Czech President Vaclav Havel received the 1994 Philadelphia Liberty Medal Monday with a call for a spiritual renewal to unite people who are linked globally but violently torn by cultural conflicts.
Speaking at Independence Hall on the day marking America's independence from England, Havel said fundamental principles of democracy, such as individual liberty and power based in the people, will mean nothing unless they are grounded in an awareness of mankind's place in the universe and a "respect for the miracle of being.""The Declaration of Independence, adopted 218 years ago in this building, states that the Creator gave man the right to liberty. It seems man can realize that liberty only if he does not forget the One who endowed him with it," Havel said.
"The only real hope of people today is probably a renewal of our certainty that we are rooted in the Earth and, at the same time, the cosmos," he said in prepared remarks.
Havel, a renowned playwright who was jailed for his dissident activities then was swept to power in Czechoslovakia's 1989 "velvet revolution", was awarded the annual Liberty Medal for his work toward cultural and political free-doms.
The medal honoring the principles of democracy also carries a $100,000 award, which Havel will donate toward the restoration of the Prague Castle, a spokesman said.
Although the demands of political leadership have sometimes buffeted the high moral standing that Havel, 57, has held among wide audiences around the world, he adopted a lofty moral and philosophical approach in his award speech.
He said the world appeared to be undergoing a fundamental shift in values comparable with the beginning of the Middle Ages or the Re-nais-sance.
This was caused by the exhaustion of modern science's potential to explain mankind's relationship to the world.
"It (science) is now more of a source of disintegration and doubt that a source of integration and meaning," he said. "By day we work with statistics; in the evening, we consult astrologers."
Modern civilization has linked the entire planet superficially, he said, while underneath, people still seeking answers to life cling even more tenaciously to "the ancient certainties of their tribe."