Modernity essay

The best way to define modernity is the relation between culture movements. It can be argued that it is the quality or the best way of doing something. The activity that is being carried has to be improved in a given way as compared to the initial way it used to be done, hence the way which has been employed must be efficient and lean towards the positive side that is it has to bring good results (Drane 1997). In these the improvement is from the way something was being done on the pre modernity era where people had believed that majority relied on the traditional methods of doing things which was ineffective and not productive.

There are various characteristics that distinguish what modernity stand for in the modern society. The status of a person is determined by his or her level of performance that is his capability and potential he can achieve which is opposite of the traditional where the status was fixed and identified at birth. The behavior of a person in the modern society is greatly determined by the set rules that have been established by that country rather than strict adherence to the customs and culture of a given community. The social structure of a given individual was basically based on the principle of equity and equality that is all people are treated the same without any form of biasness unlike where it was identified through the hierarchy of the individual.

 

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The relationship on modernity is basically based on the secondary relationships which dominates that of the primary. These means individuals do not rely on the kinship ties or within the family circle but extends to outer circle where one identifies with the other people with whom they are not related (Gunton 1992).The role that an individual plays in given society is identified and respected because it is through it that the individual assists the community and the nation other than being identified through his physical presence identification which was given a great role in social relations. People are innovative and creative and they are discovering new things which tend to make their life easy, for instance innovation s of new machinery, equipment’s that are meant to replace human labor rather having a fixed mind that is conservative.

The growth and development of the economy is basically based on the level of technology because it is through technology that production and output of goods and services will be high thus boosting the living standards of the people in a given country. The modern society  tends to be rational where each one is supposed to think and act on their  own without being suppressed ,coerced by any other person rather than people relying and basing their  believes on myths which cannot be tested nor verified scientifically (Sampson 1994). The society is being merged in the constitutional profile. In summary we would say that modernity is improved, efficient, scientific based way of doing things on the strong basis of rational and independent ways that can be proved scientifically.

Though modernity has really improved human life in so many ways than one have to be strongly against it, for instance better health services, improved means of transport and communication, improved production within the country of good and services among many others has all been as result of modernity. It has also brought emerging issues in the world at large most of which tend to conflict with Christian way of living.

The Negative Effects that Modernity Has Caused

Morality is the ability to distinguish between right and wrong and then standing for what an individual sees as the right action to be done. There is a very strong connection between Christianity and morality because both stood for what was right as something wrong was seen as evil or sin as stated in the biblical teaching (Kettle 2011). After modernity took root over the world people no longer uphold their moral values, people have loved money and sought for it in a crude and unfair manner. There has been a high level of oppression and slavery of people in the name of money. The good respect that used to withstand among humans is no longer in the hearts and minds if people, individual can do anything to get money and with money one do anything even the unthinkable because of power and money that are in his possession.

The issues in regard to sexuality have changed at all. People no longer value sex as a gift that is given by God. It should only be enjoyed during marriage by the married couples. Instead issues of sex before marriage has been rampart among the youth where fornication has be seen as a normal thing that has to be enjoyed by them in a normal way .outside wedlock affairs where people no longer remain faithful to each other even for the married couples who are supposed to do so these has interfered with many weddings that have already been done.

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The issue of emergence of same sex has been incorporated in some societies who strongly believe that things have changed hence need for them to change too. These have brought conflicting issues as the bible stands for opposite sex union in marriage. The gays and lesbianism has been lawfully accepted in some countries hence people have accepted it as part of their day to day life .Wedding of same sex has been done inside the holy places the church and couples have received certificate of  confirmation of the two being couples and hence entitled to live together.

The modernity issue has resulted to divorce which is allowed and accepted by all nations and even done in the church which is a conflicting issue because God stated clearly in the book of Genesis that whatever God has put together no separation is supposed to emerge thereafter nor is there any other man on earth to untie that covenant (Wells 1994). The issue of abortion has been as result of modernity these are where it has been legalized on the condition that the mother’s life is danger, but the question is this according to the bible doctrines? These have brought conflicts with Christianity because some have done it deliberately with the cooperation of the medical practitioners because of their greed for money. These have resulted to loss of many babies who have been conceived in the name of unwanted pregnancy through abortion.

