--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Barnes, Claude T. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 10 number: 7 published: 1907-05 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Claude T. Barnes, "The Dependence of Morality upon Religion," *Improvement Era* 10, no. 7 (May 1907): 510–517.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1007unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1007unse start_page: 510 end_page: 517 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1907-05) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1007unse publication_year: 1907 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1907, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Dependence of Morality upon Religion THE DEPENDENCE OF MORALITY UPON RELIGION. BY CLAUDE T. BARNES. That a ten pound ball, placed twenty-four hundred miles be- low the earth's surface, will weigh but four pounds, is a certainty, determined by a 'priori reasoning on the laws of gravitation and of weight; but that one's morality germinates in one's religion, is 8 supposition in metaphysics — a science which discovers indica- tions but never proofs. From the unsolvable nature of the problem, were mere pedantry for human reason, unassisted it by divine inspiration, even to attempt a demonstration of any theory concerning the relationship between morality and religion. Revelation is decisive on the point; but, frequently, God reveals, in an arbitrary manner, bare truths, which to the mind of a scholar, are unsupported by even presumptive evidence; hence, it may be stated at the outset, this article leaves aside the per- emptory answer for religion, and seeks to present; to the agnostic a little evidence, which, from his belief in empiricism, or the doctrine that all knowledge is derived from experience through the senses, he might accept. That there is a need for universal consideration of this con- troversy,is apparent upon even a superficial reflection on the growth of unbelief and the increasing vigor of the pretensions that emanate from ethical societies. Though the statement only conversely applies to the Latter-day Saints, still, certainly, the churchmen of the world are becoming secularists, often the clergy, themselves, being the chief factors in secularization and declen- sion of faith. The fallibility of their theology has become so ab- surdly obvious to the merest toga in logic, that even the allure- THE DEPENDENCE OF MORALITY UPON RELIGION. 511 ment of a comfortable sslary no longer withholds the manly ex- pression of their incredulity. There has come, also, upon them, the potent but peculiar idea that if they even hint at the old ex- tremes of hyperorthodoxy, such as a literal hell-fire, the men of science will pity them and say, condescendingly: "Poor men, they believe it; they have not read our modern discoveries;" hence the preachers, feeling the popular appreciation of versatility, have been all the more impelled to expound "science" rather than the scriptures, and to dwell, more and more, on good for its own sake. As a further influence upon the minds of the people, there is the increasing power of agnostic and rationalistic literature, which is being issued at an astonishing rate and pric e by the Rationalistic Press Association of London, and by other similar societies. It is not an uncommon incident in London to see on the train a home- going laborer reading a thumb-soiled, six-penny paper copy of HaeckWs Riddle of the Universe — a work filled with technical scientific data and pretending, with the self- glorifica Lion of Bom- bastes, to contain on every page a death blow to religion. Contemporaneous with the decline of belief is the formation of ethical societies, foremost among which is, probably. The Ethi- cal Culture Society of New York City, founded by Prof. Felix Adler. In his recently published book, T%e Religion of Duty, Prof. Adler shows that the pretensions of the society is to find a basis for morals, apart from a belief in God. Many readers are already familiar with The Society for Psychical Research, which aims to get information concerning the soul, by scientific deductions from hypnotic and telepathic phenomena; so more as- sociations need not be mentioned here. It is suflficient to bear in mind that metaphysicians, ethical writers, and rationalists are not only deprecating religious hopes, but also actually constructing such systems of unbelief that the world is beginning to think it can be just as good, just as noble, without, as ivith a belief in a Supreme Being —a fact which, alone, makes a consideration of the subject opportune. Usually in ethical discussions, an appeal to history is helpful; but such were futile in this theme because there has always been great perplexity surrounding the words, "religion" and "morality." Many religions (?) have held immorality to be no drawback to spirit- 512 IMPROVEMENT ERA. ual salvation, providing there be a death-bed repentance; hence, as a religion of that laxity is, obviously, insufficient for the requi- sites of this subject, we must first be at one on a definition of terms. Whatever religion may have involved during its successive developing stages — Animism, Polytheism and Monotheism— it is certain that, at the present time, in its highest form, it is the relation which man conceives to exist between himself and the controlling power of the eternal world, and which explains the meaning of man's life. Imperfect as definitions are bound to be, it will, probably, be sufficient restriction of the broad meaning of morality, to construe it to be character and conduct such as is required by the highest purpose for which one's