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Hope for the Future
D
o
YOU
see a bright future ahead?
For you? For humanity?
Personally,
T
do-and if you can
j oin me in saying that, you are one in
a hundred thousand!
Where is any
good news
today? Where is any
future to be found in nations developing nuclear
weapons that can erase all human, animal and plant
life from the earth?
Where is any hope to be found in the
wretchedness, ignorance, poverty, squalor and filth
in which more than half the wor ld's population
Jives?
Where is any joyous anticipation to be found
in prosperous " have" nations where sources of
drinking water- the rivers and lakes- are being
polluted and the air we breathe is being befouled ,
the soi l is worn out and contaminated and the
foods are being robbed of nutrition in food
factories; where homes and families are being
broken up, crime is rapidly increasing, racial
problems and violence are erupting, and sickness
and mental disturbances multiplying?
Where is happiness today? Seventy years ago,
.
driving along country roads in lowa,
l
saw and heard
farmers plowing behind teams of horses, singing
happily as they walked. Today, the farmers ride
tractors- but where did the singing and the
happiness go? Where do we find encouraging
reassurance for tomorrow on university campuses
where the leaders of tomorrow are consigning
morality to tbe limbo of an outmoded past, where
suicides are on the increase, and where unproved
doct r ines are being absorbed by impressionable
minds?
Where do we find inspiration in the assertions of
world leaders and the "great," warning us that we
must adjust to a future of g rowing problems and
dangers where there are NO SOLUTIONs?
Well, for those of tbe above prevai ling concepts,
the future must indeed appear discouragingly
bleak- if they take a Iook at it instead of kidding
February 1983
themselves into the assumption that by ignoring the
dangers they will somehow go away.
There is a CAUSE for every effect.
There is a CAUSE for the state of tbe world today.
And there has to be a CAUSE that will produce the
peaceful and happy world tomorrow. There had to
be a fi rst cause for the very existence of matter, of
life, of forces and energies.
But today, it is considered " intellectual" to be
will ingly IGNORANT of that. 1 have said that in the
fi rst two centuries of the so-called Christian era, it
was popular to embrace gnosticism- meaning, "we
know." But today, it is popular to embrace
agnosticism- meaning, "we don't know-we are
ignorant." Today, ignorance is embraced and labeled
" knowledge."
Is it IGNORANCE to recognize the facts of the
great first cause who reveals the true cause of all of
today's ills? Is it wise, intellectual and
knowledgeable to be deliberately ignorant of basic
facts and truth?
There are two main ways of li fe- two basic
principles- two fundamental philosophies. One is the
way of GIVING, the other of GETTING. Üne is LOVE,
the otber LUST. One believes it is more blessed to
give than to receive. The other insists that acq uiring,
taking, accumulating, in the way of competition,
leads to progress and happiness.
The one way is God-centered, the other is
SELF-centered . The one accepts the Golden Rule, the
other says, " Do it to others before they do it to
you."
The one is the way of the divine nature; the other,
the way of human nature. The one is the way of
humility; the other, of vanity.
This world- aJl civil ization- this world's
society- is based on the hos ti le, competitive,
self-centered way. It has produced every wai l of
human woe. It is the way that now threatens the
extinction of humanity.
This all means one thing. Man, imbued with
human nature, is utterly UNABLE to solve bis
problems. He can only
(Continued on page 44)