"The more a man is imbued with the ordered regularity of all events,
the firmer becomes his conviction that there is no room left by the side
of this ordered regularity for causes of a different nature. For him
neither the rule of human nor the rule of divine will exist as an
independent cause of natural events. To be sure, the doctrine of a
personal God interfering with natural events could never be refuted, in
the real sense, by science, for this doctrine can always take refuge in
those domains in which scientific knowledge has not yet been able to set
foot. But I am persuaded that such behavior on the part of the
representatives of religion would not only be unworthy but also fatal.
For a doctrine which is able to maintain itself not in clear light, but
only in the dark, will of necessity lose its effect on mankind, with
incalculable harm to human progress. In their struggle for the ethical
good, teachers of religion must have the stature to give up the doctrine
of a personal God, that is, give up that source of fear and hope which
in the past placed such vast powers in the hands of priests. In their
labors they will have to avail themselves of those forces which are
capable of cultivating the Good, the True, and the Beautiful in humanity
itself. This is, to be sure, a more difficult but an incomparably more
worthy task." |
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