ABSTRACT
Underlying the historical religions that have taken strongest and extended hold upon mankind are certain fundamental conceptions, for the most part held in common though taking different forms: crystallisations, so to speak, of the apprehension of spiritual reality which is the essential element of religion. Such conceptions are: God, immortality, salvation, righteousness, worship. Religious thinkers would also add, through divine revelation, involving the further assumption that the ultimate reality is personal. That there is an ultimate spiritual and personal reality, God, is the basic assumption of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity; and, further, that the material universe is a creation of the divine will and as such is rather to be contrasted than identified with its Creator. In giving clearer perception science is doing a service to religion. Religion with the inner eye of faith sees in this immensity a spiritual power at work in evolution, transforming the material and utilising it as a condition from which higher values may emerge.
