“And the people bowed and prayed to the 28 neon god they made"
美佳之窗 His Window 89（ Jan–Mar 2020 ）
Text by Phillip Sim
“The Sound of Silence” is a folk rock song by Simon and Garfunkel released in 1965. It’s catchy chorus “hello darkness my old friend” is well known and repeatedly appeared in memes nowadays. The song is about how people are gradually attracted to the limelight and then separated from one another - a sign of broken relationships. As quoted, one of the duos, Garfunkel once summed up the song’s meaning as “the inability of people to communicate with each other, not particularly internationally but especially emotionally, so what you see around you are people unable to love each other.”[1]
One part of the lyrics mentioned that people “bowed and prayed to the neon god they made”. This reminded me of a story from the Book of Exodus: just as Moses went up to Mount Sinai to receive the Commandments from the Lord, the Israelite were getting restless. They built a golden calf statue to worship, as mentioned in Exodus 32 verse 1:
Exodus 32 NIV [2]:
1. When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”
The few times I read this story I could not fathom the reason behind their actions. We are in a generation where God is not visible to the naked eyes and we do not have the company of prophets the way the Israelites had with Moses. But as for the Israelites didn’t the Lord himself recently bring them out of their sufferings while laying terror to strike the Egyptian Pharaoh? Those accounts should be sufficient to convince the people who experienced it first-hand that God is here with us. However, at the turn of the back, the Israelite seems to have forgotten everything that God has done, and on top of that they created a statue to worship. It was perplexing for me trying to comprehend the justifications of doing it.
When I came to the Book of Romans, in Chapter 1, Verse 22 - 23, I realized that what happened at Exodus 32 is indeed happening around us.
Romans 1 NIV [3]:
22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
Today individualism and materialism have conquered the world as our standard of living improves. Many parts of the world have recovered from the aftermath of the world war. As technological advancement enabled better lives, mankind seek further pleasure via commercialized goods and services. Garment has evolved from covering body to fashion statement. Same as food, from nourishment to gustatory sensation; and house, from shelter to architectural and interior design. Beyond the basic needs, we expanded and expended our effort and resources into social media, games and hobbies, and other socio-activities.
It comes to a point that when we look back at our lives, our activities are either to pursue more earthly belongings and/ or to seek for personal pleasures. In other words, we are worshiping a new form of god. For the lack of a proper name, this god is created by mankind to satisfy mankind’s need to pursue (worship) something which can be seen and touched from the flesh. We consume, and we create more to be consumed. To further propagate consumerism, marketing strategies are tailored on one objective – customized individual consumer’s experience, where your desires are satisfied at an individual level in which products and services are designed and delivered the way you desire.
Individualism and materialism are the new gods mankind created and worshipped. History is repeating itself, and here we can see the resemblance of Exodus 32 happening right now. In other words, the story in Exodus 32 is relatable to us now, as Romans 1 has reminded us that people are bound to make images “look like mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles”. Even more than that, we are masking it under the justification to progress lives.
Perhaps it is time for us to reflect what we are worshipping - God the Heavenly Father or the god we created?
PHILLIP SIM
Hanging out around the digital forums, peeking into the virtual lives of many, also known as lurker.