What is God?

The following is an extract from an address on "Changes in the Conception of God," which was recently delivered by Dr. Felix Adler, at Carnegie Hall, New York City, before the Ethical Culture Society.

"Why is it that men believe in a God, a being whom they have not seen and whose existence they cannot verify? There are three motives which lead them to their belief. These three motives are the emotional, the intellectual, and the moral. The most important of these motives is the moral one.

"There is a great fight going on in the world. God and evil are pitted against each other. The fight has really just begun, and the struggle will be a long one. But it is in the nature of things that the moral idea will prevail. That is what gives us strength to carry on the fight.

"Then what do we believe as to God? First, that there is this higher power, and that our images of God are just signs, and that we need signs unless the thing itself is to escape us.

"Shall we use the old signs of the past, or are we to look for some new metaphor, some new token, some new sign, in which we modern men, facing the problems before us, are to conquer? Are we to continue the father, the man-like sign, or is there some other which we need?"

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