This I Believe

In my judgment, the central aim of education and of life is to wed knowledge with wisdom, to enable men both to do, and to do what is good. As I grow older, my conviction deepens that knowledge without virtue is sterile and dangerous, and that many of the world’s ills stem from the divorcement of these two goals. Nazi Germany was a terrible example of this divorcement. The knowledge and power of the German people were put to evil use by men without ethical standards. My conviction also deepens that the understanding of good an evil, the attainment of wisdom by individuals and societies, is impossible without a lofty sense of the meaning of life, and that this lofty sense is achieved only through combining an understanding of nature with an appreciation of what men call “God.”

I believe, also, that there are many ways of appreciating and understanding God, and that each individual must find his own way. He may, as I do, seek this way along the path of Protestant Christianity. He may adhere to the creed of an organized church, or he may develop his own private approach. The important thing is, through religious experience, to build a faith in a divine power beyond oneself. Not only do I think this faith is important to an individual, I believe it is also fundamental to the health of any organized society. I’ve been much impressed by Toynbee’s theory, that religion is a cement which holds civilization together. My own personal belief is that the quality and the goodness of our civilization rest upon Christian ethics, and if we fail to maintain these ethics as a vital and living part of our community life, we would have lost the essential binding element of our civilization.

The faith of scientists that a body of unalterable, natural law governs the universe, and that it is discoverable step-by-step, is profoundly reassuring in this period of doubt and pessimism. This faith, coupled with my strong feeling that man can steer a course for himself, gives me an abiding confidence in the capacity of the human race to advance and to create a better life. I do feel, however, that the development of the whole man and the good life rest upon a working partnership between the materialism of science and the spiritualism of religion.

As science has extended its sway over new areas of thought, we have tended to circumscribe and subordinate humanism and the knowledge of good and evil. In our education—throughout the whole system, I’m afraid—we have frequently become so preoccupied with vocational and professional training, that we have lost sight of the importance of training a man to make a life, as well as a living. I have faith that we can effect a combination of science and spirit which will contribute toward the effectiveness of each, and that by so doing we can achieve a bifocal vision which enables us to see life steady, and see it whole.