Humanity is struggling to find the answer to this awesome question in a period that may someday be referred to as the era of the great fear. It will also be known as a period of fabulous mechanical inventions, which have brought to the individual greater physical freedom but, paradoxically, also a mesmeric fear of the extinction of the human race.
Superficial observers, who accept whatever human thought temporarily holds as truth and build their conclusions on it, are apt to believe in this destruction. They may disagree among themselves as to the time of the final explosion of human will and hatred that may bring the destruction of all forms of life on earth, but they generally do agree that since the only restraint on initiating an all-destroying atomic war is fear that the ultimate outburst is sure to come. In this anticipation of doom they are influenced by the current picture of general restlessness, rebellions, and wars, coupled with the defiance of Christly morality, which keep human thought in turmoil.
Yet mankind long to live. The symptoms of excitement and anxiety but indicate that the urgency of the situation is being widely recognized. People everywhere are reaching out for security, for freedom from divisive impulses, for the assurance of peace. Will their desire be fulfilled? Or does the present picture of worldwide upheavals actually indicate the beginning of universal self-destruction? In which direction does the long history of mankind point?
