LECTURES IN BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES 



fore, have had as high a selective value in primitive society as 

 any other characteristic. Spiritual qualities must have been 

 essential to the earliest rational men. Consequently, we must 

 think of man as basically spiritual, regardless of whether we 

 believe that religion was given to him by a supernatural su- 

 preme being, or whether, as I believe, we consider that it evolved 

 through the socio-cultural process. The ability of men to put 

 their ideas into writing, thus rendering them much more pre- 

 cise and constant, has enabled us to substitute rational think- 

 ing for many of the superstitions of the older religions, and 

 we have not reached the end of this process. Nevertheless, the 

 ties which bind us to our traditional heritage, which enable us 

 to work together, and which stimulate our dreams for the fu- 

 ture are still made up largely of emotional and spiritual at- 

 tachments, and the experience of those nations which have at- 

 tempted to sever them and substitute purportedly rationalistic 

 philosophies like Marxism have emphasized sharply for us the 

 dangers of such a course. 



Hence to the questions, "Why am I here?" and "What is the 

 meaning of life?" I give these answers: Whatever mind or spirit 

 that I possess, as well as the comforts of the civilization in which 

 I live, has been given to me by the work, care, and ideals of 

 my own parents and teachers, their parents and teachers, and so 

 on back through the ages. I owe to them an immense debt, 

 which I can repay only through following their examples, and, 

 like them, learning how to work with my fellow men and to 

 develop ideals and dreams which I c;:n pass on to future genera- 

 tions. And because I believe that human progress has been 

 shaped in the past not by the unalterable will of an inscrutable 

 supreme being, but by the hopes, ideals, and working together 

 of men and women like ourselves, ] can hope that whatever I 

 do that is of worth will make the world better for future gen- 

 erations than it would have been if 1 had not maele the effort. 

 This is the greatest satisfaction for which I can hope in either 

 the present life or any conceivable future existence. 



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