A Hunger for Truth, and Contempt for a Closed Mind – Sunday, June 06, 1943
Within past weeks we have seen another generation of students emerge from the doors of our schools, having been filled more or less with a quantity and variety of miscellaneous information pertaining to the physical and mental, and, to a lesser degree, to the spiritual facts of life. The attitude of these students varies greatly, depending upon their native endowment, upon their environment, and upon the instructors they have had.
Some are confused. In the minds of some there is a litter of fact and theory in disorderly array, for much of which they may never find any practical use or any orderly pattern. Some have learned by mere rote-much like a record on which impressions have been made, and which will talk back parrot-like, without variation. and without thought—or much like a sponge that has soaked up the surrounding moisture, which it will give out again if squeezed before drying up. Some, happily, haven’t been so concerned about isolated facts as they have been about learning how to think and reason—how to distinguish between the fundamentals and the unproved theories, how to avoid confusing truth with mere supposition. Greatly to be envied, and greatly to be trusted, are those students who come out of school, not so much with a briefcase full of information, but who have learned how to think, how to evaluate, and how to pursue further search.
They are those who have come to know that the theories of men are subject to change from year to year and from decade to decade-who have learned to know that the textbooks they have been using will be soon outdated; that there are many things which lie beyond the realm of our present perspective—that there are unlimited truths and infinite worlds yet to be discovered. They are those who do not discard their faith in God because of changing beliefs and theories, but reserve judgment and—keep their faith and continue the search and eagerly seize upon all truth and refrain from crediting hasty and dogmatic conclusions in any field of thought—religious, or scientific, or whatever it may be. As another school year closes, our gratitude goes out to those sincere teachers and professors of learning who, having divested themselves of smug and arbitrary attitudes, and of cynicism and unbelief, have instilled in their students an insatiable hunger for truth and a contempt for a closed mind.
By Richard L. Evans, spoken from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, June 6, 1943, over Radio Station KSL and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System. Copyright – 1943.
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June 06, 1943
Broadcast Number 0,720