[006] Divine Principle - Introduction 6

[대태양/김현수]

Religions have made strenuous efforts to deny life in this world in their quest for the life eternal. They have despised the pleasures of the body for the sake of spiritual bliss.

Yet however hard they may try, people cannot cut themselves off from the reality of this world or annihilate the desire for physical pleasures, which follows them like a shadow and cannot be shaken off.

This world and its desires tenaciously grab hold of religious people, driving them into the depths of agony. Such is the contradiction which plagues their devotional lives. Even many enlightened spiritual leaders, still torn by this contradiction, have met a sad end.

Herein is a principal cause for the inactivity and weakness of today’s religions: they have not overcome this self-contradiction.

Another factor has fated religions to decline. In step with the progress of science, the human intellect has become highly sophisticated, requiring a scientific approach to understanding reality. The traditional doctrines of religions, on the other hand, are largely devoid of scientific explanations. That is to say, the current interpretations of internal truth and external truth do not agree.

The ultimate purpose of religion can be attained only when one first believes it in one’s heart and then puts it into practice. However, without first understanding, beliefs do not take hold.

For example, it is in order to understand the truth and thereby solidify our beliefs that we study holy scriptures. Likewise, it was to help the people understand that he was the Messiah, and thereby lead them to believe in him, that Jesus performed miracles. Understanding is the starting point for knowledge.

Today, however, people will not accept what is not demonstrable by the logic of science. Accordingly, since religions are now unable to guide people even to the level of understanding, much less to belief, they are unable to fulfill their purpose.

Even internal truth demands logical and convincing explanations. Indeed, throughout the long course of history, religions have been moving toward the point when their teachings could be elucidated scientifically.

Religion and science, setting out with the missions of dispelling the two aspects of human ignorance, have seemed in the course of their development to take positions that were contradictory and irreconcilable.

However, for humankind to completely overcome the two aspects of ignorance and fully realize the goodness which the original mind desires, at some point in history there must emerge a new truth which can reconcile religion and science and resolve their problems in an integrated undertaking.

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