Self-Adopted Codes – Sunday, September 07, 1941
An eminent contemporary figure of science is accredited with the statement that “Moral sense is more important than intelligence.” Of course, all such statements resolve themselves to matters of definition, but it is difficult to see how anyone in his thinking could separate moral sense from intelligence.
A man of limited academic opportunity may have a strong moral sense without having much factual knowledge pertaining to the dogma of formal education. But certainly no man can be looked upon as having intelligence in the true meaning of the term unless he has a strong moral sense. “The glory of God is intelligence.” (Doctrine and Covenants 93:36) And in this concept moral sense and intelligence are inseparable.
This abstract use of some important words brings us to the question of what is moral sense—is there any absolute moral standard? Or are morals merely matters of convention, of customs that change from year to year, from generation to generation, and from place to place. If there is no fixed standard of morality then it would appear that every man is at liberty to make his own code of morals.
We see that very condition before us—a condition in which various commonwealths of people acting in accordance with their own self-adopted moral codes, have violated the generally accepted moral codes of other groups of people with respect to their rights and beliefs and possessions. The result is anarchy—and if we are to concede that men may set their own moral standard according to their own convenience and expediency—chaos is what we always have left. And so we must come to the conclusion that there must be certain fixed moral standards beyond the change or the whim of men.
If life is purposeful, if men have an abiding destination, then there must be definite rules to follow whereby we may reach that destination. There are such rules. And while the times and the seasons and the outward mode may change, moral standards do not change fundamentally, and those who live their lives as though morals were merely matters of convention are reckoning without the inevitable.
September 07, 1941
Broadcast Number 0,629