|
Man alone has freedom, and, by his understanding or intellect, has been able to gain control of and adapt some of those natural laws to his own needs. By the power of his intellect he has discovered means by which he not only traverses great continents in express trains and crosses vast oceans in ships, but, like the fish he travels under water in submarines, and, imitating the birds, he flies through the air in airships. (42:1) Man has succeeded in using electricity in several ways-- for light, for motive power, for sending messages from one end of the earth to the other-- and by electricity he can even hear a voice many miles away! (42:2) By this gift of understanding or intellect he has also been able to use the rays of the sun to picture people and things, and even to capture the form of distant heavenly bodies. (42:3) We perceive in what numerous ways man has been able to bend the powers of nature to his will. (42:4) How grievous it is to see how man has used his God- given gift to frame instruments of war, for breaking the Commandment of God `Thou shalt not kill', and for defying Christ's injunction to `Love one another'. (42:5) God gave this power to man that it might be used for the advancement of civilization, for the good of humanity, to increase love and concord and peace. But man prefers to use this gift to destroy instead of to build, for injustice and oppression, for hatred and discord and devastation, for the destruction of his fellow- creatures, whom Christ has commanded that he should love as himself!
(42:6)
|