User:Codex Sinaiticus/metonnya

PROGRESS MUST BE MORAL

One cannot deny that in former times man´s life had been one of toil and hardship. It is correct to say, therefore, that modern civilization and the progress of science have greatly improved man´s life and have brought comfort and ease in their trail.

But civilization can serve man both for good as well as for evil purposes. Experience shows that it has invariably brought great dividends to those who use it for good purposes while it has always brought incalculable harm and damnation to those who use it for evil purposes.

To make our wills obedient to good influences and to avoid evil, therefore, is to show the greatest wisdom. In order to follow this aim one must be guided by religion. Progress without religion is just like a life surrounded by unknown perils and can be compared to a body without a soul.

All human inventions, from the most primitive tool to the modern atom, can help man greatly in his peaceful endeavours. But if they are put to evil purposes thay have the capacity to wipe out the human race from the surface of the earth.

It is only when the human mind is guided by religion and morality that man can acquire the necessary vision to put all his ingenuous inventions and contrivances to really useful and beneficial purposes. The progress of science can be said to be harmful to religion only in so far as it is used for evil aims and not because it claims a priority over religion in its revelation to man.

It is important that spiritual advancement must keep pace with material advancement. When this comes to be realized man´s journey toward higher and more lasting values will show more marked progress while the evil in him recedes into the background.

Knowing that material and spiritual progress are essential to man, we must ceaselessly work for the equal attainment of both. Only then shall we be able to acquire that absolute inner calm so necessary to our well-being.

It is only when a people strike an even balance between scientific progress and spiritual and moral advancement that it can be said to possess a wholly perfect and complete personality and not a lopsided one. The type of progress we have chalked out for Ethiopia is based on these fundamental principles.

April 5, 1958, in the Voice of Ethiopia