— Will Durant From “Fallen Leaves: Last words on Life, Love, War, and God” P. 53
Religions are not made by the intellect, else they would never touch the soul or reach the masses, or achieve longevity. A successful religion without incredible elements would be incredible; the imagination must be stirred, some vision or poem must be superimposed by a creative faith upon an existence so dulled with drudgery and prose, so weighted with suffering and defeat. We cannot expect religion to be a body of scientific propositions.
We may, however, ask that a religion shall soften the heart of man, that it shall inspire courage, conscience, and charity, that it shall make the strong a little more generous to the weak, that it shall mitigate the rigor of competition and brutality of war. Since the only real progress is moral development, a religion faithful to these aims would (other things being equal) be the best faith and antidote for this factious and warring world.”