References
1. - In the current discussion, by religion we mean divine monotheist religions that God has presented to humanity through His prophets throughout history. By religiousness, we signify devotion to religion and endorsing and having faith in its theoretical teachings and acting upon its practical teachings. Also by religious research, we mean theoretical research concerning religions and their teachings.
2. By modern human, we mean men and women who consider the characteristics of the new lifestyle established in the West in the last few centuries desirable, and align their lifestyle and culture with this "modern" way of life. Several of these characteristics are Humanism, Empiricism, Rationalism, escape from tradition and aversion to worship, Secularism, Liberalism, and modern technologies. Because Europe is the source of modernism, today many modernists live in the West, but this does not mean that all westerners are modernists or that no easterners are such.
3. - By crisis, we mean fundamental and widespread problems whose escalation and prolongation can critically harm life and civilization in general.
4. - For more information, see Michael Peterson et al, Reason and Religious Belief, Chapters three and seven.
5. - For information on the positivist approach to theology, see ibid, pp. 260-269.
6. - René Guénon, The Crisis of the Modern World.
7. - Presently, the information available to humanity doubles every year. This accelerating process of data increase induced specialists to seek out new ways to store this unbelievable capacity of data.
8. - According to the report of the American National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse half of those who are arrested are intoxicated with alcohol. One third of all homicides and one fourth of all suicides have been reported to be accompanied by consumption of alcohol. Sixty seven percent of all instances of child molestation and thirty nine percent of all instances of rape are accompanied by alcohol consumption… The use of alcohol causes the death of at least twelve thousand Spaniards every year… Experts claim that more than half of deaths in driving accidents are caused by alcohol… (Ja'far Sakhāvat, Sociology of Social Deviations (Jāmi'ah Shanāsī-i Inḥirāf-i Ijtimā'ī), pp. 113, 130.)
9. - According to a public poll in America in 1968, fifty-two percent of participants declared that they feel lonely and depressed. (see: Honolulu Advertiser, Nov. 20, 1968, p. A3)
10. - گر چه به ظاهر آن پري پنهان بود آدمی پنهانتر از پريان بود
نزد عاقل زان پري كه مضمر است آدمی صدبار خود پنهانتر است
خویشتن نشناخت مسكين آدمی از فزوني آمد و شد در كمي
خویشتن را آدمی ارزان فروخت بود اطلس، خويش را بر دلق دوخت
11. - According to recent information, about six million American children suffer from depression. (Donald Mcnew, Psychology of Stress)
12. - Technology is the implementation of applied sciences—which have practical and industrial value—in the industries and arts.
13. - British philosopher and mathematician, Bertrand Russell, while indicating the plagues of technology, states: "Unlike religion, it [technology] is ethically neutral: it assures men that they can perform wonders, but does not tell them what wonders to perform. In this way it is incomplete. In practice, the purposes to which scientific skill will be devoted depend largely on chance. The men at the head of the vast organizations which it necessitates can, within limits, turn it this way or that as they please. The power impulse thus has a scope which it never had before… Ends are no longer considered; only the skillfulness of the process is valued. This also is a form of madness. It is, in our day, the most dangerous form, and the one against which a sane philosophy should provide an antidote…" (Bertrand Russell, The History of Western Philosophy, p. 494.)
14. - As stated by the Holy Qur’an, the feeling of independence and self-sufficiency from God is the agent of insurrection and insubordination of humans toward Him:
﴿انَّ الإِنسانَ ليطْغىٰ. اَنْ رآه ﭐستغنىٰ﴾
“Surely humans are rebellious; for they see themselves self-sufficient.” (Sūrah ‘Alaq, 96:6-7)
15. - This fear is so extensive that is has become the subject of many acclaimed science fiction movies.
16. - Carl G. Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul, p. 284.