... the chief reason for the evils now rampant in society is the
lack of spirituality. The materialistic civilization of our age has so much absorbed the energy and interest of mankind that people in general do no longer feel the necessity of raising themselves above the forces and conditions of their daily material existence. There is not sufficient demand for things that we should call
spiritual to differentiate them from the needs and requirements of our physical existence.
The universal crisis affecting mankind is, therefore, essentially
spiritual in its causes. The spirit of the age, taken on the whole, is
irreligious. Man's outlook on life is too crude and materialistic to enable him to elevate himself into the higher realms of the
spirit.
It is this condition, so sadly morbid, into which society has fallen, that
religion seeks to improve and transform...
~ From a letter written on behalf of
Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, 8 December 1935.
Lights of Guidance, no. 449, pp. 134-5
It would be perhaps impossible to find a nation or people not in a state of crisis today. The materialism, the lack of true religion and the consequent baser forces in human nature which are being released, have brought the whole world to the brink of probably the greatest crisis it has ever faced or will have to face. The Baha'is are a part of the world. They too feel the great pressures which are brought to bear upon all people today, whoever and wherever they may be.
~ From a letter written on behalf of
Shoghi Effendi to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, 19 July 1956.
Lights of Guidance, no. 440, p. 131
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