What can be recovered from religion in todays world

Abstract

Culture's main task is to offer mankind a context of stability (human beings have been a specially precarious species), which allows it to display a notable civilizing capacity. During thousands of years the core of culture has been religion. But human norms and structures do not have the consistency and steadiness of animal instincts: they are temporal and insecure. Being conscious prevents man from melting into nature. Rational consciousness is the other side of human deficiency. This fundamental anxiety subsists until our time, which is conditioned and dominated by science and technology. Material progress (in all its aspects) cannot eliminate all basic fears and hopes of mankind. As a fundamentally incomplete being, man constantly has to question and reinterpret himself. For this purpose he requires assistance, examples and models; religion was for a very long time the principal source of all of them. Today, like in past times, man needs a strong emotional link, founded obviously in ethics, capable of avoiding social and moral decomposition, a permanent danger for all societies. The best emotional link has always been religion, which will continue to have this indispensable function for a long time.