We have seen how in abandoning theism, men have been all too prone to seize upon other religious ideologies, Marxism among them. When that has finally been dismantled by bitter experience, men may seek to cling to new faiths, or old faiths by new names, that they imagine will sustain them. A great lesson of history is that mankind needs to reject facile solutions, easy promises of salvation, whether religious or ideological. They deflect us from the ultimate problems we must consider now, when our means of survival and our means of destruction have become equally powerful. The only option for man is to think about his future not in traditional ideological terms but radically and rationally in terms of his creative potentialities.
Man can learn to recognize the universe for what it is.
He can live without illusion. If he is realistic he will know that he sometimes will fail, but that he will often succeed. Learning that he cannot suppress change, he may learn to manage, indeed to encourage it when he sees how to use it for human betterment. A continuing moral revolution accompanying technological change will no doubt accelerate the stresses involved in discovering new values and meanings in our existence. In this approach to the future, the qualities that man needs to foster if he is to survive are critical intelligence, compassion, and courage qualities he should never be willing to barter for vain promises.