The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1943-12-30
on 6exiW f.
REAL PERSON
By DR.. HARRY EMERSON FOSDlCKl
Faith Is Not Simply Theoretical
Belief, but Source of Courage

Alongside selfishness, faith Is a
major source of courage. What
Jung wrote concerning nervous dis
order In general is particularly ap-
plicable to anxious fears: about a
third Of my cases are suffering
from no clinically definable neu-
rosis, but from the senselessness
and emptiness Of their lives"
Personalities thus cursed by fu-
tility inevitably face the ultimate
fear-the dread of life itself. They
perceive no sense in it, believe in
no abiding meaning running
through it, find it as one of them
said, "the most amazing fanfare
of purely temporary and always
changing and ever vanishing and,
in the main, clownish and ever
ridiculous interests that 1t has ever
been my lot to witness" Why they
should wish to go on with it they
cannot see. 1t Is not dying that
they dread but living. This fulfill
tartan adverse to life itself is the
final fear, and the only cure for
1t is positive falCn.
Even though one goes no far
ther than Robert Louis Stevenson
in saying, II believe In an ultimate
decency of things; ay. and If I
woke in hell, should still believe
it," such faith has therapeutic
value beyond computation.
Because of this, the ebbing OF
religion as an effective force In
multitudes of people has been &C
companied by an incalcuiable in
crease of nervous disorders. If
disbelief In religion were merely
disbelief in religion, 1t could be
more easily endured, but irreli-
gion, when it is radical and COM
plete, involves disbelief in life it
self = its spiritual source. its ulti-
mate meaning, its undergirding
purpose, its eternal value.
When one has granted the worth
of such proffered substitutes for
religion as faith in friends, In
personal possibilities, in creative
work, in mans power to build a
better world, it still remains true
that the hour comes to many, and
perhaps to most people, when
friends die or betray trust, per-
sonal possibilities peter out. crea-
tive work confronts failure, and
building a better world seems du-
bicus and when, lackinC reli-
gion's basic belief in Gou and so
in life'S spiritual source, intrinsic
meaning, available resources, and
worthwhile destiny all values
seem in the present precarious
and in the future doomed. One
thoroughgoing modern atheist con-
fesses that the upshot is a moral
nihilism which Is fatal to society
O.. that spiritual despair which
falls upon the individual victim
of an an-embracing materialistic
philosophy"
Fair and fear are rtue oppo-
sites = the more of one, the less
of tfS other. Faith Is not simply
a theoretical belief but Is a pow
erful emotions Of confidence and
trust.
At this point much Of our mod
ern psychiatry breaks down. The
analyst may take people to pieces,
trace hidden sources Of emotional
disorder, bring detailed easement
and sometimes radical cure. but
often, unless he ca n supply that
ultimate faith in life which alone
is adequate to cast out the ulti-
mate fear of life, he fails. 1t was
a psychiatrist, DR.. Sadler, who,
having said In one place. "Ridi-
Guile Is the master cure fer fear
and anxiety" struck deeper note
when he said III another, THE
only known cure for fear Is faith"
Jesus went to the heart Of the
matter when he set mustard
seed, the smallest thing he knew
over against Mount Hermon, tow
ering 5000 feet above the sea, and
said that faith, Like . seed. could