The evil from which men of our time are suffering is produced by the fact
that the majority live without that which alone affords a rational
guidance for human activity--without religion; not that religion which
consists in belief in dogmas, in the fulfilment of rites which afford a
pleasant diversion, consolation, stimulant, but that religion which
establishes the relation of man to the All, to God, and, therefore, gives
a general higher direction to all human activity, and without which
people stand on the plane of animals and even lower than they. This evil
which is leading men to inevitable destruction has manifested itself with
special power in our time, because, having lost all rational guidance in
life, and having directed all efforts to discoveries and improvements
principally in the sphere of technical knowledge, men of our time have
developed in themselves enormous power over the forces of nature; but,
not having any guidance for the rational adaptation of this power, they
naturally have used it for the satisfaction of their lowest and most
animal propensities.
Bereft of religion, men possessing enormous power over the forces of
nature are like children to whom powder or explosive gas has been given
as a plaything. Considering this power which men of our time possess, and
the way they use it, one feels that considering the degree of their moral
development men have no right, not only to the use of railways, steam,
electricity, telephones, photography, wireless telegraphs, but even to
the simple art of manufacturing iron and steel, as all these improvements
and arts they use only for the satisfaction of their lusts, for
amusement, dissipation, and the destruction of each other.
Then, what is to be done? To reject all these improvements of life, all
this power acquired by humanity--to forget that which it has learnt? This
is impossible, however perniciously these mental acquisitions are used;
they still are acquisitions, and men cannot forget them. To alter those
combinations of nations which have been formed during centuries and to
establish new ones? To invent such new institutions as would hinder the
minority from deceiving and exploiting the majority? To disseminate
knowledge? All this has been tried, and is being done with great fervor.
All these imaginary methods of improvement represent the chief methods of
self-oblivion and of diverting one's attention from the consciousness of
inevitable perdition. The boundaries of States are changed, institutions
are altered, knowledge is disseminated; but within other boundaries, with
other organizations, with increased knowledge, men remain the same
beasts, ready any minute to tear each other to pieces, or the same slaves
they have always been, and always will be, while they continue to be
guided, not by religious consciousness, but by passions, theories, and
external influences.
Man has no choice; he must be the slave of the most unscrupulous and
insolent amongst slaves, or else the servant of God, because for man
there is only one way of being free--by uniting his will with the will of
God. People bereft of religion, some repudiating religion itself, others
recognizing as religion those external, monstrous forms which have
superseded it, and guided only by their personal lusts, fear, human laws,
and, above all, by mutual hypnotism, cannot cease to be animals or
slaves, and no external efforts can extricate them from this state; for
only religion makes a man free. And most of the people of our time are
deprived of it.