Great Throughts Treasury

"Life becomes religious whenever we make it so: when some new light is seen, when some deeper appreciation is felt, when some larger outlook is gained, when some nobler purpose is formed, when some task is well done."

"The Universe has been struggling through a long evolution. We are the fruits of her millions of years of labor. Our flesh is the evolved dust of the stars. Our very life is dependent upon the continuing life and death of other creatures. Without the common green world of grasses and grains we should quickly perish. Our indebtedness is a heritage that links us to all living and nonliving things from the beginning of time. The Living Universe does not ask us to accept things as they are. She challenges us to join in creating better things. She asks us to help her improve. In our pride of human superiority, we have sometimes been disdainful of the values in things of a so-called lower order. We have talked of subduing the forces of nature to serve our ends. The Living Universe calls us to understand, to appreciate, to co- operate—rather than to conquer. An exclusively human ethic is narrow. "