The argument on where life begins has been ignored too in the above concept, because modernity argues that it begins at birth and not at conception has been clearly stated in the biblical doctrines this has resulted to the neglect by many mothers after conception to have dignity and sense of human vale to nurture the inside womb instead it reads to its termination

The dignity and respect of human life as in the biblical teaching is no valued. Mercy killing where medical practitioners are said to have compassion of human suffering hence ending up terminating their life’s, to relieve them of the pain they are undergoing through. This is against the biblical teaching which is against the termination of human life. Modernity has affected the construction of individuals self-sense of identity resulting to failure of individuals to identify who they are and what dignity they are to stand for. These have been caused by issues of urbanization where different people interact together making an individual to fail to identify and nurture their true identity.

Work which was ordained and blessed by god is no longer upheld. People no longer value work that diminishes them on the society but rather have developed a sense of pride within oneself. These have finally resulted to despise attitude upon those doing manual and petty jobs like shoe cleaning in the society. These has created a class of people and failure of most people neglecting to do work that they have been called by God to do, simply because of the attitude that has been caused by the issue of modernization.

Through modernity science has tried to compete with religion. It has tried as much as they can to demonstrate that religion is totally inadequate in terms of the explanations that it gives regarding to the reality of nature. Most of daily occurrence has been surrounded by a lot of mystery which demands explanation and science has been relied in proving most of these phenomena. They have tried to give explanations that conflicts biblical teaching. Science has tried to proof that God never exist and no way could such a being of divine nature be interested in dwelling on the earth. They further argue that if religion has got value then it is for the purpose of human inspiration.

The modernity has tried to convince people that they were created in a way to achieve personal development to the maximum level of their potentiality. They tend to believe that religion is the stumbling block for self-development and fulfillment. The negative effects have been extended to the church in Europe why they have had massive impacts to the believers and some of them include, Division of the church because of emergence of two sides, one of which strongly believes that science is true and should be embraced and the other side which strongly believes in the teaching and biblical doctrines of the bible. It has created dilemma on the interpretation of key issue in the world for instance issues pertaining to where life begins, whether it is at conception or at birth. These has created two opposing side in the church hence resulted to creation of many church dominions. They split and form new dominion with news names simply because of different understanding that has been brought about by an issue of modernity.

It has affected the church in that because of greed for power and money, Christian leaders have not stood for what is right because their interest has moved to earthly things rather than standing for the truth. Some have quite against condemning acts that has been done by their church members because of the feat that some members will have to go away and by so doing affect the contributions they have to make and tithes they offer for they will have to with them. The spreading from Europe to Africa has occurred hence the church in Africa too practices what they don’t believe but what they see is being done by their founders back in Europe. The basis of their teaching is not the word of God but what their founders believe is right, these has denied them opportunities of being rational thinkers the way they are supposed to be.

The greed for money and power has been manifested in African church where people use evil means to get positions in the church. They accept on the basis of calling, merit or any other suitably accepted criteria. Pastors have fought in the pulpits for the sake of leadership seats. Some people have started church as business because they think church will bring a lot of profit to them. This simply means that the reason for them opening the church is to get money and not preach the gospel. The emergence of devil worshiping has been motivated by people’s strong desire for earthly materials and power. These has made majority of people to be part and parcel of the changes of modernization thus making them to join satanic worshiping to gain earthly glory and not the heavenly glory.

Thus in summary, I could have to say that though the modernization has brought many advantages the negative part of it has spread even to holy places in Europe and finally transferred to other continents in the world, who have simply decided not to do things the way they are done as per the biblical doctrine but just to adhering to the rules of the headquarters (Walker 1996).  The issue of modernity has created both positive and negative effects which the church has shaped on the culture of modernity.

