Editorial August 29, 1970 Issue

Human Conflict and the Place of God

Carl J. Welz

Not many Sundays ago I attended a church service that was geared to the thought of the young. Chairs had to be set up in the aisles to accommodate the crowd. From beginning to end the congregation was alive and with it. Hymns were sung and responses were read with sincerity and conviction. The minister was applauded several times during his brief sermon. But the word "God" was never mentioned.

This was entirely in keeping with the intellectual religious thought that God is in man, and that if men behave honestly and lovingly toward their fellows that behavior of itself is all there is of God. This view seems to give the individual a sense of self-reliance, a joy of living and an enthusiasm for life. But in the light of Christian Science it becomes clear that this philosophy is at the root of much of the conflict in human life today.

The conflict comes because the individual, in order to live with himself, must be able to justify his own conclusions. While he had God to refer to, he could always say with humility, when considering an important question, "This is what I believe, but I don't really know. God alone knows." But when an individual has to take upon himself full responsibility for judging whether a thing is right or wrong, he finds less tolerance for views that oppose his own.

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