life is given. Considering this, then, adequate interpretation of these two in- definite words, let us examine some evidence which facilitates a conclusion upon the general problem. II. If empirical reasoning has greatest weight with a casuist then undoubtedly the insufficiency of his ethical standard is ex- posed by the portentious effects of the world's loss of even its fallible religions. Be a man Catholic, Congregationalist, or Epis- copalian; Lutheran, Methodist or Ana-Baptist; Ultramontane, Presbyterian or Hebrew — be he what he may in his religious con- viction, the church in which he sings his hosanna and bows his knee, is bound to gladden his soul with some spiritual truth; but, alas, only some. Now, though for arbitrary reasons these re- ligions are classed under the head, "fallible," still, nearly without exception, their teachings in relation to morality, are identical. Probably, had their theological structures been built on such firm grounds as were their moral, their congregations would not be slowly degenerating to the impious and indifferent, for in the words of Longfellow in Kavanagh: "Morality without religion is only a kind of dead reckoning, — an endeavor to find our place on a cloudy sea by measuring the distance we have run, but with- out any observations of the heavenly bodies." What is the use of a sphere of mere struggle if there be no sphere of attainment? : THE DEPENDENCE OF MORALITY UPON RELIGION. 513 The world's denominations advocate an unending moral struggle, and combine with it the hope of an illogical, unreasonable, and hopelessly ambiguous paradisiacal reward. Nevertheless, defective as the world's theology is, note the alarming effect its loss is hav- ing: a. The world's criminality is growing; and the record shows greatest increase immediately after periods of sceptical "scien- tific" exultation. Such an assertion seems gratuitous on account of the difficulty in applying proper statistics in verification; but the single observation as to the growth of crime, needs little con- firmation. The following figures, taken from Hall and other com- petent statisticians, specify the annual average number of crimi- nals tried before all courts, to every one hundred thousand of the population In England and Wales. In France. 1805 343 1826-30 1,002 1857-61 2,003 1846-50 ....1,377 1896 2,344 1850-60 2,062 1895 1,783 In Austria. In Germany. 1871-75 1,477 1882-5 745 1895 2,403 1896 880 In Italy. In Spain. 1881-85 1,291 1882-5 504 1895 1,614 1895 522 In the United States there was: In 1850 one criminal in 3,442 of the population. In 1860 one criminal in 1,647 of the population. In 1870 one criminal in 1,171 of the population. In 1880 one criminal in 855 of the population. In 1890 one criminal in 757 of the population. The tendency of bhe criminal statistics, then, is unpropitious; and that the retrogression may be due, very largely, to an in- crease of scepticism, seems to be a reasonable conclusion from a consideration of the fact that, in the above census tables, in about the year 1860 criminality doubled, suddenly, in the United States, in England, in France and, probably, though the statistics do nob show, in the other nations of the civilized world. Now, the great- — 514 IMPROVEMENT ERA. est book of the 19th century, the vera causa of recent popular talk on evolution and agnosticism, and the fountain of "scientific" irreligion, was the great work of Charles Darwin The Origin of the Species; and it was published in the year 1859. Though we re- view it after a passage of fifty years, nevertheless the remark- able growth of criminality immediately subsequent to the scientific triumph which Darwin's book represents, was too widespread to be pronounced a mere historical coincidence. Rosseau said: "To forget religion is to forget duty;" and Garofalo, Leone Levi, Joly and Tiling, the foremost European criminal statisticians, concur in the belief that criminality increases or wanes in converse ratio to religious faith. Contemporaneous with the increase of criminality in general, there is a momentous and significant growth of suicide, in particu- lar. The latest and most authentic information on the subject has just been given by Dr. Robert Gauff, in a Berlin publication called the Umchau. He there states that the average of suicides in Europe, between 1881 and 1897, shows an increase of 20 per cent, there being yearly registered now over 70,000! In explana- tion Dr. Gauff says: The most potent cause is the decline in religious faith, which fosterd a feel- ing of irresponsibility and unaccountability; a vague sense of individualism which favors egoism in its most cynical form, produces an insensibility to the claims of duty and a sort of spiritual isolation. After observing that one of the reasons why suicide is less fr equent among women than among men, is that women are ' *the devout sex," he further maintains: Poverty and want are by no means, as might be supposed, incentives to suicide, excepting in cases of morbid excitability and feebleness of moral force to support adversity. Cultivated people of modern times more commonly take their lives than do the ignorant. When one considers the high estimation usually placed upon Dr. Gauff' s opinion, the figures and observations he here gives are a remarkable testimony on the moral necessity of religion. If the primary postulate — that the world is actually ebbing in its relig- eous belief, —be conceded, it were expedient to give irrefutable figures on the corresponding increase in drunkenness, divorce, ille- THE DEPENDENCE OF MORALITY UPON RELIGION. 