The Bible Speaks to You November 16, 1963 Issue

[The above is substantially the text of the program released for broadcast the week of November 8–14 in the radio series, "The Bible Speaks to You," heard internationally over more than 800 stations. This is one of the weekly programs prepared and produced by the Christian Science Committee on Publication, 107 Falmouth Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02115.]

RADIO PROGRAM No. 84 - Does Modern Man Need God?

[This is the last of a special group of four programs on the subject, "God in the Twentieth Century."]

INTERVIEWER: Many people today feel there's no evidence that God is available to them, no tangible proof that they can know God or experience His presence. They see all the trouble in the world and feel there's all kinds of evidence that God isn't present in human affairs. Many of them might agree with the view taken by the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It's in his book, "Prisoner for God: Letters and Papers from Prison," written while in a German prison camp during World War II. He says: "God is teaching us that we must live as men who can get along very well without him." [The Macmillan Company, New York. Copyright, 1954.] What is the Christian Science view on this subject?

SPEAKER: Even though the pressures of today's world might make us feel that God is not present in human affairs, a Christian Scientist doesn't accept such evidence as conclusive, nor does he take an attitude of resignation toward it. He feels that the power of God is present in human affairs. Furthermore, he wouldn't agree that God is teaching us that "we must live as men who can get along very well without him." On the contrary, the Christian Scientist feels that we can realize our fullest manhood, our greatest strength and purpose, by learning to know God better. Isn't it true that the feeling of getting along without God is sometimes nothing but human egotism?

INTERVIEWER: Well, I've wondered about that.

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