God's substitute

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Why do people seek a substitute for God?

Throughout human history, people have always searched for a higher power. Religions, philosophies and world views arise from a deep need for security, orientation and meaning. However, in modern society, many people are consciously or unconsciously moving away from God and replacing him with other things.

In the following, both the reasons for the search for a substitute for God and the consequences of these substitute actions will be examined.

God as an existential foundation

Why do people believe in God?

• Faith in God gives life a higher meaning, stability and an ultimate truth.
• Religions offer ethical guidelines for a good life.
• Faith gives hope beyond death and explains the inexplicable.
• Faith creates a sense of belonging and identity.

Man is created for God and longs for him. Without him, there remains an inner emptiness or, as the psalmist puts it in Psalm 42:2 expresses "As a deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God!"

Rejection of God and his substitutes

Why do people replace God?

Modern societies are increasingly secularized, i.e. the ties to religion are increasingly loosened or dissolved and questions of lifestyle are instead assigned to the realm of human reason. Many people are looking for alternatives to God because:

1. Scientific progress calls into question the necessity of a Creator God.
2. Individualism self-determination is placed above dependence on God.
3. Technological progress conveys the illusion that people can control everything themselves.

Man tends to replace God with something else that he thinks will give him fulfillment, even if only in the short term. This short-termism, however, leads to the fact that more and more, faster and faster, higher and higher becomes man's goal or, as Paul puts it in his letter to the Romans (Romans 1:25) "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped the creature instead of the Creator."

What do people replace God with?

For people, materialism and consumption, money and possessions, success and luxury become the highest priority. The pursuit of wealth replaces the search for God, bringing short-term satisfaction but long-term emptiness of meaning.
Matthew writes about this (Matthew 6:24) "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will cling to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!"

1. Science and rationalism offer logical explanations and empirical evidence, whereas faith is rejected as irrational. The result is the loss of human concerns and existential questions.
2. Ideologies and political systems, such as Marxism, nationalism or secular humanism - the view of man as the standard of morality and progress, without the need for a god or religious revelation - replace religious faith, while the state or party takes on the role of god, as is the case in totalitarian systems or exaggerated ideologies.
   Paslmist writes about this in Psalm 146:3 apt "Do not rely on princes, on a child of man, with whom there is no salvation!"
3. Technology and the belief in progress suggest that digitalization, AI and transhumanism can improve people. Immortality and eternal youth are even aspired to.
4. Self-realization and esotericism propagate "finding God in oneself", man elevates himself to the center or, as Timothy 3:2-4 puts it "For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, unrestrained, violent, enemies of good, 4 traitors, reckless, puffed up; they love pleasure more than God;„.

These substitute forms often only provide illusory satisfaction and do not lead to deeper, lasting fulfillment. Ultimately, people are thrown back on themselves and remain existentially unsatisfied.

Possibility of a new understanding

Instead of replacing God with material or ideological things, man could combine science and faith, because science can provide knowledge about creation, but cannot answer the ultimate questions of meaning.
Man could use material wealth with humility. Wealth per se is not bad if it is used in God's way.
Man could unite individualism with community, in that self-realization does not lead to selfishness, but to a loving relationship with others.

Matthew summarizes it in Matthew 22:37-39 summarized as follows: "And Jesus said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind'. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is comparable to it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'"

And John affirms (John 14:6) "Jesus said to him: I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me!"

God is not against progress, prosperity or knowledge, but they must not take His place.
A healthy synthesis is not to replace God, but to recognize him as the source of wisdom, love and truth.

Excursus - Striving for fulfillment

An ambitious young man who had set himself a clear goal early on: he wanted to be successful. As a child, he had often seen his family struggle financially and he vowed that he would have a better life one day. So he worked hard, graduated with top marks and got a coveted job at a renowned company. He had made it!

His job quickly became the center of his life. He was constantly available, often worked late into the night and invested all his energy in his career. Recognition from superiors, high bonuses and the prospect of a promotion gave him the feeling that he was on the right track. Friends and family were increasingly neglected. He told himself that he would have time for them later ... when he had achieved his goal.

Because he thought that he simply hadn't achieved enough yet. Once he got the next pay rise or the next promotion, then(!) he would finally feel happy, secure and fulfilled. But every time he achieved one of his goals, the satisfaction only lasted for a short while before he moved on to the next one. The thought of going higher and further had him in its grip.

One day, by chance, he met an old friend who used to be just as ambitious, but had changed remarkably. Now he seemed calm, relaxed, even content and fulfilled. So he asked him: "How do you manage to be so content? I have everything I've always wanted, but I'm still always missing something. And so I chase from one peak to the next, higher, further ..."

His friend smiled knowingly; after all, it hadn't been any different for him in the past. And so he replied: "I used to think just like you. I made my success my god. But then I realized that nothing in this world could really fulfill me unless I had God himself."

He hadn't expected that at all. Surely he hadn't become a Christian? His first reaction was therefore understandably rejection. After all, he wasn't a particularly devout person and considered religion to be a support for those who couldn't make it on their own.
But his friend's words did not let him go. He wondered whether his striving for more and more success and recognition was not actually a substitute for something more meaningful, something deeper?

If he had already known the contents of the Bible at that time, he would probably have come across Exodus 20:3 in which it says "You shall have no other gods beside me!". Hm, somehow he had made a golden calf out of his success and the recognition of his superiors and colleagues.
Or also on Matthew 6:19-21 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and rust destroy and where thieves dig and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.". Yes, money and promotions had become his treasures, his heart was set on them. But with every withdrawal from the account, the treasure melted away and had to be replenished. So off to the next summit, right?

One evening, as Paul sat in his luxurious apartment, he looked out at the city skyline and asked himself: Have I really organized my life around what matters? Or was I just chasing an empty dream?

He began to study faith more intensively, read the Bible and eventually attended a church. For the first time in his life, he realized that his search for recognition and success was only a substitute for something his soul really needed: a direct relationship with God.

Slowly, his life began to change. He consciously set boundaries in his job, took time for his family and friends and began to measure his worth in terms of more than just professional success. Instead, he found deeper fulfillment in allowing God into his life, surrendering it to Him, following His path.

He realized that nothing in this world, neither money, nor success, nor recognition could fill the hole in his heart. He had been looking for a "God substitute" all those years, but it was only when he turned to God that he found the peace he had always longed for and which he had seen in his friend as an example in the flesh.