515 gitimacy and mpurity, besides those already presented on crimi- nality and suicide; but statistics on these subjects are so scarce and so ambiguous that a table on divorce is practically all that can be given further. The following figures show the number of divorces there were to every one thousand marriages in the several places under the dif- ferent years: 1867-71. 1882-86. 1867-71. 1882-86. Ireland 03 .16 Holland 4.80 10.50 Canada 50 1.40 France 7.10 16.00 England 80 1.90 Paris 31.10 31.30 Russia 1.70 2.30 Vienna 21.00 32.00 Scotland 1.50 3.10 Stockholm 30.20 32.80 Sweden 5.00 7.40 Denmark 35.00 40.60 Belgium 2.40 7.50 United States.31.30 48.30 Austria 7.00 10.00 Germany 47.00 58.10 By the way, it is a merited tribute to Ireland to'note that in purity it leads the list; and that in twenty years there have been in it only fifty-five divorces, or an average of one to every ten thou- sand marriages! And of all the civilized world, Ireland is most completely under the sway of religion. It is saddening, by com- parison, to note that in the United States, today, there is about one divorce to every six marriages! — a fact that dissimilarity of laws will not explain. Sichart, a German writing of Berlin, says that 27 per cent of all criminals are illegitimate: but be the force of this surprising statement what it may, still the statistics so far given demonstrate the truthfulness of the conjecture that the world's criminality is increasing, and give evidence on the suggestion that this degen- eracy is due to the world's loss of even its fallible religions. b.Let us now, by comparison, consider the salutary effect of belief in a perfect religion. There are, however, innumerable diffi- culties and perplexities confronting one who attempts to laud the Latter-day Saints by the use of comparative statistics, the chief one being that all census reports dealing with Utah, base their conclu- sions on the aggregate number of citizens irrespective of religious beliefs. From the multiformity of our industries, there is a re- sultant diversity of nationalities represented in the population; 516 IMPROVEMENT ERA. and these tend, according to their character, to improve or to de- teriorate Utah's record. The fact is, there are few authentic statistics on the morality of the "Mormons;" and a highly regre table fact it is, too. Every "Mormon" who has traveled at all, knows very well that, comparatively speaking, the Latter-day Saints are free from murder, suicide and illegitimacy, that the boys and girls of our "Mormon" communities are pure, and that the horrid compli- cations of venereal disease are absolutely unknown throughout the land. This is the fact; but where are the figures? We have our Bureau of Information; but we have not that, the work of which our superb organization would make simple indeed — a board whose duty it would be to issue annual statistics on the morality of the Latter-day Saints. A good example of the futility of utilizing the census re- ports, in this respect, is evinced by the matter of divorce. Utah grants divorce for anyone of seven grounds, the last and least of which being "cruelty causing great mental distress." New York in line with England, grants divorce for one cause only — adultery; and .South Carolina will on no consideration grant divorce at all! To attempt to make any justifiable conclusions from the mere — number of divorces granted were mere sophistry South Carolina would turn out to be immaculate! In 1880, twenty-six states were ahead of Utah in an educa- tional way, in 1890, sixteen; but in 1900, Utah stood fourth, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas alone being above. Hence, despite the diversity of our population, the truth will come to light. In the matter of drunkenness, the census of 1900 is equally commendatory. During the census year there were 2, 811 persons who died from alcoholism in the United States, and only seven of these from Utah — a ratio decidedly in Utah's favor according to the population (1.272). Again, in the United States, in that year, 1,591 persons died from venereal diseases; and not one of the whole number was recorded in Utah. Likewise, according to the same census, in the year 1900, 578 females in the United States died from abortion; and not one such death occurred in Utah! But, undoubtedly, the greatest encomium that can be given, in THE DEPENDENCE OF MORALITY UPON RELIGION. 517 this respect, concerning the religion of the Latter-day Saints, is a disclosure of the actual ratios existing in the Utah State peniten- tiary. At this writing, there are, in the Utah State prison, 215 convicts, out of which number only ten profess to be "Mormons" and but five others have "Mormon" parents! Think of it! Only four and a half per cent of the criminals in the "Mormon" state are "Mormons," while less than seven per cent are of "Mormon" parentage! When one thinks of the fact that Utah's population is largely composed of Latter-day Saints, it may reasonably be said that these figures are unparalleled in the realm of criminal statistics, and constitute an indubitable and irrefutable testimony to the effectiveness of that religion which alone is complete and true. No data on other specific subjects can be gleaned from the records; and it never will appear until we, systematically, furnish it ourselves. However, there is no cause for hopelessness or avoid- ance: deeply engrained in the heart of every good Latter-day Saint, is ctn unshakable confidence in the integrity of his brethren, and a satisfactory belief that if the whole truth were known, it would show that, of all people, the Latter-day Saints are living closest to their God. "The silence often of pure innocence Persuades, when speaking fails." University of Michigan, [to be concluded in next number.]