Religious prejudice forms a formidable barrier to the progress and well-being of humanity. This prejudice, along with many others, permeates the structures of society and is systematically impressed on individual and collective consciousness. In fact, it is often deliberately fostered and exploited through manipulation and propaganda, using methods that ignore truth and promote self-serving agendas for political or other expediencies. A system of governance befitting a mature human race will, in time, abandon such ways of dividing people to obtain and consolidate power, of promoting agendas benefiting only certain groups or segments within society at the expense of others, and of directing the masses “toward that prejudice and fanaticism which subvert the very base of civilization”. It will instead unite people and channel capacities and resources to promote “the peace and well-being and happiness, the knowledge, culture and industry, the dignity, value and station, of the entire human race”.
- The Universal House of Justice (From a letter dated 12 February 2018 written on its behalf to an individual believer; US Baha’i National Administrative website)
