Google Trends is an excellent tool for insights into culture. To my surprise “christianity is” appeared in my Google Hot Trends Box (# 5 out of the top ten trends) on my iGoogle page this morning.
Type “christianity is” into the Google search box and its suggest feature shows phrases which are most frequently used to complete the current phrase which the user has typed. When “christianity is” is typed Google Suggests the following:
This is not a failure of Google. It is a reflection of common mindset of internet users. It is highly unlikely that Google is in anyway manipulating the Google suggested results. Furthermore, I do not think Google should begin altering the suggested phrases.
What do you think? What window into culture does this give us?
Give us your comments on the subject.
I'm guessing that these suggestions are listed by frequency, which just blows my mind when I look at the top one. Apparently there is quite a bit of consensus among Google users in regards to the Christian faith. Are people really spending that much of their lives searching for the one at the top?!?
So, as Christians, I wonder how often we give people a reason to believe otherwise? Has the world really encountered so many phony "Christians" so as to have built up this kind of angst? Has the Church failed? Are believers in too cloudy of a bubble to see what's going on? Is it only hard hearts?
Thanks for weighing in Dustin. The suggestions are listed by frequency. And yes, apparently people are searching for the top one. So much so "christianity is" showed up in the top ten searches.
You ask some very good tough questions that we should all be asking.
At least part of the problem has got to be what people think that "church" is. The majority of people believe that church is something we "do," instead of who we "are." In other words, if we are not at a holy building on a holy day during the holy hour, then we are "off the clock," so to speak. I, too, have been guilty of this in the past, and bless their hearts, people just don't know any better, because they have been bred to think this way…
So what we have is consumer Christianity. People show up to be "fed," resulting in all input and very little (if any) output back into our world (once again, I am to blame, as well).
Another question might be: How do we begin to break this cycle, present the true gospel (one centered on Jesus, and not man), and allowing the Church to be the physical presence of our ascended Lord, going where He would go and doing what He would do?