630. But how do these voyagers appear now? Well, in the beginning, of course, they do not have such a noble attitude as that described above. On the contrary, they could be described as synonymous with those people designated as "irreligious". These are all those beings whose faculty of intelligence has become far too dominant in relation to the faculty of feeling. Therefore we define their collective thought-atmosphere as the "climate of intelligence". Such beings represent the culmination of scepticism with regard to all religious matters. All inherited religious truths are regarded by them as an expression of naïvity and superstition, for they assess such truths solely in the light of an elementary terminology suited to a primitive ability of perception, a terminology in which those same truths are still documented and presented to this day. That terminology is certainly not designed as an intelligent "explanation" and its purpose is not in any way at all supposed to form an analysis, but on the contrary is created only to constitute an ideal which instills a frame of mind corresponding to baptisms and sacraments. So, because the basis of these factors is mainly that they should be food for the ability to have faith, then of course they cannot be of any worth to beings who more or less lack this ability. And these latter beings will then, of course, be regarded by the "believers" as "non-believers" who will be "lost" if they do not "convert". These so-called "infidels", with all their scepticism and antipathy towards everything religious, constitute an exceptionally large "thought-climate" in the zone of terrestrial people. They form quite a different sphere of consciousness, quite another "dwelling place in the Father's house" than do those beings first mentioned. But this is not a "dwelling place" lying nearby or located somewhere out in space. The two "dwelling places" occupy the same space in the physical sense. They stretch out over the same continents, the same oceans, the same towns and the same countries. Their inhabitants travel in the same ships, trains, buses and aeroplanes. They have mutual roads and streets, and actually to a large extent mutual houses, factories, parks, institutions and schools, and are also shareholders or partners in the same enterprises, corporations etc. Thus, the two "dwellings" are to be found in the same sphere. Their distinctions are solely of a mental kind. Therefore they are not directly visible to the ordinary terrestrial person and so they remain practically unknown to him; indeed the majority of those two spheres' own inhabitants still have no notion about this, the existence of dwelling zones or positions in the cycle, and even less about the analyses of them. But that they nevertheless do indeed exist cannot be denied, just as long as there are genuine "believers" and genuine "non-believers".
      The beings just referred to have, as mentioned before, a far too dominating faculty of intelligence in comparison with feeling. The development of this faculty has long ago stifled their ability to have faith. They have become "people who analyse". In the way they conduct their lives they will only work with tangible, physical realities. All phenomena which cannot be weighed or measured will be for them unnatural, unreal or arising from superstition. But this does not necessarily mean that such people are really "evil". On the contrary, now and then one finds that many of these beings could be described as "good" and appear with fine and noble characters, while sometimes the opposite is the case with those "believers". Among the latter can often be found people of a very "evil" and small-minded nature; a fact which can certainly never be denied as long as there is such strict judgement against all those who think differently and are punished with inquisitions, death at the stake, fire and condemnation to hell. Thus the two types of thought-climates or mental "dwellings" contain to the same degree both "evil" and "good" people. And therefore it cannot be said that one "dwelling" is more highly civilized than the other. They both have precisely the same deficiency, indicating that their "inhabitants" are neither perfect nor blessed. It will never be possible, in any way, to create an absolutely "lasting peace" within the domains of these two zones. Besides, the individuals in each group are far too intolerant and uncomprehending with regard to the other group's justifiable existence. And so there will be war between the beings of the two zones, for their climates react strongly against each other. The "believers" consider the "non-believers" as "sinners", as beings who belong to the "devil" or some other "evil" power if they do not "convert" – that is, if they do not become "believers". And the "non-believers" consider the "believers" of no account because they are superior to the latter in intelligence. And neither of the two groups understand the correct coherence and therefore cannot give each other the respect and right of existence they quite properly demand. There arises a very wrong "cosmic chemistry". The reactions of thoughts become of a murderous and warlike nature. In other words, the thought-climates of the two spheres become "poisonous", that is, mentally damaging or lethal for the individuals themselves. This is proved by all the world-wide overcrowding in mental hospitals and institutions for the mentally handicapped, as well as by all the material forms of warlike conditions and homicidal, bloody courses of action which those thought-climates give rise to in the way people work out their existence in daily life.