Part 3 (1/2)

And let me tell you: When man is intellectually free, the progress he will make is beyond calculation.

What better ill.u.s.tration than this: More progress has been made since the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution than was made in the previous five thousand years!

Yes, more intellectual and material progress has been made by man since the establishment of the American Republic than during all the intervening years from the Pharaohs of Egypt up to and including the time of ”the grandeur that was Greece, and the glory that was Rome.”

And there is a good and valid reason for this.

It was because ”in 1776 our fathers retired the G.o.ds from politics.” The basic principle of the American Republic is the freedom of man in society.

The Declaration of Independence was the product of Intellectual Emanc.i.p.ation, and that is why, from thenceforth, our date of existence should be recorded, not from the mythical birth of Jesus Christ, but from the day of our Independence!

This should be the year one hundred and seventy-eight in our calendar!

Despite discouraging signs here and there, the seeds of freedom planted by the American Revolution will take root, and throughout the world, if man will learn to zealously guard his freedom, Peace and Progress will come to all the world.

Could there be a more significant ill.u.s.tration than this:

Practically in our own lifetime, and certainly since the Declaration of Independence, man has wrought the most amazing achievements in the field of science and progress ever recorded in human history.

Not in their order, nor according to their significance, do I record the following:

Anesthesia was discovered.

Do you know what it means to relieve man of his pain and suffering?

Anesthesia is the most humane of all of man's accomplishments, and what a merciful accomplishment it was.

For this great discovery we are indebted to Dr. W. T. G. Morton.

Do you know that the religionists opposed the use of anesthesia on the ground that G.o.d sent pain as a punishment for sin, and it was considered the greatest of sacrileges to use it--just think of it, a sin to relieve man of his misery! What a monstrous perversion! This one instance alone should convince you of the difference in believing in G.o.d or not.

No believer in G.o.d would have spent his energies to discover anesthesia.

He would have been in mortal fear of the wrath of his G.o.d for interfering with his ”divine plan,” of making man suffer for having eaten of the fruit of the ”Tree of Knowledge.”

The very crux of the matter is in this one instance.

Man seeks to relieve his fellow man from the suffering of disease and the pangs of mental agony. The believers in G.o.d are content that man's suffering is ordained, and therefore he accepts life and its trials and tribulations as a penance for living.

The fear of the wrath of G.o.d has been a stumbling block to progress.

When Dr. James Young Simpson sought to apply anesthesia to a woman in childbirth, the clergymen of his day foamed at the mouth and spat upon him with vituperation and abuse, for attempting to violate G.o.d's direct command that ”in pain thou shalt bring forth children,” as based upon the idiotic text of the Bible. But Dr. Simpson persisted despite the ravings of the religious lunatics of his day.

The importance of Dr. Simpson's application of anesthesia to the relief of pain in childbirth, and his open defiance of the religionists, are beyond the measure of words to evaluate.

The X-ray was discovered in our time.

Professor Wilhelm Roentgen deserves our everlasting debt of grat.i.tude for this contribution. Its application alone in the field of medicine makes it one of the greatest contributions to the service of man.

Dr. Karl Lansteiner's discovery of the composition of the blood--made in our time--has been responsible for the saving of countless thousands of lives.