So those who dismiss God as delusion, or who simply never bother their heads about Him, are consciously or unconsciously banking on being extinguished at death. Well, they may be lucky, or they may not.
If you can reproduce the Divine relationship between humans, and you must be able to do so if there is to be any community, you have the formula for human faithfulness too. And an in-dwelling in which an ever-growing integration swept all thoughts of boredom, or routine, or tedium from the mind does at least offer the mirage of lasting for an eternity. It is not a state of affairs that it is easy to create, or reproduce, as I know from bitter experience. It is what the whole of my book “Man’s Relationship with God” is about, and there is no point in reproducing the text of that book here. These speculations stem from looking at life as a whole; from looking at things from God’s point of view, as well as man’s. You might say it is the cosmic outlook. And it is science that has enabled us to recover this facility.
It is the modern view of evolution that has enabled us to recapture the cosmic outlook. Einstein conceived Space as being more than the stage or background for physics, which it was in Newton’s conception; Einstein saw Space as being a participant inasmuch as gravity, itself a physical property, is controlled by the curvature of Space. Now that we are conversant with the idea that Evolution is not a fixed plan, but is more like a river which flows round or overcomes every obstacle in its pursuit of greater consciousness; we can readily envisage the Divine Creator, not only transcending His creation, but actively participating in its Evolution. Even before 1914 science had taught us that Creation was a unity in itself; and Henry Drummond was preaching to the Free Church in Scotland that the laws of the spiritual world were either the same as, or parallel to, the laws of the physical world. It was one world, and it manifested the glory of the Creator. It is an idea that goes back to some of the most splendid poetry in the psalms, particularly psalms 8,19, 108 and 119. But old truths need restating in the modern prose of each generation.
Since 1945, everyone has been saying the same thing; everyone talks globally now, business men, politicians, holiday makers. So for the Church to describe civilized life as two camps, the Christian life and Mammon, is unreal. They are far too intertwined. Of course sin is as rampant as ever; however it is on both sides of the Church doors. Outside it is mostly crime; inside it is mostly spiritual pride. Not much to choose between them, although crime is more inconvenient. But there is no good preaching a Gospel, unless it takes account of the fact that we are all now in the same boat. This is what one means by reconciling religion with society. And whether you like it or not, it is the Second World War and the technical progress which it accelerated that have given us all this global attitude of mind.