DARTMOUTH STUDENTS SAID TO BE IRRELIGIOUS
Dartmouth, according to some interpretations of a recent religious questionnaire is a "most irreligious" college. The questionnaire was distributed among the undergraduate bodies of a number of colleges and universities by the Church Department of the International Advertising Company, and Dartmouth was with the exception of Wellesley, the only one of the larger Eastern institutions represented. Smaller colleges and universities of the south and west, and a number of strictly denominational institutions were mainly included in the census. At Dartmouth one thousand undergraduates, or less than half of the total enrollment of the College, responded to the questions asked according to the following tabulation:
1. Do you believe in God? Yes 763; no 188; undecided 69.
2. Do you believe in immortality? Yes 380; no 548; undecided 92.
3. Do you believe in prayer as a means of personal relationship with God? Yes 423; no 527; undecided 70.
4. Do you believe that Jesus was divine as no other man was divine? Yes 330; no 638; undecided 52.
5. Do you regard the Bible as inspired in a sense that no other literature could be said to be inspired? Yes 245; no 731; undecided 44.
6. Are you an active member of any church? Yes 455; no 578; undecided 7.
7. Do you regularly attend any religious services? Yes 326; no 679; undecided 15. 8. Were you brought up in a religious home? Yes 828; no 185; undecided 7.
9. Do you think that religion in some form is a necessary element of life for the individual and the community? Yes 858; no 132; undecided 30.
Commenting upon the result of the questionnaire at Dartmouth the Boston Evening Transcript carried the following editorial:
Doubt at Dartmouth
The purpose of a certain "religious referendum" that is now being passed around the colleges of the country is understood to be the furnishing of a material for a graduate student's dissertation for his doctoral degree. But it may be that the answers to the "questionnaires" will supply the fundamentalists of Tennessee, Texas and other States where religious tests for education are desired with a fresh argument against the teaching of evolution. That a considerable body of robust doubt exists in the minds of the student bodies in our universities and colleges is indicated in the result of the referendum as reported from Dartmouth College, where, though 763 students to 188 answer that they believe in God, 548 to 380 of the same men reply that they do not believe in immortality, and 92 are "undecided." Students who do not believe in prayer are as 527 to 423, and 638 as compared with 330 reject the divinity of Jesus. Those who regard the Bible as inspired in a sense that no other literature is inspired are but 245 to 731 against that idea. But behold the conclusion of the matter: 858 answer "yes," and only 132 "no," to the question. "Do you think that religion in some form is a necessary element of life for the individual and the community?"
Here in a New England college whose students come from all parts of the country, is revealed a marked skepticism as to what have been regarded as the fundamentals of the Christian religion, and even an incredulity as to the continued existence of the individual intelligence after death, joined nevertheless- with a belief in a Supreme Being and a recognition of the need of religion as an element of life. These students of the majority do not accept the special inspiration of the Bible nor the divinity of Christ. Essentially their position is that of Franklin and the other deists of the eighteenth century. They are free thinkers, but by no means atheists. It goes without saying that they are "evolutionists" in the sense that they have read or heard and understood the principles of the evolutionary philosophyThey have listened to lectures on science and on the influence of Darwin and Spencer; they have no doubt read a good deal of Nietzsche. Yet there has been no "teaching- of unbelief' to them. They have been left free to form their opinions. They have been influenced, as students always are, by one another—by the spirit that prevails among their brother students. They have imbibed the spirit of their time. It is not likely that the expunging of the word "evolution" from their textbooks would have made the slightest difference with their general conclusions.
Even those who may take alarm at the exhibition of a preponderant body of doubt among the undergraduates in a great college may be reassured by the proof that this group of young men, believing in God and in the maintenance of religious -forms and organizations, are by no means propagandists of materialism. What gives them pause, with regard to their personal association with religion, is that they cannot espouse what is to them either unintelligible or self-contradictory. They base their views on the natural, not the supernatural. It is peculiarly interesting that while only 380 Dartmouth students were ready to confess their belief in immortality, 423 reported themselves as believers in prayer "as a means of personal relationship with God." This shows that in some cases doubt and devotion may go together. In any case, it is probable that Dartmouth students, whether doubters or believers, accept the maxim of Shaftesbury, that "truth will bear all lights."
Additional comment was supplied in TheDartmouth by the Rev. R. B. Chamberlin, of Hanover, who has been in charge of chapel services at the College during the present year, and who has been actively engaged in student religious work for many years.
By The Rev. R. B. Chamberlin "It may be that 'Dartmouth is the most irreligious college in the country,' but the recent questionnaire, answered, by over a thousand undergraduates, by no means demonstrates the fact. It is doubtful whether the whole investigation of religious thought in 100 universities and colleges, summarizing the answers of 36,000 students from all parts of the land, is anything more than an advertising stunt. Before Dartmouth is labelled as the most Godless institution in America, let us consider the facts.
"Only three New England colleges submitted to the questionnaire—Dartmouth, Wellesley, and Providence College (a Catholic institution). Most of the answers, we are told, came from denominational colleges west of the Hudson River. One would like to know the replies from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, from Williams, Amherst, and Bowdoin. The Dartmouth report means nothing whatsoever until compared with other colleges of the same class.
"The blanks were distributed on the evening of Monday, March 28, three days before spring vacation, were speedily filled out and returned for tabulation. The students were thinking more of home and vacation than of God-immortality -prayer questionnaires. Further, everybody on the campus was tired and nervous, after the crowded winter, and the annual epidemic preEaster "hour exams." With such questions, requiring a definite yes-or-no answer, the reply depends largely on the mood of the questioner. If the questionnaire could be filled out in the middle of a sunny May morning, just after a delightful musical service in chapel, probably the Dartmouth affirmative score might have reached 82% instead of the 52%.
"Then the questions themselves are impossible Dartmouth for years has trained men in careful analysis and definition, and in free and independent thinking. But in the whole series of questions there is a sad lack of precise language or accurate definition. Each query could be honestly answered either 'yes' or 'no, according to the interpretation, by three quarters of the student body. 'What do you mean by God ?' 'What sort of immortality?' 'ls quiet meditation not a valuable form of prayer ? No, I don't call Jesus divine—but the greatest man that ever lived!' 'What is inspiration? Certainly the Bible contains some of the greatest literature in the world!' 'What is an active member—and what of the active Christian who is not a member of any Church?' 'What is a religious home ?'
"In fact, the last of the nine questions, probably the only one which gives any index of student thought in religious matters, 'Do you think that religion in some form is a necessary element of life for the individual and the community?' evoked a 84% 'yes' response, with which Dartmouth's history and tradition, Dartmouth's faculty and alumni body could undoubtedly enthusiastically agree."
