SECULAR MORALITY

Freethought Review, Volume I, Issue 12, 1 September 1884, Page 15

SECULAR MORALITY

Many persons, who know nothing whatever about the teachings of Secularism, appear to imagine that it is purely destructive, and offers no home in which man may dwell, after it has pulled down the crumbling edifice in which he now resides. Destructive it is as regards the religions of the world; you cannot plant flowers in ground which is full of weeds, until you have pulled up and destroyed the weeds; and since the whole garden of the world is full of the poisonplants of superstition, and there is no ground outside to plant our fair blossoms in, we must pull up, and root out, and dig a portion of the earth around us, till we have cleared a space wherein to set our flowers. God claims the whole world as his, and builds his churches everywhere; we claim the whole world as Man's, and we must pull down the churches to make room for the schools; so we drive the Cod-idea back from off the ground we have won, and keep the sword point ever towards it with the one hand, while we till the ground with the other. Still we have won a plot of ground, men's and women's hearts and brains, from which have been pulled up the weeds the Churches sowed in them, and which need culture and planting. To them Secularism has a message; to them it brings a rule of conduct; to them it gives a test of morality, and a guide through the difficulties of life. We test morality by utility; whatever ensures and increases human happiness is right; whatever destroys and injures human happiness is wrong; a moral act is a useful act; an immoral act is an injurious act; beyond this we have no meaning for the word morality. Our morality is tested only—be it noted utility in this life, and in this world; with any other life, with any other world, we have nothing whatever to do. If our conduct promotes human happiness in this world, it is moral and right, and any consideration which induces us to act so as to decrease in any possible way happiness enjoyed upon earth, is immoral and wrong. Asceticism, in any shape, is immoral; it decreases the amount of temporal happiness ; and whether it please God or no, whether it give a seat in heaven or no, whether it bring happiness in a future life or no, it is equally immoral, it is equally wrong. It is moral to give every natural feeling free scope, provided only that no other person is injured, either directly or indirectly : but if the action done would, if generally done, tend to the unhappiness of society, that action is wrong, because the happiness of all is more important than the happiness of one; and the utilitarian rule is, that only those actions are oral which tend to increase the amount of happiness possible. In many points the Christian and the Secular moralities coincide, although springing from different roots; in some they directly clash. Both would agree that lying is wrong. Why? "Because," says the Christian, " it offends against God." "Not so," answers the Secularist; " but because it brings about mutual distrust, and, if generally practised, would render society impossible." Thus, each reprobates the same act, but does so on a perfectly distinct "round.

Christian morality is itself unconsciously Utilitarian, and when the precepts of its founder would be injurious if carried out, it very quietly drops them out of its code. No Christian regards it as moral to condone a theft by giving the thief more than he had stolen, or to encourage brutality by non-resistance: utility is too strong for the philosophy, and moulds it into conformity with the needs of society. But Christian morality is shaped and coloured by the endeavour to secure happiness in a world other than this; many actions are done which decrease temporal, because they are supposed to increase eternal, happiness. To the Secularist all such actions are distinctly immoral, and deserve stern reprobation.

Further, the morality which commands the Securalist to do all which tends to increase the temporal happiness of mankind, lays upon him duties which it is criminal, to neglect. Education is necessary to human happiness; it increases the sources of happiness, and quickens, and sharpens the power to enjoy. To promote education in every possible way becomes then a duty incumbent on every Secularist; a Secular Society which does nothing to educate its members is neglecting one of of its chief duties: it is morally bound to care for the education of its children, to give facilities for continued education to its adults, to agitate in favour of every Parliamentary proposition which makes education more easily attainable by the people, and against

everything which narrows or degrades it. A parent who professes Secular principles, and who does not insist on, and provide for, the due schooling of his children, at whatever personal sacrifice, is committing a distinct breach of Secular morality. A citizen who neglects political study, and the discharge of political duty, also sins against morality: human happiness is increased by every improvement in law, and is decreased by State injustice and State tyranny; to be indifferent to that which affects the happiness of the whole country is a crime. The Secularist lias duties to himself as well as to his neighbours. It is immoral to neglect the laws of health, that is, to fail to profit by the observed sequence, according to which some acts promote, and others injure, health. Drunkenness is immoral ; it weakens and destroys both physical and mental powers, and is therefore wrong, even when it is not further aggravated by public riot. Obedience to physical law is incumbent 011 every Secularist, and impurity of life, uncleanliness, excess of any description, are all sins against Secular morality. Discharge of dutiespersonal, social, political— sternly required from all who take our name : courtesy in daily life, mutual respect and reverence, willing assistance to any who need aid, ungrudging exertions for the good of others, bold resistance of evil in every shape, unshrinking defiance of every form of tyranny, unchanging patience in the reformation of the froward and the evil, unfailing tenderness with the weak and the aged, untiring kindness to all alike, these are all required by Secular morality from those who range themselves under the banner of Secularism. Nothing less than this must be the ideal which we strive to realise; and to this we must add every grace and every beauty of character which can add to the brightness, and increase the happiness, of human life. Annie Besant.