亚历山大是哈佛大学的医生和研究人员,他通过发展的眼光辩证地看待人类间存在的矛盾问题,向人们揭示了,合作远胜冲突。邻国之间进行自由贸易会比相互打仗要强;工厂里,工人们通力合作,要比相互争吵、罢工更能提高生产效率;教会之间的恶意竞争是值得谴责的,一个人的信仰可以通过多种方式来表达,不能认为一种信条是正确的,其他的就都是错误的。事物之间都需要交流沟通,然后取长补短,以求自身发展。


This I believe. Dr. Alexander Forbes is a leading physiologist. Since 1910, when he graduated from the Harvard medical school, he has taught there and devoted himself to research on a nervous system. He served active duty in the naval reserve in 2 world wars and for 25 years has been a president of the board of the George Junior Republic, a school of practical citizenship. Here is Dr. Alexander Forbes.

The notion that science and religion are antagonistic and incompatible, seems to me, utterly false. Science is the quest for the eternal truth in the universe by disciplined minds. And I am sure if pursued in the right spirit, science engenders reverence. Reverence and worship are as much part of the normal human being as hunger for food, or zest for action. Primitive man naturally worships the sun-prime source of light and warmth, and indeed of this earth itself.

I sympathize and find the blue sky over head as noble for a setting for worship as temple or cathedral. I disagree with the cynics, who hold that all organized religion is a racket, conducted by parasites who fleece the gullible. The history of religions reveals examples of exactly just that. Indeed, our present civilization is not fully free from that reproach.

But I am sure the well-organized universal tendency of a man to revere, and worship, and to build the noblest edifices for the purpose, means more than wholesales surrender to self-seeking parasites. Religion isn't weakness; it's a vital element in the human nature. Geology tells the story of the changing in our planet through millions years, from a mass of molten matter in which no life could exit, to a fit ball for the living creatures. Biology takes up the story and tells how life has evolved from the origins as primitive as to protein molecule, to ever more highly organized forms. Animals that see, hear and feel as much as we do. And through them to human being, who can reason, cultivate the fine arts, and organize the cooperative and harmonious society.

I find them in this cosmic sequence of a profoundly-stirring drama. Those who say that all this is just the complex of physical and chemical reactions, devoid of meaning or purpose, are blinding themselves to all that matters most in our lives. If a chemist analyzes a volume of Shakespeare, finds nothings there but paper and ink. His report is quite irrelevant to me, as I read the Hamlet. Analysis of a symphony by a physical apparatus may appear complete to the physicist.But it means nothing to the musician.

Viewing the pageant of the universe in its eternity, and contemplating man's rise from the to its highest spiritual stature, I find in the creative force that did all this, something we can worship with all the reverence that is in us. In the struggle for survival thought the ages, cruel competition has been stressed as a necessary element. Yet, in spite of this, many animals, lower in the scale than man, have found that the cooperation works could be better than conflict,and actually promotes survival. How much more does this apply to civilized man?

I believe that when neighbor countries learn that friendly trade is better than warfare, they will live better. When the management and labor learn that their common aim: production is better served by the teamwork than the quarrels and strikes. They will fare better physically and spiritually. I deplore the hostile conflict between rival churches,calling themselves Christian. The need for worship is expressed in many ways. The creeds and the rituals that suit one type of mind do not satisfy others.

Dogmatic insistence that one form of worship is right and all others are wrong is as alien to the spirit of freedom, to which our western world is dedicated as the tyranny of the dictator. Only when mutual respect and friendly cooperation replace dogmatism and bigotry, will the true spirit of liberty prevail on earth.

Those were the beliefs of Dr.Alexander Forbes professor emeritus of physiology at Harvard University.


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