“Religions grow out of the deepest needs of individuals sharing a common awakening, and are not created by "engineers of the soul."”

Foreword: 1978, p. xxix
The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism (1976)

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American sociologist, writer, editor, and professor emeritu… 1919–2011

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“Religion is a need of the human soul.”

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Vol. IX - The Unity of Religious Ideals, Part I : Seeking for the Ideal http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/IX/IX_5.htm.
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Context: Religion is a need of the human soul. In all periods and at every stage of the evolution of humanity there has been a religion which people followed, for at every period the need for religion has been felt. The reason is that the soul of man has several deep desires, and these desires are answered by religion.
The first desire is the search for the ideal. There comes a time when man seeks for a more complete justice than he finds among men, and when he seeks for someone on whom he can rely more surely than he can on his friends in the world. There comes a time when man feels a desire to open his heart to a Being who is above human beings and who can understand his heart.

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“Religion amplifies the good and evil tendencies of individual souls.”

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Context: I am neither a saint nor a theologian. To me, good works are more important than theology. We all know that religion has been historically, and still is today, a cause of great evil as well as great good in human affairs. We have seen terrible wars and terrible persecutions conducted in the name of religion. We have also seen large numbers of people inspired by religion to lives of heroic virtue, bringing education and medical care to the poor, helping to abolish slavery and spread peace among nations. Religion amplifies the good and evil tendencies of individual souls.

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“Jesus came into the world to reveal the whole dignity and nobility of the search for God, which is the deepest need of the human soul, and to meet the search halfway.”

Pope John Paul II (1920–2005) 264th Pope of the Catholic Church, saint

John Paul II, General Audience of 27 December 1978 https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/audiences/1978/documents/hf_jp-ii_aud_19781227.html
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“Industry shares a need common to every social enterprise from church to guild, municipality to empire, war to university.”

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