I recently came across a noteworthy article that summarizes Google searches among Americans seeking answers to religious questions. The results are curious and reveal much about American culture in the early 21st century. Here is a brief summary of some of the salient findings:

The number one Google question in America is ?who created God?? Second is why does God allow suffering? If God is all powerful and all good, how can He allow suffering? The third most-asked question is, ?why does God hate me?? The fourth is, ?why does God need so much praise??

Two recent books explore the impact social media and sexuality issues are having on American, adolescent girls: American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers by Nancy Jo Sales and Girls and Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape, by Peggy Orenstein. Several important insights are gained from these books:

America in the 21st century seems disorderly, somewhat chaotic and rather dysfunctional. There are four major forces sweeping through American civilization all of which partially explain this disorder. Columnist David Brooks capably summarizes these four forces: 1. Global migration is leading to demographic diversity. 2. Economic globalization is creating wider opportunity but also inequality. 3. The Internet is giving people more choices over what to buy and pay attention to. 4. A culture of autonomy validates individual choice and self-determination. The Economist emphasizes the importance of both Google and Facebook in this culture of autonomy. . .

In today?s Middle East, there are two major Islamic powers striving for power and influence?Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran. This rivalry is tense and fueled by centuries of bitter hatred and competition. This rivalry is evident in Yemen, Iraq and the bitter civil war in Syria. What is the difference between these two branches of Islam? Why does it matter and how important is this difference in understanding today?s complex world?

Evangelical Christians should, by nature, be optimists.  Our hope for the future is rooted in our confidence in Christ?s return and the establishment of His kingdom (Titus 2:13).  But, because evangelicals have enjoyed such influence in American culture, it is the immediate future that causes so much anxiety.  Evangelicals no longer influence public policy, culture?s
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Important researcher and evangelical Christian, George Barna, has written: ?The Christian body in America is immersed in a crisis of biblical illiteracy. How else can you describe matters when most churchgoing adults reject the accuracy of the Bible, reject the existence of Satan, claim that Jesus sinned, see no need to evangelize, believe that good works are one of the keys to persuading God to forgive their sins, and describe their commitment to Christianity as moderate or even less firm?? Consider additional evidence Barna has surfaced of widespread biblical illiteracy in America:

Larycia Hawkins, tenured associate professor of political science at Wheaton College in Illinois, has taught at Wheaton since 2007, but, through her recent comments about Islam, has created a firestorm at this evangelical college. . . In December, Wheaton suspended her and placed her on administrative leave because her ?theological statements seemed inconsistent with Wheaton College?s doctrinal convictions.? The College explained that ?While Islam and Christianity are both monotheistic, we believe there are fundamental differences between the two faiths, including what they teach about God?s revelation to humanity, the nature of God, the path to salvation, and the life of prayer.?

On 1 December 2015, at the opening of a three-day meeting in Washington to discuss the ethics and use of gene editing, David Baltimore of the California Institute of Technology perceptively declared, ?Over the years the unthinkable has become conceivable and today we are close to being able to alter human heredity.? This meeting, called the International Summit on Human Gene Editing, was convened by the national academies of three nations?the United States, Great Britain and China. The primary focus of this meeting was to discuss whether gene editing should be used to make heritable changes to the human gene line.

Much of American culture still accepts the manger at Christmas. We still see manger scenes in church, on front lawns and on Christmas cards. But in our increasingly secular, commercial, and sexually liberated society, we keep the horizontal message of the manger but often eliminate the vertical message entirely. We like the shepherds and their lambs, but are uncomfortable with God, miracles and the incarnation. In short, the biblical worldview about Christmas is rapidly losing market share to a more secular, materialistic one that is horizontally comfortable but vertically challenged.

The Scientific Revolution of the 16th-century changed humanity?s perspective and understanding of the physical universe. At the end of the Scientific Revolution (the 17th century), Sir Isaac Newton synthesized the work of others (e.g., Galileo, Kepler, Brahe, etc.) with his own original thinking, and produced a compressive understanding of the laws of the physical world (e.g., inertia, gravity, etc.). . . But on 25 November 1915, Albert Einstein published a theory that challenged this understanding of the physical world.