To extract meaning from a system of beliefs, a person must first compare the information contained in it with his or her concrete experience, retain what makes sense and then reject the rest. An increasing majority of people are not being helped by traditional religions and belief
systems. Many are unable to separate the truth in the old doctrines from distortions and degradations that time has added. Since they cannot accept error, they reject the truth as well.
Others are so desperate for some order that they desperately cling to some belief. If a new faith is to capture our imagination, it must be able to account rationally for the things we know, the things we feel, the things we hope for and the ones we dread. It must be a system of beliefs that will direct our psychic energy towards meaningful goals. Such a system must be based to some
degree on what science has revealed about humanity and about the universe.
For the past few thousand years, humanity has achieved incredible advances in the differentiation of consciousness. We have learned to separate ourselves from other forms of life and from each other. We have learned to separate objects and processes. We have developed science and technology to capture nature. Now the focus must be on integration. We must learn how to reunite ourselves with other entities around us, without losing our individuality. We must realize that the entire universe is a system related by common laws and that it makes no sense to impose our dreams and desires on nature without taking them into account. We must accept a cooperative rather than a ruling role in the universe. The individual’s purpose should merge with universal
flow.
