This I Believe

I was born into a devout Christian family. To my grandparents, God was a personality particularly interested in Christians. To them, He was mostly concerned with good or evil behavior of man, and used threats of punishment to keep humans decent. Whatever God looks like or what He is, I accept Him as the Creator and operator, just as the navigator accepts the North Star as the eternally reliable guide for his course.

I have observed the cloudless firmament at night in many parts of the world. I believe that only an all-complete, omniscient and omnipotent entity could conceive and regulate such a galaxy of universes. The inventions of man in the past fifty years would have been regarded by my grandparents as miracles of divine initiative, but I believe they came about because of the advance of man’s capacity to think. So I believe it is only natural that as man acquires more knowledge and makes good use of it, he should rely less on faith and more on reason.

I have lived in many parts of the world. More than half-a-century ago I came to believe that God has the same interest in Mohammedans, Buddhists, and Jews, as He has in Christians. Their religions are in most important respects the same as mine. I believe God has planted in all humans a sense of right and wrong. It is human to strive to have the principles of the Golden Rule and the Ten Commandments guide us in our relations with one another on this Earth. The doctrines of all lasting religions portray that. In that direction lies a way of life that is best for humanity.

I believe in the immortality of the human soul because all of my experience and intelligence compels such a belief. Nothing that I know of in nature can be destroyed. Certainly the human soul or personality is a very real thing. Its effectiveness transcends anything of tangible matter that I know of. Therefore, since all nature is eternal it seems reasonable to me that the soul, being a part of nature, is eternal. Regardless of any stake in immortality, one is compelled to the conclusion that life on Earth is good to the degree that people live under their rules for good human conduct.

It is my belief that a religious nation, one which bases its human relationships on justice and the Golden Rule, will be stronger and outlive one that does not. The history of civilization bears testimony to the correctness of that view. Such a life makes nations fit, and in nature the fit survive.

Whatever I deeply believe is the end product of an honest effort to use fully the faculties that God gave me. I know only what I see, and I believe those things that an unemotional and rational mind can believe from the evidence of experience. The basic rules for human conduct which we find in all religions grew out of human experience, reflect the distilled wisdom of mankind, and I do not need to believe that God used one or another method to announce them as divine law.

Nevertheless, I do not disbelieve. Whether the Christ story is true or not is not important to me. The important thing to me is that reason, instinct, and experience all tell me that never before or since has as fine, full, and practical way of life been laid before the human race as that enunciated by Christ. I believe that no other rules of human conduct promise as much in the way of comfort, peace of mind, and happiness during our stay on this Earth.