We have vastly extended our ability to adapt the forces of the universe to our own purposes yet human beings are not at all confident about ourselves and our place in the world. We are less sure of the meaning and purpose of human life than our ancestors were. We need guiding principles that will give us a sense of direction in the universe.
Religion used to provide a conception of human being’s relation to the universe which gave life meaning and established a relationship between human purposes and aspirations and the scheme of the universe. In its failure to provide these people turned to the authority of the physical and social sciences.
But there still exists an unease. The modern world which science presents to us is conceptually alien. We are benumbed by its size and defeated by its complexity.
What is sought is a new relation between humans and their universe. A path which could hopefully would bring people into harmony with the nature of things. There is a increasing tendency for people to turn from religion to achieve harmony and to seek relief from the stresses of modern life in psychology.
Psychiatry proposes an insight which seems to hold out the prospect of becoming a guide to good and evil in human feelings, thoughts, and conduct. Humans will be restless until they can form a satisfactory picture of themselves in the kind of universe which science has revealed. Religion must turn to this task.