🚀 go-pugleaf

                                   I

The endowments which distinguish the human race from all other forms of
life  are  summed  up in what is known as the human spirit; the mind is
its essential quality.  These endowments have enabled humanity to build
civilizations  and  to  prosper  materially.   But such accomplishments
alone have never satisfied the human spirit,  whose  mysterious  nature
inclines  it  towards  transcendence,  a  reaching towards an invisible
realm,  towards  the  ultimate  reality,  that  unknowable  essence  of
essences  called God.  The religions brought to mankind by a succession
of spiritual luminaries have been the primary link between humanity and
that  ultimate  reality,  and  have  galvanized  and  refined mankind's
capacity to achieve spiritual success together with social progress.

No serious attempt to set human affairs aright, to achieve world peace,
can  ignore  religion.  Man's perception and practice of it are largely
the stuff of history.  An eminent historian  described  religion  as  a
"faculty  of  human  nature."  That the "perversion of this faculty has
contributed to much of the confusion in society and  the  conflicts  in
and  between  individuals  can  hardly  be  denied. But neither can any
fair-minded observer discount the preponderating influence  exerted  by
religion  on  the  vital expressions of civilization.  Furthermore, its
indispensability to social order has repeatedly  been  demonstrated  by
its direct effect on laws and morality.

Writing of religion as a social force, Baha'u'llah said:  "Religion  is
the  greatest  of all means for the establishment of order in the world
and for the peaceful contentment of all that dwell therein."  Referring
to  the  eclipse or corruption of religion, he wrote:  "Should the lamp
of religion be obscured, chaos and confusion will ensue, and the lights
of fairness, of justice, of tranquillity and peace cease to shine."  In
an enumeration of such consequences the Baha'i writings point out  that
the  "perversion of human nature, the degradation of human conduct, the
corruption and dissolution of human  institutions,  reveal  themselves,
under  such  circumstances,  in their worst and most revolting aspects.
Human character  is  debased,  confidence  is  shaken,  the  nerves  of
discipline  are  relaxed, the voice of human conscience is stilled, the
sense of decency  and  shame  is  obscured,  conceptions  of  duty,  of
solidarity,  of  reciprocity  and  loyalty  are distorted, and the very
feeling of peacefulness, of joy and of hope is gradually extinguished."

If, therefore, humanity has come to a point of paralyzing  conflict  it
must  look  to  itself,  to  its own negligence, to the siren voices to
which it has listened, for the  source  of  the  misunderstandings  and
confusion  perpetrated  in  the  name of religion.  Those who have held
blindly and selfishly to their particular orthodoxies, who have imposed
on  their  votaries  erroneous  and  conflicting interpretations of the
pronouncements of the Prophets of God, bear  heavy  responsibility  for
this  confusion-a  confusion  compounded  by  the  artificial  barriers
erected between faith and reason, science  and  religion.  For  from  a
fair-minded examination of the actual utterances of the Founders of the
great religions, and of the social milieus in which they  were  obliged
to   carry  out  their  missions,  there  is  nothing  to  support  the
contentions and  prejudices  deranging  the  religious  communities  of
mankind and therefore all human affairs.

The teaching that we should treat others as we ourselves would wish  to
be  treated,  an  ethic  variously repeated in all the great religions,
lends force to this latter observation in two particular respects:   it
sums  up  the  moral  attitude,  the  peace-inducing  aspect, extending
through these religions irrespective of their place or time of  origin;
it also signifies an aspect of unity which is their essential virtue, a
virtue mankind  in  its  disjointed  view  of  history  has  failed  to
appreciate.

Had humanity seen the Educators of its collective  childhood  in  their
true  character, as agents of one civilizing process, it would no doubt
have reaped incalculably greater benefits from the  cumulative  effects
of their successive missions.  This, alas, it failed to do.

The resurgence of fanatical religious fervor occurring  in  many  lands
cannot be regarded as more than a dying convulsion.  The very nature of
the violent and disruptive phenomena associated with  it  testifies  to
the  spiritual  bankruptcy  it represents. Indeed, one of the strangest
and saddest features of the current outbreak of religious fanaticism is
the  extent  to  which,  in  each  case, it is undermining not only the
spiritual values which are conducive to the unity of mankind  but  also
those unique moral victories won by the particular religion it purports
to serve.

