In this superb little book, written during World War II, historian, sociologist, and novelist H.G. Wells (1866-1946) contemplates the belief systems, prejudices, and institutions that have brought humankind to a dreadful impasse, where it stands at the brink of destruction - or of a new beginning. In his lucid summary of modern ideas concerning the fundamentals and ultimates of existence, Wells points out how absurd and outmoded religious beliefs, marked by intolerance, hatred, and exclusion, have poisoned human beings' relations with the world and each other. These need to be replaced by a new social morality and a heightened sense of humankind's proper place in a dynamic universe.