WEBVTT

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This has led me to where--

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I've ended up at
Emerson's proposal

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that all religions
should have one member.

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This idea, incidentally, was
very important to Utopos,

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who was the founder
of Thomas More's

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fictional island of Utopia.

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Now, I bring this up
for three reasons.

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One is because 2016 will
mark the 500th anniversary

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of Thomas More's novel, Utopia.

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Second, because More had some
rather enlightened things

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to say about
religious tolerance.

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And three, because I have a
book about American utopian

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communities coming
out next year.

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While the Utopians of
More's novel believe, quote,

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"that there is a single
divine power unknown, eternal,

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infinite, inexplicable,
and quite beyond the grasp

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of the human mind," they
also reserve their harshest

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punishments of
anything in Utopia--

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their harshest punishment,
exile and slavery--

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for anyone who
becomes too zealous

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a proselytizer of one religion.

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And so here's a
crucial passage--

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just a crucial, short little
passage from Thomas More's

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Utopia.

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"Utopos made this law, not
only to preserve the peace,

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which he saw being
completely destroyed

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by endless disputes
and implacable feuds,

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but also because he
thought it was in the best

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interest of religion itself.

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He didn't presume to say
which creed was right.

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Apparently, he considered
it possible that God

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made different people believe
different things because he

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wanted to be worshipped
in many different ways."

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Isn't that a beautiful notion
of a [? pancreatic ?] religion?

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