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Show ThiA 3- uMei?e . . . Biblical Contradiction Forms Basis of Philosopher's Whole Outlook on Life Research Professor in Social Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York City, Dr. Horace M. Kallen reveals his personal creed. This is one of a series of statements prepared for broadcast by thinking, useful people in all walks of life. The program is presented by Edward R. Murrow over KSUB at 6 p. m. Mondav through Friday. Bv Dr. Horace M. Kallen Philosopher; Professor Emeritus, New School for Social Research The beliefs by which I live begun when I first read the following fol-lowing from an inner debate begun be-gun when I first read the Book of Job in English. I had known it only in Hebrew. There is a verse in the 13th chapter which, literally translated, would read: "Lo, He will slay me, I shall not survive; nevertheless will I maintain my ways before Him." But the King James version starts it as: "Though he slay me will I trust in Him." I could not for the life of me reconcile the contradiction. con-tradiction. But in time I realized that the irreconcilable versions were due to the differences between be-tween the beliefs of their makers, that the versions could contradict contra-dict each other precisely because they are not statements of fact, but expressions of attitudes. Ever since, I have held that we all live by faith, live so because be-cause we must, not because we wish. Our existence is the workings work-ings of personal beliefs which are the present substances of the good we hope for, the present evidence of the good we do not see. Thus each of us lives as an act of faith, as an attitude toward to-ward change and chance and necessity. Naturally, there must be more beliefs and more diverse beliefs than there are people. This is why what people believe in matters mat-ters less than how they believe' it. For how they believe wit-1 nesses the quality of their devo-it devo-it ion to what. Very many beliefs are but expedients of struggle and adjustment. Basic are the few on which the believer bets his life. You bet your life on some what when you freely work for it, fight for it. and if needs must, die for it. Now, in my 70th year, I am asked: What have I bet my life on? Pondering the answer I find that above all else, I believe in equal liberty for every person to believe, to change his beliefs, to tell his beliefs, and in reason as the one method by which this equality of all believers is most reliably confirmed and advanced. ad-vanced. I believe that democracy is the free orchestration of mankind's man-kind's equal liberty! that progress pro-gress is their teamwork, that peace is their reciprocal guarantee. guaran-tee. I believe in reason as that which orchestration, progress and peace consummate, and I believe in this consummation as the common gal of all who learn, as I have learned, that whoever claims freedom to choose his own faith must grant his neighbor's equal freedom to choose. I believe be-lieve that such reciprocity renders ren-ders each person a contributor to collective security for the equal liberty of every person. True, mankind is everywhere more disposed to secure its own freedoms by attacking others. The world, George Santayana observed, ob-served, "is full of 'conscript j minds only they are in different armies, and nobody is fighting to be free, but each to make his ovn conscription universal." To bet one's life on equal liberty lib-erty for everybody as the goal, and on reason as the going to this goal, is to enlist in a lasting last-ing war against all such conscriptions; con-scriptions; it Is to live by a fighting faith in the freedom which Job bet his life on when he challenged the justice of the Almighty and the Almighty justified jus-tified him. |