve been trying to tell you by shoving the lie called evolution throughout our impressionable childhood brains? That you’re cousins of monkeys?) To this world, we are nothing more than animals to be herded, tagged, and experimented on.

 

I am come that they might have life,
and that they might have it more abundantly.
John 10:10

I am the way, the truth, and the life:
John 14:6

Jesus came to show us what a human being is and the world responded by nailing Him on the cross.  Are we still surprised that we are herded like animals to the slaughter?

Do you still think that His words are no longer relevant today?  Do you believe that the human race can progress as true human beings without His instructions? Without His wisdom?

Do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
that by testing you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12:2