Theosophy Satisfies The Religious Instinct

Butte, Montana, 1906

IT WHOLLY SATISFIES THE YEARNING TO KNOW

THEOSOPHY SUPPLIES WHAT OTHER TEACHINGS LACK

THE RELIGIOUS INSTINCT

Longing to know about God and the world and its people an inherent part of human nature — A motive for right living and acting

Henry Hotchner yesterday afternoon gave another public lecture before a very large audience, using for his subject the query, "Does Theosophy Satisfy the Religious Instinct?" Many who heard the lecture pronounced it the most interesting yet delivered by Mr. Hotchner to the public in Butte. Briefly, he said:

"Theosophy certainly does satisfy the religious instinct and satisfy it wholly and rationally. The religious instinct, which is an inherent part of human nature, is the yearning to know about God, about ourselves, about the world in which we live, and about how we must live in order to be happy and useful now and hereafter. Theosophy satisfies this instinct because it provides this information and thus furnishes the motive for right living and acting.

The Great Teachers

"To give such information, to proclaim these facts, is the reason for the coming of the great spiritual teachers, Moses, Christ, Buddha, and others. Each one emphasized such truths as would help certain grades of souls, as would satisfy the religious instinct of the people they wished especially to help. Each one of the 300 or 400 religions in the world is helping certain kinds of people; no one religion could help all.

"The religious instinct based on the needs of the character must necessarily change as the character evolves. The religious instinct of the primitive man is satisfied with far less information than is necessary to satisfy the yearning and demands of the civilized man. The information given to men 2,000 years ago, or 200 years ago, and the manner in which it was given, cannot be completely satisfying now. The grown man cannot be satisfied with the food given to the infant. The religious instinct of the more advanced soul can be satisfied only by more information, greater light, stronger stimulus to right living.

The Modern Thinker

"In order to satisfy the modern thinker, the facts about religion must be presented in exactly the same way as are facts about any other department of knowledge. They must conform to reason, to common sense; they must be harmonious with other laws in nature, and they must explain things and satisfy them. It is because many religions fail to do this, because they insist upon proclaiming statements which are obviously unjust and irrational, that they are not satisfying the religious instinct of many very good people.

"Theosophy is not at all antagonistic to religions. On the contrary, it recognizes that they are helping many people. Theosophy suggests that people search into their own religion for the truths which they seek, even though they might well accept truth from other sources also.

Satisfies Religious Instinct

"Theosophy satisfies the religious instinct wholly because it gives the information which people want. It tells them definitely and accurately why we are here, the nature of the universe, its principal laws, how we should conform to these, what it is necessary to do so as to be happy and useful, what is the future that lies before us, and all other essential truths. It enlarges our previous conceptions of honor, of truth, of duty; it removes our fear of death, it relieves our worries, it lightens our burdens; it stimulates us to greater usefulness and greater happiness."

Tonight Mr. Hotchner will speak at Orton hall on "Death and the Hereafter," the lecture to begin punctually at 8 o'clock. His subject is one that will probably draw even a larger audience than usual, because it is the one subject humanity is mostly interested in and about which it knows least.

—The Anaconda Standard, Anaconda, Montana, January 7, 1906, page 9.