My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleyfact, we reject every finding of modern science, as well as the evidence of our owneyes.... It is necessary to believe that this is the purpose of life, because we canobserve that this is the way the world works, whether we believe in divine purpose ornot. And once we believe this is the way the world works, and deduce from the longrecord that it is the only way it can work, this becomes a purpose because it is theonly means by which the world is likely to work in future. If the purpose fails, theworld fails.The purpose so far has achieved the most incredible results—incredible to anyonewho had been told in advance what was going to happen—by working from the mostprimitive life forms to the relative heights of present human development. Purposebecomes, therefore, quite clearly in the light of modern knowledge a movement fromlower to higher forms. And if purpose in this way has moved so far and achieved somuch, it is only reasonable to assume that it will so continue if it continues at all; ifthe world lasts. Therefore, if we desire to sustain human existence, if we believe inmankind's origin which science now makes clear, and in his destiny which acontinuance of the same progress makes possible, we must desire to aid rather than toimpede the discernible purpose. That means we should serve the purpose whichmoves from lower to higher forms; this becomes our creed of life. Our life isdedicated to the purpose.'In practical terms this surely indicates that we should not tell men to be content withthemselves as they are, but should urge them to strive to become something beyondthemselves. ... To assure men that we have no need to surpass ourselves, and therebyto imply that men are perfect, is surely the extreme of arrogant presumption. It is alsoa most dangerous folly, because it is rapidly becoming clear that if mankind's moralnature and spiritual stature cannot increase more commensurately with his materialachievements, we risk the death of the world. . . .'We must learn to live, as well as to do. We must restore harmony with life, andrecognise the purpose in life. Man has released the forces of nature just as he hasbecome separated from nature; this is a mortal danger, and is reflected in the neurosisof the age. We cannot stay just where we are; it is an uneasy, perilous and impossiblesituation. Man must either reach beyond his present self, or fail; and if he fails thistime, the failure is final. That is the basic difference between this age and all previousperiods. It was never before possible for this failure of men to bring the world to anend.'It is not only a reasonable aim to strive for a higher form among men; it is a creedwith the strength of a religious conviction. It is not only a plain necessity of the newage of science which the genius of man's mind has brought; it is in accordance withthe long process of nature within which we may read the purpose of the world. And itis no small and selfish aim, for we work not only for ourselves but for a time to come.The long striving of our lives can not only save our present civilisation, but can alsoenable others more fully to realise and to enjoy the great beauty of this world, notonly in peace and happiness, but in an ever unfolding wisdom and risingconsciousness of the mission of man.'The doctrine of higher forms may have appealed to some in a generation acutelyaware of the divorce between religion and science because it was an attempted422 of 424