thefunctionsofreligion.docVIP

The Function of Religion There is but ONE Eternal Truth, one universal, infinite and changeless Spirit of Love, Truth and Wisdom, impersonal, therefore bearing a different name with every nation, one Light for all, in which the whole Humanity lives and moves, and has its being. Like the spectrum in optics, giving multicolored and various rays, which are yet caused by one and the same sun, so theologies and sacerdotal systems are many. But the Universal religion can only be one, if we accept the real, primitive meaning of the root of that word. We, Theosophists, so accept it; and therefore say, We are all brothers—by the laws of Nature, of birth, and death, as also by the laws of our utter helplessness from birth to death in this world of sorrow and deceptive illusions. Let us, then, love, help, and mutually defend each other against this spirit of deception; and while holding to that which each of us accepts as his ideal of truth and reality—i.e., to the religion which suits each of us best—let us unite ourselves to form a practical nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of Humanity WITHOUT DISTINCTION OF RACE, CREED, OR COLOUR. —H. P. Blavatsky (Lucifer, April 1888) What is the function of religion? Most People think that religion prepares an individual for some future existence. Some religions are considered to have arisen as the result of reform to the existing religious system by a prophet-reformer, while some are claimed to be revelations of a Supreme Being. There are many religions and people of each religion have their own God and their own ideas of God. Crusades have been fought in the name of religion—often between two groups of people belonging to the same religion—each praying to the same God to vanquish the other. Religion, as it is generally understood, is opposed to the spirit of science—which is one of inquiry and investigation. However, scientific method is empirical while that of religion is dogmatic. Science does not depend on external authority such a