we live in good times

You are a Christian. You are beginning to engage with the world after being raised by Christian parents that, by and large, did not.

It is easy, as you engage your mind with the world, to begin thinking that hope is lost. Evil abounds.

Mark John Reynolds, a professor at Biola University, says things are not so bad.

So the next time you hear the "modern world" and its ideas attacked sit quietly and then leave. Laugh if you can. Go on enjoying rights given to you by God and confirmed (as best they could) by modern thinkers like Burke and Locke. Go on voting. Press for reform. Refuse to be reduced to a consumer, but enjoy the things you do consume. Fight racism and injustice, but be glad for a system that allows you to do it. Fight government where it has gotten too big so that it transgresses liberty and vote for more government where liberty has turned to abuse. Thank God that you were born at this time when men are more free, with more ability to do good, than at any other time.

Even if things are so bad, I saw we need to think like Reynolds anyway, because looking dour won't help or attract anyone.