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INTERNATIONAL PEACE
Another cause of the failure of religion generally to control the evil inclinations of men is the belief in the possibility of having one's acts annulled and absolved without having to pay for them. With such a belief there is no question of the goodness or badness of action; what matters is the pleasure of the forgiving agency. The most horrible and heartless of crimes have been committed by man in the name of his god and religion, in the beliefwhether express or implied-that no punishment could be attached to acts done for divine pleasure itself.
To-day if you want to establish a reign of Peace and Goodwill for mankind, you must begin by rationalising religious thought and the doctrine of responsibility for individual actions.
We are living in an age of science and rational thought to day, and the hearts of men are set against unreasoning dogin and myth. This is why people are fleeing away from religion to-day, and will have nothing to do with it. Our wars are mostly made to-day by greedy covetous men who have cut themselves adrift from religion and who cannot be induced to accept anything that is not acceptable to Reason. The majority of men to-day belong to this class. It is idle to expect that wars will be stopped unless these men have their hearts changed in the first instance. If Religion aspires to convert them to its cause it will have to approach them in the language of Reason, which alone they are likely to follow. It must be clearly understood that all talk of dogmatism being able to influence the thought, much less the heart, of any one in our day is pure nonsense. All peace conferences are doomed to fail unless they can induce religions to cut themselves adrift from dogmatism and mythology altogether. I have shown in some of my books how this is not only possible but quite easy of attainment, and how it will enhance the prestige and glory of all religions when properly effected. I will mention the names of some.
of the books in this connection:
Jain Education International
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