However vital a force religion has been in the history of mankind,  and
however   dramatic   the   current  resurgence  of  militant  religious
fanaticism, religion and religious institutions have, for many decades,
been  viewed by increasing numbers of people as irrelevant to the major
concerns of the modern world.  In its place they have turned either  to
the hedonistic pursuit of material satisfactions or to the following of
man-made ideologies designed to rescue society from the  evident  evils
under which it groans.  All too many of these ideologies, alas, instead
of embracing the concept of the oneness of mankind  and  promoting  the
increase  of  concord among different peoples, have tended to deify the
state, to subordinate the rest of mankind to one nation, race or class,
to  attempt  to suppress all discussion and interchange of ideas, or to
callously abandon starving millions  to  the  operations  of  a  market
system  that  all too clearly is aggravating the plight of the majority
of mankind, while enabling small sections to live  in  a  condition  of
affluence scarcely dreamed of by our forebears.

How tragic is the record of the substitute faiths that the  worldlywise
of  our  age  have  created.   In the massive disillusionment of entire
populations who have been taught to worship at their altars can be read
history's  irreversible  verdict  on  their  value.  The  fruits  these
doctrines have produced after decades of an  increasingly  unrestrained
exercise of power by those who owe their ascendancy in human affairs to
them, are the social and economic ills that blight every region of  our
world  in  the  closing years of the twentieth century.  Underlying all
these outward afflictions is the  spiritual  damage  reflected  in  the
apathy  that  has gripped the mass of the peoples of all nations and by
the extinction  of  hope  in  the  hearts  of  deprived  and  anguished
millions.

The time has come when those who  preach  the  dogmas  of  materialism,
whether  of  the  east or the west, whether of capitalism or socialism,
must give account of  the  moral  stewardship  they  have  presumed  to
exercise.   Where  is  the  "new  world"  promised by these ideologies?
Where is the international peace to whose ideals  they  proclaim  their
devotion?   Where  are  the  breakthroughs  into new realms of cultural
achievement produced by the aggrandizement of this race, of that nation
or  of  a  particular  class?   Why is the vast majority of the world's
peoples sinking ever deeper into hunger and wretchedness when wealth on
a  scale  undreamed  of  by  the  Pharaohs,  the  Caesars,  or even the
imperialist powers of the nineteenth century is at the disposal of  the
present arbiters of human affairs?

Most particularly, it is in the glorification of material pursuits,  at
once  the progenitor and common feature of all such ideologies, that we
find the roots which  nourish  the  falsehood  that  human  beings  are
incorrigibly  selfish  and aggressive.  It is here that the ground must
be cleared for the building of a new world fit for our descendants.

That materialistic ideals have, in the light of experience,  failed  to
satisfy  the needs of mankind calls for an honest acknowledgment that a
fresh effort must now be made to find the solutions  to  the  agonizing
problems  of  the planet.  The intolerable conditions pervading society
bespeak a common failure of all, a circumstance which tends  to  incite
rather  than relieve the entrenchment on every side.  Clearly, a common
remedial effort is urgently required.  It  is  primarily  a  matter  of
attitude.   Will  humanity  continue  in  its  waywardness,  holding to
outworn concepts and unworkable  assumptions?   Or  will  its  leaders,
regardless  of  ideology, step forth and, with a resolute will, consult
together in a united search for appropriate solutions?

Those who care for the future of the human race may  well  ponder  this
advice.   "If  long-cherished  ideals and time-honored institutions, if
certain social  assumptions  and  religious  formulae  have  ceased  to
promote  the  welfare  of  the generality of mankind, if they no longer
minister to the needs of a continually evolving humanity, let  them  be
swept  away  and  relegated  to  the limbo of obsolescent and forgotten
doctrines.  Why should these, in a world subject to the  immutable  law
of  change  and decay, be exempt from the deterioration that must needs
overtake every human institution?  For legal standards,  political  and
economic  theories  are  solely  designed to safeguard the interests of
humanity as  a  whole,  and  not  humanity  to  be  crucified  for  the
preservation of the integrity of any particular law or doctrine."