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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 12, No. 4. May 4th 1949

Morals and the University

Morals and the University

To search for truth may be considered the high idea of a University, although this is often dimly realised by students. Any University should be a haven in which bias and intolerance can be thrust aside, and ideals and infatuations examined in the light of all knowledge possessed by human beings. Unfortunately, many teachers and preachers in this community are pathetically dreary and attempt to transmit knowledge without stimulating basic principles.

The field in which bias is most noticeable and dangerous is that of ethics. Examine the traditional acceptance of morals critically and you will find that the majority of thinkers have viewed the world in a feeble light—they have seen "good" as a positive and "bad" as a negative concept. In truth bad came first, while men lived in that stage when they could give free reign to their passions, but as men have found it advantageous to live together, a moral consciousness has grown up: that is, a code of rules enabling human beings to live together as peacefully as possible. This code has grown and been passed on through the entire social life of man. The general moral opinions of society as taught to a child, changed, or developed according to his own apprehension of things, form his individual moral code as to what he "ought" or "ought not" to do.

As these morals have grown slowly, and with no conscious purpose, it is not surprising that they fit our present society with some approach to the grace a dignified professor would reveal in a ballet. People are beginning to realise this, and the idea is spreading that traditional morals are neither the prime rules nor the best. They are upheld because they have been hitched to, and developed with, supernatural explanations which themselves are based on very doubtful premises. Of course I am considering Christianity as this affects at least some readers. The force of our universe is held to be a God Who has intimate connections with the earth and man in particular; to this "explanation" of the mystery of the universe has been attached a set of morals which various well-meaning people decided should tit us human beings.

Zarathustra started the train of thought way back about 1000 B.C. He was a quiet soul amidst a quiet agricultural people who were at the mercy of bands of nomadic barbarians: he needed a reason for protecting his people's ideas aginst the superior force of these men. Thus ho took the most common traits of his people which seemed to help them live together peacefully, and developed a theory connecting this "good life" to a God. Naturally the barbarians were evil incarnate from the point of view of his religion, although they were more natural in their outlook on life; A pure case or rationalisation, his religion stresses the benefits of humility and suppression as an aid to protecting his society and, incidentally, himself.

From this miserable beginning the good developed, mainly through Christianity, to Its present exalted position in Western civilization, But truth is starting to appear through the University search for a good life. The development of the social sciences has shown the strength of this desire to aid fellow-men by seeking rules which do truly help our race to live together more peacefully.

It is to be hoped that as many as possible will take up the search, clear away the darkness of prejudice, and stimulate progress towards a happier society.