It changed the world in remarkable ways.  I speak of the French Revolution, that epochal late eighteenth century upheaval of, literally the very foundations of the French culture.  When it was over, France no longer had a king, nor did it any longer have religion.  Although I am aware that many nuances attend the latter, the Revolution did in fact eviscerate the existing religious order.  French religion would never be the same. Going forward, liberty, liberty from intellectual and spiritual boundary, would be prime.
     Ironically, as the Revolution burrowed its way more deeply into the French imagination, its leaders came to create religion anew.  They called it the Cult of the Supreme Being.  Although their intentions were thoroughly secular, the face of what they established affirmed the ineradicability of the human quest for meaning, for some type of transcendent meaning.  Despite the contentions of many a materialist to the contrary, we can never completely step away from the necessity of transcendence.

     We observe this in the Russian Revolution, too.  Although the Soviet government did everything it could to suppress and eliminate religious belief, its actions only served to further center it in the hearts of a countless number of Russians.  Transcendence remained.
     As it does today.  Looming everywhere yet often seemingly nowhere, transcendence nonetheless is more than present.  It is woven into the very fabric of creation.
     Revolt, yes, stand up for what is right and true, but remember the inescapability of transcendence.
     We cannot ignore God.