SO TO ZEN - Shasta Abbey

The Coming World Culture 7religious beliefs. This is the meaning of freedom of religion. Itis only natural that we should want to choose a religion on ahigh cultural level which is suited to our own individuality. Thereligion of the future must respect reason. Religion by its verynature is more suited to emotion than to reason. The world ofreligion belongs to a realm above philosophy and science,which depend solely upon reason. Nevertheless, we do not saythat religion is opposed to science. A religion which opposesscience and is only suited for inner devotion is superstition. Thereligion of the future must not fall into this error. If a religion ofthe future is to go hand in hand with other ideologies, it isnecessary for it to have a theoretical foundation. The strugglebetween science and religion in the West which continued formany centuries victimized a great number of scientists.Buddhism, however, does not shun the absorption of scientificknowledge. It feels rather that science plays an important role inrevealing the course that religion should follow. Dr. HidekiYukawa, winner of the Nobel Prize, emphasized the need forwisdom to guide modern science.The religion of the future also must be more toleranttoward other faiths. As faith must be suited to individual needs,it is unreasonable to insist upon the uniformity of differentfaiths. It is natural that there should be many different religions.Human existence is essentially conflicting. On the one hand,man is weak and cruel; on the other, strong and compassionate.