Religion and Science
9. A Last Word
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burst of inspiration, which enables a poet to
compose a beautiful poem. To them, God is not a
conscious being who chooses someone to execute
His will in order to serve a purpose; rather God is
conceived of as an external, abstract reality which
encompasses our universe — a reality which is
reflected upon us. To some, this is not the true
situation either, although our own subconscious
speaks in terms of inspiration and revelation.
Clearly, the religious point of view is quite different
from this. Hence the failure of the modernists to
understand the religious concept of revelation.
4. According to this modern interpretation, religion
is reduced to a worldly need, whereas religion, in
actual fact, is a need of the life hereafter. That is,
from the purely religious point of view, the real task
of religion is to show man the path of salvation in
the next life. But according to modernists, the aim of
religion is to provide a proper basis for social
organization in this world. But rather than this being
the main purpose of religion, it is only an incidental
benefit accruing from the application of religious
principles. Dogma connot just be reduced to any
given thought arrangement on which there could be