Livets Bog, vol. 1
The struggle for existence. Evolution
5. A glance at the world will tell us that the manifestation of living beings, the so-called "struggle for existence", is really identical with nothing more nor less than a striving to overcome everything of an unpleasant nature. When we build houses or when we wear clothes, then it is only for overcoming those world energies which in the form of an adverse climate, might otherwise undermine our experience of life. The same shows itself in civilized societies where we find schools, hospitals, philanthropic institutions, police forces, fire brigades, government and administrative measures, churches, sects or religious communities, for these realities are, every one without exception, synonymous with visible expressions of this struggle by human beings against those realities among world energies which are of an unsuitable nature for building up a happy fate for the individual. This "struggle for existence", or this ever-increasing effort by the individual to overcome and control the unpleasant forms of energy in nature, is normally recognized under the concept of "progress".