A fish without a bicycle

It was posted on a social networking poster with these words: "A man without religion is like a fish without a bicycle." Translating it into Portuguese clear and direct: the same way that a fish does not need a bike, the man does not need religion.

This is a thought that has become a fad these days, more common, however, among young people, which is not hard to understand. Who has not faced the hardships of a long life can be mistaken with regard to much. Religion would be one of them.

Over the years, however, it changes our view with respect to many issues, such as occurred, for example, to André Luiz, who thus reported the matter, in the opening of his first work psychographic by medium Chico Xavier:

"At no time, the religious problem arose so deep in my eyes. The principles purely philosophical, political and scientific appeared to me extremely secondary to human life now. It means, in my view, a valuable asset in the Earth’s plan, but urged to recognize that humanity is not built from transitional generations but of eternal spirits, to the glorious path.

It was checked that something stands above all the question merely intellectual. This is faith, divine manifestation to man. Similar analysis appeared, however, belatedly. In fact, he knew the letters of the Old Testament and many times browsed the Gospel; although it was necessary to recognize that he never looked into sacred letters with light from the heart. He used to identify himself through criticism of writers less accustomed to the feeling and consciousness, or in full disagreement with the essential truths. On other occasions, he interpreted them with organized priesthood without ever leaving the circle of contradictions where parked voluntarily." (Our Home, chapter 1, page 18.)

Other known figures on the planet realized, still in life, the value of religion and in this sense it must remember one of the most famous quotes attributed to Albert Einstein: "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."

In the book Einstein and Religion by Max Jammer, Professor of Physics and Einstein's colleague at Princeton, there is interesting information about the relationship of the outstanding scientist with religion. In the book, Jammer mentions another important phrase from Einstein, in an interview in 1930 to the writer James Murphy and to the mathematician John William Navin Sullivan. "All the finest speculation in the field of science," Einstein said to them, "comes from a deep religious feeling, without that feeling, they would be unsuccessful."

French surgeon and physiologist, Dr. Alexis Carrel, 1912 Nobel Prize in Medicine, was notable not only for his experiences on graft tissues and organs and their survival outside the body, but also for his philosophical works, among which stands out "The man, this unknown" bestseller in North America in 1935.

In February 1942, the magazine Reader's Digest revealed another facet of the great physician and thinker: his faith in God and his belief in the immeasurable value of prayer, which he defines as "an invisible emanation of the spirit of worship of man, the most powerful form of energy it can generate."

Here, briefly, what the noted French physician says about prayer and religion:

1. Prayer brands with its indelible marks our actions and behavior.

2. Prayer is a force as real as terrestrial gravity. The influence of prayer on the body and the human spirit is as likely to be demonstrated as the secreting glands.

3. Many sick people have been freed from the gloom and disease thanks to prayer. It is that when we pray, we bind ourselves to the inexhaustible motive force that drives the universe and in asking, our human deficiencies are addressed and we rise strengthened and restored.

4. We should not, however, invoke God in view merely the satisfaction of our desires. It is gathered a greater strength of prayer when we use it to beg him to help us to imitate him.

5. Every time we go to God, we improve body and soul. There has, however, meaning pray in the morning and live as a barbarian the rest of the day.

6. Today, more than ever, prayer is an unavoidable necessity in the lives of individuals and peoples. It is the lack of intensity in religious sentiment that eventually has brought the world to the verge of ruin.

The thought of André Luiz, Einstein and Alexis Carrel should be present in the minds of all those who so childish, drafted or disclose the phrase poster we refer to: "A man without religion is like a fish without a bicycle." Think and behave like that and you will see what awaits you on your return to the real life.