Writing of religion as a social force, Bahá'u'lláh said:
"Religion is the greatest of all means for the establishment of order in
the world and for the peaceful contentment of all that dwell therein."
Referring to the eclipse or corruption of religion, he wrote: "Should the
lamp of religion be obscured, chaos and confusion will ensue, and the lights of
fairness, of justice, of tranquillity and peace cease to shine." In an
enumeration of such consequences the Bahá'í Writings point out that the
"perversion of human nature, the degradation of human conduct, the
corruption and dissolution of human institutions, reveal themselves, under such
circumstances, in their worst and most revolting aspects. Human character is
debased, confidence is shaken, the nerves of discipline are relaxed, the voice
of human conscience is stilled, the sense of decency and shame is obscured,
conceptions of duty, of solidarity, of reciprocity and loyalty are distorted,
and the very feeling of peacefulness, of joy and of hope is gradually
extinguished.”
(The Universal House of Justice, message to the Peoples of the
World, October 1985; ‘Messages from the Universal House of Justice, 1963 to
1986’)
