God in the new millenium.

Google just recently released a search tool titled Timeline, and I find it very fun to play with. The first term that came to mind was "god", so I started playing with it. And lo and behold, I found interesting results. The word "god" reaches its peek in 1840, which actually surprises me. This is actually around the time of the Second Great Awakening, where Jesus was predicted to return October 22, 1844. It's also when Mormonism originated. The Bahá'í Faith also originated during this time period. As we move across 1840, there's a gradual decline in documents with "god" up until 1980s, and then the Soviet Union is formed and there's an increase in the mid Eighties all the way up to the millenia. However, this is still relatively small compared to the Second Awakening. 2000 shows a slight leveling off until 2001, when the World Trade Centers were hit. The results return back to status quo, but there is undeniably a slightly growing trend since then.

Now, you may or may not believe in God, but I just thought it was interesting to see the shift in references to "god" throughout the ages. People complain about religion today. Heh, I get the impression that the Second Awakening was quite the hell raiser, so to speak. I'm not sure how accurate Google is, but when I cross referenced it with the same dates on Wikipedia, it seemed pretty accurate to me, but it's amazing how Google could have such a comprehensive amount of data throughout the course of human history.

GameSpot's not letting me post the links so I'll post them here.

1800-2000 -http://www.google.com/search?q=god&hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS318US318&sa=G&tbo=1&tbs=tl:1,tll:1800,tlh:1999&ei=deMMSutGksQy2tq0qgY&oi=timeline_histogram_nav&ct=timeline-histogram&cd=13

2000-2009 - http://www.google.com/search?q=god&hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS318US318&sa=G&tbo=1&tbs=tl:1,tll:2000,tlh:2199&ei=cOMMSqavFJDWMPiu5cEG&oi=timeline_histogram_nav&ct=timeline-histogram&cd=14 

I tried "creationism" and that's spiked in the 1980's and the 2000's.domatron23

Wow, September 2008 really pushed creationism to new heights when Sarah Palin was elected. 

This is actually around the time of the Second Great Awakening, where Jesus was predicted to return October 22, 1844.

Genetic_Code

How on earth did they work that date out for his return.....? 

Anyway, good find. It's interesting that the two peaks for "Creation" are around 4000 BC and 2000 AD. I'm going to be playing around with this quite a bit. :D

[QUOTE="domatron23"]I tried "creationism" and that's spiked in the 1980's and the 2000's.Genetic_Code

Wow, September 2008 really pushed creationism to new heights when Sarah Palin was elected. 

Not to mention Mike Huckabee.

[QUOTE="Genetic_Code"]

This is actually around the time of the Second Great Awakening, where Jesus was predicted to return October 22, 1844.

Lansdowne5

How on earth did they work that date out for his return.....? 

Anyway, good find. It's interesting that the two peaks for "Creation" are around 4000 BC and 2000 AD. I'm going to be playing around with this quite a bit. :D

Dates are fun to come up with. :P  My hypothosis is sometime in 2028.

...Yes, I do realize we will not know. :P