We didn’t abandon religion — we just exchanged gods

I have always wrestled with a quite suspicion that secular 21st century society has outgrown the need for religion and abandoned the idea of God. But I’ve never been fully convinced.

I’ve watched the way we argue, the way we defend our causes, the way we cling to them and started to wonder if we have just replaced our traditional belief systems with new ones?

In this post, we look at this question through three different perspectives.

Durkheim: Religion is society worshipping Itself

The French sociologist, Émile Durkheim argued in his book, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life that religion is not primarily about gods. It is society worshipping itself.

When ancient tribes gathered around sacred symbols or totems, they were worshipping a representation of what they valued and cared about.

The sacred was a projection of what they collectively valued and placed at the heart of their community. Religion is man made.

If religion is society worshipping itself (or its values) what happens when society reorganises around new priorities and identities?

What happens when:

science and technology are elevated to the status of sacred scriptures?
political ideology becomes sacred boundary markers that divide believer from unbeliever?
social justice language codes becomes unquestionable?
ethnic and religious identities becomes absolute?
special causes, identities and words cannot be questioned?
traditions, symbols and loyalty tests become mandatory?

When both sides speak in moral absolutes, it divides the world into the righteous and the unrighteousness, those on the road to heaven and those headed straight to the pit of hell.

If religion is society worshipping itself, then modern politics is deeply religious. Religion just didn’t disappear. Its has now morphed into a new set of gods.

Tillich: Whatever is your ultimate concern is your god

The theologian, Paul Tillich sharpened this even further in his book, Dynamics of Faith when he wrote:

“Faith is the state of being ultimately concerned.”

Faith, in this sense, is not about believing in a particular teaching or doctrine. It is about what you treat as absolute.

Tillich then makes a profound observation:

“Whatever concerns a person ultimately becomes their god.”

Whatever.

If social justice is ultimate — it becomes your god.
If freedom is ultimate — it becomes your god.
If political power is ultimate — it becomes your god.
If pleasure is ultimate — it becomes your god.

When something becomes ultimate, it cannot be questioned. It must be defended. It must be protected at all costs. And anyone who threatens it is also a threat to you.

This is why our political conversations feel like existential battles. We are not debating policy. We are defending our ultimate concerns. We are protecting our gods, our identity and our very selves.

Jesus of Nazareth: You cannot serve two masters

Then we hear the words of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew 6:24:

“No one can serve two masters.”

He is telling us that we cannot serve two competing priorities as only one can take centre stage.

Many different things compete for our attention and we chase after them:

Economic security
Identity and recognition
Social and political stability
Meaning and purpose
Mental & emotional stability

But we can only make one our ultimate concern.

What is striking about Jesus is that he directs much of his criticism not at irreligious outsiders, but at the religious insiders — those confident in their own moral standing or righteousness.

He exposes external rule keeping without inward transformation. He challenges religious systems that protect identity more than they cultivate mercy. He insists that true religion is not performance, not tribal loyalty, not moral theatre. It is inward transformation into what is real, life-giving and just.

If Durkheim shows how religion can become society worshipping itself, and Tillich shows how anything can become your ultimate concern, Jesus stands as a disruption to both. He asks us to examine who or what actually rules our lives.

Religion & God Compared

Durkheim	Tillich	Jesus
Religion is society worshipping itself.	Religion is ultimate concern.	God is Father and living reality, not merely ritual or law.
The sacred represents the collective power of the group.	“God” is whatever functions as your ultimate concern.	God transcends social and religious systems.
Religious symbols express shared social values.	Religious symbols point to what claims total devotion.	Religious forms can become corrupt if detached from love and justice.
Focus: social cohesion and moral order.	Focus: existential meaning and total commitment.	Focus: transformation of the heart and the coming “Kingdom of God.”
Religion maintains group identity.	Religion structures personal identity.	True religion is inward alignment with God’s will, not external compliance.
If society changes, religion changes.	If your ultimate concern shifts, your “god” shifts.	God remains, but human understanding of God must be purified.

Standing on Both Sides

In my own life, I’ve stood on both sides of this divide. I grew up shaped by Christianity. I wrestled with organised religion. I questioned it. I walked away from it.

But slowly I began to notice that something always sat at the centre of my life saying: “I am what matters most.”

Even when modern societies think they have dismantled the sacred, it simply reassembles itself under a different entity:

The self (radical individualism)
Wealth & success
Technology and progress
Social justice & moral purity
Political power & ideology

The altar had moved. but the temple structure and worship remains. This realisation humbled me. It made me far more careful not to cast the first stone.

Because the real divide is not between religious and non-religious. It is between those who recognise their ultimate concern. And those who do not.