Sambodhi 1989 Vol 16

Author(s): Ramesh S Betai, Yajneshwar S Shastri
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 96

87
"Today the circle of those who participate in the cultural synthesis has become wider and includes practically the whole world. The faith of the future is in co-operation and not identification, in accomodation to feellowmen and not imitation of them, in toleration and not absolutism." (p. 11).
Radhakrishnan in the second chapter turns to the negative results of the modern age. It is true to state that in the sphere of religion, man lives on faith, mostly blind faith. Modern science, with all its inventions and achievement has shaken this faith and many have turned to atheism while those amongst the less intelligent and educated do not find in Science something like a god in whom one can have faith to derive strength in times of crisis and to be happy. However, Radhakrishnan refers to scientific inventions "undermining the foundations of orthodox theology in every historic religion." (p. 12) He next adds:
"The varied accounts of religous experience seem to support the fashionable view that God is but a shadow of the human mind, a dream of the human heart. Religious genuises who speak to us of 'the world' are fit subjects for investigation in mental hospitals. The traditional arguuments do not carry conviction to the modern mind (p. 12)". He then refers to the gaining of ground by atheists who proclaim that-"Religion is a pursuit of infantile minds with which the bold thinkers have nothing to do. There is no God and we are the instruments of a cold, passionless fate to whom virtue is nothing and vice nothing and from whose grasp we escape to utter darkness." (p. 13).
He then refers to agnostics who experience that "though there is no positive evidence for the existence of God, we cannot be sure that there is no God." (p. 13). To the agnostic the problem is beyond him.
There are again some who "believe in the pragmatic value of the theistic doctrine" (14) that they intend to make use of for improvement of the world. They proclaim that
"We can use religion for the latter purpose as it contributes to social peace and betterment." (p. 14).
A very vast majority have blind faith in religion and in their view
the past "contains the whole accumulated wisdom of Only the dead really live and should rule the living."
human experience.
(p. 14).