The Positive Effects of Modernity

The church has supported modernity for it has improved the life expectancy of human being as compared to previous centuries for instance through better and improved medical care, innovation of  new medical equipment’s like the life supporting machine has really helped in saving of people life’s .These would otherwise be lost if they were not in place. The church has also supported modern means of communication that has been put in place to as a result of improved science and technology (Sampson 1994). The innovation of the printing media ,computer and use of internet,  the radio which majority of the do have with them as it is affordable, the use of television, the telephone, fax and mobiles phones among many others has really resulted to marking a step forward in terms of the economy of most countries.

The church has also found it easier to use these means of communication to preach the gospel or over the world. There are many programs that the church has established in the televisions and gone ahead to establish their own channels like the family television station where they have also used to spread the gospel, further some religious information has been posted in the internet for free for people to read. There have been increased of the number of printed materials like the bible, gospel journals and articles that have been put into place to facilitate evangelization process s to most of the parts all over the world.

The church has also been in support of modern transport like the railway, roads construction to remote areas has really helped in gospel and evangelization process all over the world. The church initially had a challenge more especially in Africa where the interior areas was inaccessible in the 19 century, there was no clearly defined means of transport posing a challenge as the missionaries were unable to spread the gospel to those areas because of lack of modernity (Newbigin 1996). The natural resources have conserved because in the era of modernity people no longer value   over reliance of fuel as a means of fuel or energy. Better and efficient means of energy have been put into place like wind energy, solar energy, geothermal energy, hydroelectric power energy and biomass.  These have reduced too much dependence on wood fuel thus curbing to some extent problem reacted with environment change and degradation as a result of cutting of trees.

The business sector has been improved greatly as a result of modernity and the church has tried as much as it can to give support in these business modernity sectors. The world has been transformed to a global village where business people are much aware of the products being sold and what price they are being sold hence enabling the buyers and sellers to know the best market possible they can sell and buy their products. There has also been innovation where instead of people having to incur a lot to go to various markets all over the world it has create online business which has also enabled buyers and sellers to buy and sell products online.

The quality of goods and services has also improved in the business as a result of science and technology .The industries and factories have been set into place. They involve the processing of goods and services from the raw materials bringing forth high quality products into place. The farmers have been able to improve their productivity through use of modern means of farming like fertilizes and tractors in place the output has been increased.

The church has also supported modernity because it has uplifted living standards of the people resulting to better and more comfortable life. These are true because even house hold chores have become easier as a result of advanced appliances being put into place. There has been an improvement in the level of literacy all over the world as people have been able to know how to read and write a view which the church has greatly supported. Modernity has made the spread of the gospel easier as people are able to read the bible on their own and be able to understand and interpret of what it says, people have also familiarized with the language of communication.

Though the church has supported modernity for its positive development and overall improvement of life’s of people. It has also brought many negative effects.  The negative that have emerged as a result of the church supporting modernity include, pollution of the environment the various human activities in the world like urbanization, establishment of factories and industries which emit CFCs into the atmosphere has resulted to destruction of ozone layer hence the penetration of the harmful wavelengths from the sun which has caused mutations, killings of body cells upon their penetration and caused mutagens into the world.

The clearing of vegetation for human settlement has resulted to loss of bio diversity and loss of the scenic beauty of the environment these has caused the process of soil erosion to occur at rampart levels causing loss of fertility.

The global warming causing an increase of the overall temperatures on the earth has all been the cause of modernity which the church has supported. These have caused very high temperatures during summer causing aridity of most of the areas. It has also caused heavy rainfall which causes floods that sweep away both plant and animals and properties away. People have indulged into luxuries where they have misused their money on doing things that could have otherwise not done for instance people do support wresting bullfighting gambling all because they have got money.

Increased stress and tension in peoples life’s has been rampart as people are too much worried about the earthly things which after it all will have to pass. There has been an increase in selfishness level in people’s hearts where they are concerned of themselves and not having a single thought of their neighbors. Modernity has resulted to loss of moral values which were initially in various communities (Sampson 1994). These been caused as result of change of what people used to believe in eroding of the culture and introducing the western culture which has resulted to lack of respect in dressing codes and loss of sense of humanity. In summary modernity is a good idea but the impacts it has have to be looked onto and necessary steps taken thereafter.