Thursday, March 14, 2013

Christianity Today

What may Christianity be for us today? Just what it was for him: a light upon our path, a song within our hearts, a guide and an inspiration, a hope never failing and a comfort ever at hand. Christianity is not obsolete. If Jesus ever said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life,” he spoke words that are just as true today as they were then. If Voltaire ever said, “Christianity cannot be called a failure because it has never been tried,” he uttered more truth than poetry, because the world’s present condition is due to a dearth of Christianity in human hearts, and the world’s best hope is the thought, and prayer, and spirit, and action of that immortal Man of Galilee.

— Charles Edwards Park (born March 14, 1873)

The Religiously Enlightened Person

A person who is religiously enlightened appears to me to be one who has, to the best of his ability, liberated himself from the fetters of his selfish desires and is preoccupied with thoughts, feelings, and aspirations to which he clings because of their super-personal value. It seems to me that what is important is the force of this super-personal content and the depth of the conviction concerning its overpowering meaningfulness, regardless of whether any attempt is made to unite this content with a divine Being, for otherwise it would not be possible to count Buddha and Spinoza as religious personalities. Accordingly, a religious person is devout in the sense that he has no doubt of the significance and loftiness of those super-personal objects and goals which neither require nor are capable of rational foundation. They exist with the same necessity and matter-of-factness as he himself. In this sense religion is the age-old endeavor of mankind to become clearly and completely conscious of these values and goals and constantly to strengthen and extend their effect. If one conceives of religion and science according to these definitions then a conflict between them appears impossible. For science can only ascertain what is, but not what should be, and outside of its domain value judgments of all kinds remain necessary.

— Albert Einstein (born March 14, 1879)