The world has changed more in the last hundred years than in all past historical eras combined, and there can little doubt that our American society has moved away from traditional religious worship and practices in this most recent time period. The average age of those who regularly attend church services has increased and the younger generation often shows a lack of respect or open disdain for all things religious. There is skepticism about God and religion that is prevalent everywhere, and recent sex abuse scandals involving clergy of Christian churches does not bode well for a recovery of a God-centered morality. In addition, continuing religious wars throughout the world do little to improve these negative attitudes and increase respect for and adherence to the Ten Commandments. All in all, it can be said that we live in an age when many people have no fear of retribution by God for moral decisions they make and that the majority in our culture choose their morality based on a "life without God." Philosophers of recent times give little or no credence to God as the determinent of personal values and morality or as an influence on people. The loss of God has affected values and morality in both positive and negative ways. This essay will examine the good and bad outcomes of this shift and in the conclusion will state my personal views on today's morality, a morality that is without God's influence an in need of repair. .
In a positive and idealistic sense, the loss of God has made man the master of his own ethical system and moral being; the creator and judge of his own morality. Existentialist philosophers such as Sartre have found this freedom invigorating, empowering, and most welcome. The old beliefs in superstition, mystery, transcendence, and the sense that things are out of human hands have been replaced by more freedom and an opening of the mind to the advances of science.
