The endowments which distinguish the human race from all
other forms of life are summed up in what is known as the human spirit; the
mind is its essential quality. These endowments have enabled humanity to build
civilizations and to prosper materially. But such accomplishments alone have
never satisfied the human spirit, whose mysterious nature inclines it towards
transcendence, a reaching towards an invisible realm, towards the ultimate
reality, that unknowable essence of essences called God. The religions brought
to mankind by a succession of spiritual luminaries have been the primary link
between humanity and that ultimate reality, and have galvanized and refined
mankind’s capacity to achieve spiritual success together with social progress.
- The Universal House of Justice (‘The Promise of World Peace, October 1985)
