Together with the crumbling of barriers separating peoples, our age
is witnessing the dissolution of the once insuperable wall that the past
assumed would forever separate the life of Heaven from the life of
Earth. The scriptures of all religions have always taught the believer
to see in service to others not only a moral duty, but an avenue for the
soul’s own approach to God. Today, the progressive restructuring of
society gives this familiar teaching new dimensions of meaning. As the
age-old promise of a world animated by principles of justice slowly
takes on the character of a realistic goal, meeting the needs of the
soul and those of society will increasingly be seen as reciprocal
aspects of a mature spiritual life.
If religious leadership is to rise to the challenge that this
latter perception represents, such response must begin by acknowledging
that religion and science are the two indispensable knowledge systems
through which the potentialities of consciousness develop. Far from
being in conflict with one another, these fundamental modes of the
mind’s exploration of reality are mutually dependent and have been most
productive in those rare but happy periods of history when their
complementary nature has been recognized and they have been able to work
together. The insights and skills generated by scientific advance will
have always to look to the guidance of spiritual and moral commitment
to ensure their appropriate application; religious convictions, no
matter how cherished they may be, must submit, willingly and gratefully,
to impartial testing by scientific methods....
Universal House of Justice
If religious leadership is to rise to the challenge that this
latter perception represents, such response must begin by acknowledging
that religion and science are the two indispensable knowledge systems
through which the potentialities of consciousness develop. Far from
being in conflict with one another, these fundamental modes of the
mind’s exploration of reality are mutually dependent and have been most
productive in those rare but happy periods of history when their
complementary nature has been recognized and they have been able to work
together. The insights and skills generated by scientific advance will
have always to look to the guidance of spiritual and moral commitment
to ensure their appropriate application; religious convictions, no
matter how cherished they may be, must submit, willingly and gratefully,
to impartial testing by scientific methods....
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