Religion is the outer expression of the divine reality. Therefore it must
be living, vitalized, moving and progressive. If it be without motion and
non-progressive it is without the divine life; it is dead. The divine
institutes are continuously active and evolutionary; therefore the
revelation of them must be progressive and continuous. All things are
subject to re-formation. This is a century of life and renewal. Sciences
and arts, industry and invention have been reformed. Law and ethics have
been reconstituted, reorganized. The world of thought has been
regenerated. Sciences of former ages and philosophies of the past are
useless today. Present exigencies demand new methods of solution; world
problems are without precedent. Old ideas and modes of thought are fast
becoming obsolete. Ancient laws and archaic ethical systems will not meet
the requirements of modern conditions, for this is clearly the century of
a new life, the century of the revelation of the reality and therefore the
greatest of all centuries. Consider how the scientific developments of
fifty years have surpassed and eclipsed the knowledge and achievements of
all the former ages combined. Would the announcements and theories of
ancient astronomers explain our present knowledge of the sun-worlds and
planetary systems? Would the mask of obscurity which beclouded mediaeval
centuries meet the demand for clear-eyed vision and understanding which
characterizes the world today? In view of this, shall blind imitations of
ancestral forms and theological interpretations continue to guide and
control the religious life and spiritual development of humanity today?
Shall man gifted with the power of reason unthinkingly follow and adhere
to dogma, creeds and hereditary beliefs which will not bear the analysis
of reason in this century of effulgent reality? Unquestionably this will
not satisfy men of science, for when they find premise or conclusion
contrary to present standards of proof and without real foundation, they
reject that which has been formerly accepted as standard and correct and
move forward from new foundations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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