The problem today is that modern man, supposing himself to have been emancipated from ancient myths and the service of the gods, has fallen prey to the most powerful and deceptive myth of all time, the myth that there are no gods, that all things can be explained through physical science. If something that requires no justification may be called an 'absolute,' the modern world, which claims that everything is relative, does, in fact, worship very large number of ' absolutes.' . . . There are blind Evolution, clear-sighted Orthogenesis, benevolent Progress, and others . . . It is however not important for us to realize that mankind is doomed to live more and more under the spell of a new scientific, social, and political mythology, unless we resolutely exorcise these befuddled notions whose influence on modern life is becoming appalling . . . For when gods fight among themselves, men have to die.
Modern culture is just as much religiously rooted as any.
The fact that modern man has conceived himself otherwise does nothing to change the situation. For Christians, the price of failing to recognize the religious roots of modern culture is to serve the gods of that culture without realizing it. The reason why not only individual life is related to the service of some god but culture also has religious roots is that human life is plural as well as singular, community life as well as individual life. North American people have become very individualistic in their view of life, in part perhaps because of frontier experience. Whatever the cause, it is difficult for us to form a very clear picture of the importance of plural or community life.