A debate between Clarence Darrow and the Rev. Dr. Nathan Krass of Temple Emanu-El on the subject “Is Religion Necessary?,” held at the Mecca Temple, attracted an overflow crowd. Dr. Krass upheld the affirmative and Mr. Darrow the negative viewpoint.
Religion was described by Rabbi Krass as “man’s great adventure”, as a “guess” in answer to the question “why” that helps man along the pathway of life. Mr. Darrow on the other hand asserted that “it’s too cocksure to say that there is or there is not a God” and declared that “you can find anything in the Bible if you look for it”.
“So long as there’s a ‘why’ we’ll have religion”, stated Rabbi Krass. “There is a common denominator to all religions, and it is possessed by both Albert Einstein and the primitive savage. Even Einstein has just acknowledged that he could not answer the question ‘why’. Science cannot harm religion, for science deals with matter and religion deals fundamentally with things that matter”.
“If you don’t know, why don’t you say you don’t know, instead of believing in God?” asked Mr. Darrow, who denied the assertion of Rabbi Krass that the universe is “law and order”, run in accordance with intelligence and system. In rebuttal Dr. Krass declared that science would have gotten nowhere by saying “I don’t know”.
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