THE LIFE WE SEEK

The Life We Seek ~ 435 ~ THE LIFE WE SEEK Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), a close associate of Karl Marx, was known to the world as an atheist and a socialist. He held that ‘first of all, man needs clothes to cover his body, food to fill his stomach; only then can he put his mind to philosophical and political matters.’ Nowhere in this supposedly allembracing dictum is God mentioned. But Engel’s atheism was a late development in his life, a reaction to an early, unfavorable environment. As he grew older and more mature in intellect, he became more and more sceptical of the traditional forms of religion he had known in his youth. To a friend he wrote, “Every day I pray that the truth should be made plain to me. Ever since doubts have arisen within me, this prayer is perennially on my lips. I cannot accept your faith. As I am writing these lines, my heart is heavy and my eyes laden with tears; yet I feel that I have not been turned away from the gate. Hopefully, I will find God. Heart and soul, I yearn for a vision of Him. And, by my soul, do you know what this longing—this intense love—of mine amounts to? It is a manifestation of the holy spirit. Even if the Bible