Catholic's Question

cyn·i·cism (sn-szm) ……… DEFINED
n.
1. An attitude of scornful or jaded negativity, especially a general distrust of the integrity or professed motives of others: the public cynicism aroused by governmental scandals.
2. A scornfully or jadedly negative comment or act: “She arrived at a philosophy of her own, all made up of her private notations and cynicisms” (Henry James).

Cynicism In Politics / Religion

I have always believed there was a certain amount of hypocrisy and cynicism in everyone. Being aware of those traits and limiting them is very important if you want to have respect and be open minded to the truth, to truthful things. The world creates cynics and one place that is apparent in the United States (and very likely around the world) is in politics, in government. Finally, after daily bombardment from media and acquaintances, friends, family we become very frustrated, cynical. The self-interest of the politician is greater than the service to the people he promised before the election. Looking good is paramount. Along these and similar lines many become cynics of anything political and this is very logical. Religion may be the leader in creating cynics. Here is the problem: God is incorrectly associated with religions that in truth He abhors and people become cynical of God and His existence. Thus being cynical of religion is logical but of God is more a case of mistaken identity.

Cynicism Cloaks The Truth You Need

The modern world of the 2010’s has become a strange place and it has occurred very gradually. This should be a time of enlightenment and people as a result of science and the many gadgets around us might actually believe there is enlightenment. But cynicism, cruelty, crudeness, and a trashing of the values from the past that indeed had value make this an age of despair, hopelessness and yes cynicism. There is tremendous envy, disloyalty, selfishness and greed. So man grows further from the truth about life. Religion has played a big part in the current situation as religion has been filled with all the malady’s just mentioned. To many religion is not to be trusted and this seems to just be good common sense. The unfortunate conclusion is that what people see as religion has nothing to do with God. There is truth in religion but it is scarce.

Elijah

If you read the story of Elijah at one point he is also despairing, crying out that he is the only one who really cares – it seems everyone has abandoned God, the true God and created their own gods. Being a prophet of God, he knows this is true and yet his efforts for God seem to have had little or no net value.

Above is a depiction of Elijah in the wilderness, from there he travels 40 days and nights to Mount Horeb and seeks shelter in a cave. Here he tells God that he is the only one left as faithful and they seek to kill him. Even Elijah who had experienced the power God many times in many powerful ways has been beaten down. God sends him out of the cave to continue to serve Him.

Believing Without Understanding

The world today is not much different than in the time of Elijah as it seems there are very few who love God, the God of heaven. Today as in those days people love their life, and seek to have all they can possibly have and out of that attitude many suffer.
One might believe that people do not like to be deceived and yet when it comes to life and its purpose most do not question the lie if it aligns with or helps them obtain what they want. Like Elijah, one can get pretty cynical when their efforts to point out truth are rejected for the very weakest of reasons. It is not acceptable to “throw in the towel.”
The world today is in the dark ages of morality and young people receive a constant barrage of deceit in relation to what is important. The mass media has agenda’s and they favor a different society, really a godless society. There is only one reason that life matters. Life is not about gaining all you can during your lifetime but something quite different.

The Silent Conspiracy

On the other side of the coin, the world has grown cynical of God’s existence and largely ignore God as the God of the bible. The problem with such cynicism is that evidence, good clear thinking does not matter. Anything that appears to support your cynicism just adds to your evidence pile. This pile has no solid foundation and there are just weak layers upon weak layers and it does not matter. We live in a world where everything points to a designer and where a logical examination of scripture points to God and you would think due to the propaganda there was not even such a possibility. The propaganda is not like a conspiracy but an unspoken desire of the masses to think, believe, and hope their is no god. Certainly, not the most unthinkable thing that God is the God of the bible. Religion with its doubts, variation in beliefs, and history of deceit and cruelty is just the icing on the cake or excuse for a world that generally rejects God and especially the God of the Bible. So we have the perfect storm, well not quite perfect because everyone dies and with them will die their belief, their supposition that existence ends. Then there will be no cynicism and the most difficult thing may be how you allowed yourself to be blinded to the truth. In some way or another you will recognize your pride and how it kept you from a successful ending. Truly, life has no real meaning if there is no existence beyond this life. The cynicism may be very strong in your life but you owe it to yourself and then potentially to others to find the truth. You will be amazed how much evidence, how complete your knowledge can be of God’s purpose. God allows this rejection of Him because it is the test, the test that determines the eternity of each person. Indeed, we do not live in an age of enlightenment in the only area that really counts – the purpose of life and being successful eternally.