The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1924-06-23
ALL CREEDS WERE
BUILT BY THE
LABORATORY WAY
DR., KiStler breaches Power
full Sermon on Vital
Problem,

ITO protest against creeds. as an
arrogant assumption of being a de-
pository of truth, charged with the
duty Of telling others what to be
Ieve, is more arrogant than the
creed" DIR. Edward Haines Kistler
said Sunday at the F'airview Presby-
terrain Church
Such assertion of individualism.
DR.. Kistler said. merely states that
it is perfectly able to go II alone,
and that the experiences Of the ages
can teach such mind little.
OR, to protest against creeds as
merely man made and to assert that
the Bible is creed enough for any
one neglects a perfectly wel-known
fact, that people read the Bible
through the speCtacles of their own
daily round of living, their reading,
their associations. Such folk, in
spite Of their assertion. make evil
dent their credal Bible-readng in
their insistence on but one form Of
baptism, for instance. In spite of
their protest. there at least is a par
of their creed.
Now, a creed is merely a formal
statement of conviction concerning
existing facts and their interrelatiOn-
ships To form a religious creed
merely means that one would be
scientific about the facts of human
personality; as scientific, indeed, as
one would be about the facts of the
material universe
"A creed demands open-minded-
ness. a revision of statement in light
of newer facts, a high intelligence
in determining underlying causes.
methods. resultants; it is the high
est attempt men can make to for
muIate their apprehension Of truth.
simply because its material is not
physical only, but includes all the
deeper phases of psychology and the,
as yet little known forces of spiri-
tual being.
As much as any scientific investi-
cation, it demands a spirit of com
mon sense, the historical perspective.
a scholarly openness Of mind toward
all varieties of human experience.
an unpriestly dislike Of mystery and
circumstance.
We Live by Creeds
You will not live by creeds? It
is daily done. At market. you live
by the overwhelmingly formulated,
and with scientific precisiOn-Of
weights, measures and coin eX-
change. The fOrmulae of physics in
all engineering are its Creeds: of
chemistry, its creeds. You refrain
from something YOU wish to dO-be-
cause of Mrs. Grundy's creed; you
engage in wedlock, or not, according
to the creed of intermarriage be
tween races, or classes, or. groups.
You live by the creed of brain nor
maIcy. and avoid personal entangle-
ment with the moron and degenerate.
In business, the creed of your
articles Of agreement and contracts
binds YOU; and in politics you bind
yourself to. the spirit. at least, Of
your party creed as your platform
declares it. AS a canon in law, the
creed against speeders occasionally
becomes active: and all law is So
ciety's creed on human living.
Even where little knowledge ex-
lists, as in evolution. you guide your
salt by the creed of a scientific con
sensus of opinion Demand no creed
in religion? Do you want to keep
It forever uninteligent and supersti-
tious?
Why not frankly say that your
objection is not to creeds, but 10
the Foundations the creeds have
made, and so object TO thinking Of
Jesus as being of an order as much
higher than human kind as is God
Himself? Or, that you do not want
men to think at all OF God, except
as the impersonal force or principle
you want Him to be?
Making Creeds
"Creeds were built by the
laboratory method alone Each bears
the marks of its birthplace and
birth-time. Many were the work Of
outlawed. hunted men. sealed with
martyr-blood.
THE more you insist that human
nature is interchangeable, the more
must we insist on the validity Of its
experiences through the ages, in
stating scientifically how men have
found God, a Saviour, the way to
& different form of life, the purpose
that cventuates in service, the
solution of the problems Of pain and
of evil.
Even may we insist that the pro-
lection of such determined lines into
the future and toward God validates
credaI insistance on Heaven and
He'll, God eternal and souls i'm
mortal.
zone thing more. Gloriously
necessary as creeds are. they need
not be understood in order to be
carried into effect. Your ignorant
lean car use the understanding Of
wiser folk. and catch on his radio
set the worship in Pittsburgh and
the orchestration by the Pacific. as
we'll as can they. And yet. in
curing minds will pursue the secret
Of the radio until they find. All
glory to theInI all service for al"
DR.. Kis,Ier said.