Tom C. Clark

“ What are death, judgment, and retribution after death?
'Ever since primordial days, numerous peoples have had a certain perception of that hidden power which hovers over the course of things and over the events that make up the lives of men; some have even come to know of a Supreme Being and Father. Religions in an advanced culture have been able to use more refined concepts and a more developed language in their struggle for an answer to man's religious questions. ”

“ It is noteworthy that in connection with this Act, the Senate Special Subcommittee to Investigate Immigration and Naturalization stated: 'The subcommittee realizes and respects the fact that the question of whether or not a person must bear arms in defense of his country may be one which invades the province of religion and personal conscience.' Thus, it recommended that an alien not be required to vow to bear arms when he asserted 'his opposition to articipation in war in any form because of his personal religious training and belief.' S.Rep. ”

“ In a later form he hedged the question as to his belief in a Supreme Being by saying that it depended on the definition and he appended a statement that he felt it a violation of his moral code to take human life and that he considered this belief superior to his obligation to the state. As to whether his conviction was religious, he quoted with approval Reverend John Haynes Holmes' definition of religion as 'the consciousness of some power manifest in nature which helps man in the ordering of his life in harmony with its demands * * * (; it) is the supreme expression of human nature ”

“ In Seeger, No. 50, the Court of Appeals failed to find sufficient 'externally compelled beliefs.' However, it did find that 'it would seem impossible to say with assurance that (Seeger) is not bowing to 'external commands' in virtually the same sense as is the objector who defers to the will of a supernatural power.' 326 F.2d, at 853. It found little distinction between Jakobson's devotion to a mystical force of 'Godness' and Seeger's compulsion to 'goodness.' Of course, as we have said, the statute does not distinguish between externally and internally derived beliefs. ”

“ The Schema of the recent Ecumenical Council included a most significant declaration on religion: [4]
'The community of all peoples is one. One is their origin, for God made the entire human race live on all the face of the earth. One, too, is their ultimate end, God. Men expect from the various religions answers to the riddles of the human condition: What is man? What is the meaning and purpose of our lives? ”

“ With the Federal Conscription Act of 1863, which enacted the commutation and substitution provisions of General Order No. 99, the Federal Government occupied the field entirely and in the 1864 Draft Act, 13 Stat. 9, it extended exemptions to those conscientious objectors who were members of religious denominations opposed to the bearing of arms and who were prohibited from doing so by the articles of faith of their denominations. Selective Service System Monograph No. 11, Conscientious Objection 40-41 (1950) . ”

“ What ultimate reality is we do not know; but we have the faith that it expresses itself in the human world as the power which inspires in men moral purpose.' At 95.
'Thus the 'God' that we love is not the figure on the great white throne, but the perfect pattern, envisioned by faith, of humanity as it should be, purged of the evil elements which retard its progress toward 'the knowledge, love and practice of the right. ”

“ Those found to be within the exemption were not inducted into the armed services but were assigned to noncombatant service under the supervision of the Selective Service System. The Congress recognized that one might be religious without belonging to an organized church just as surely as minority members of a faith not opposed to war might through religious reading reach a conviction against participation in war. ”

“ Few would quarrel, we think, with the proposition that in no field of human endeavor has the tool of language proved so inadequate in the communication of ideas as it has in dealing with the fundamental questions of man's predicament in life, in death or in final judgment and retribution. ”

“ Indeed, most people would be seriously disturbed by the thought that it should need to die at all. For it is their God, and they have nothing to put in its place. * * * Every one of us lives with some mental picture of a God 'out there,' a God who 'exists' above and beyond the world he made, a God 'to' whom we pray and to whom we 'go' when we die.' At 14. ”

“ Religious experiences which are as real as life to some may be incomprehensible to others.' Local boards and courts in this sense are not free to reject beliefs because they consider them 'incomprehensible.' Their task is to decide whether the beliefs professed by a registrant are sincerely held and whether they are, in his own scheme of things, religious. ”

“ He explained that his religious and social thinking had developed after much meditation and thought. He had concluded that man must be 'partly spiritual' and, therefore, 'partly akin to the Supreme Reality' ”