Through us the earth and the cosmos are rendered conscious and articulate, and are able to reflect upon themselves and through us to recognise, give thanks and pay homage to their Creator.
For this reason we see that human beings are vested with an inalienable dignity, conferred on us by our Creator, which transcends all that tends to narrow, limit and stultify us.
Moreover, if we recognise that we are creatures who owe our existence to a Creator whom we call God, we see that we are children of God, brothers and sisters, all members of one human family.
Implications
With our dignity comes a responsibility which we may not shrug off or dismiss.
This responsibility consists in a calling to live this life in a manner consistent with our human dignity, and to strive to bring our human potential, as individuals and as family, to fruition.
This means that anything that would or could result in our compromising this human vocation is something that would make us less human and mislead us, and as such should be avoided or rejected.
Our Destiny
It does not take much intelligence to recognise that God is our source; that it is to God that we owe our being and our primary fidelity, that God is our destiny, in Whom alone we will find fulfilment.
Human beings, if attentive enough, are able to attune themselves and respond to God's own self-revelation and to discern God's will.
The fundamental human quest, then, is to come to know God and to live according to the Divine purpose.
In folly, pride or self-will, we may deny, side-step or frustrate this calling.
Revelation
Although human reasoning can tell us of the existence of God and arrive at shrewd assumptions about some of the attributes of God, it cannot penetrate the Mystery of God.
That is something that must come from God to us.
We call that Divine self-revelation.
Such revelation has taken place over the millennia, to individuals and communities who have stopped to wonder, to listen and to ponder.
That revelation has been in proportion to our capacity for absorbing it and responding to it.
Religion attempts to convey to people what it has received and has gleaned about that which is beyond the mind of man, and to identify and outline the paths to deepest and richest human fulfilment.