# Scientific Approach to Moral Conduct

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-20 — 1 clipping.*

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: John B. Cornell, Scientific Approach to Moral Conduct, bahai-library.com.
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> 
> Scientific Approach to Moral Conduct
> 
> John B. Cornell
> 
> published in World Order12:8
> 
> 1946-11
> 
> The Guardian has written that chastity is a quality "preeminent and vital, which
> the members of the American Bahá'í community will do well to ponder," and
> which
> "must claim an increasing share of the attention of the American believers." The war has
> increased the contrast between the high standards to which we are pledged and "the
> moral laxity and licentiousness" of so great a proportion of our countrymen. From a
> delicate subject, sex conduct has become a common topic of conversation, treated openly
> in books, newspapers, magazines and movies.
> 
> We have long known the value of scientific findings for proving the oneness of
> mankind. An example of this use of science is the superb pamphlet, "The Races of
> Mankind," by a committee of persons from the fields of anthropology, anatomy,
> psychology, physiology, etc. Here the words, "Ye are all the fruits of one tree . . . the
> flowers of one garden," are convincingly demonstrated by science. In such fields as sex
> and marriage, also, we can use the findings of scientific research to show the worthiness
> of our high standards.
> 
> A recent trend in American universities is to present courses with an objective,
> scientific approach on sex and marriage, to assist students in achieving a happier married
> life. Of the textbooks published for these courses, one is especially worthy of study:
> Personality and the Family by Dr. and Mrs. Hornell Hart of Duke University.* This
> book is described by Dr. Noel Keys who teaches a course, "Youth and Marriage," at the
> University of California as "An admirable effort to find scientific bases for intelligent
> conduct." Besides their presentation of research evidence, the Bahá'í reader will
> appreciate the authors' convincing logic, their high, dignified tone and their awareness of
> the interdependence of humanity and of the delicate emotional and spiritual aspirations of
> the individual.
> 
> In these courses, sound answers are given, based on scientific evidence, to such
> questions as: What effect, if any, has chastity or promiscuity on married happiness?
> Why should promiscuity concern anyone besides the persons practicing it?
> 
> Each person would answer such questions in terms of his goal in life. To the
> materialist, humankind is a highly developed animal whose only goal in life is the ample
> gratification of physical appetites. To the ascetic puritan, physical desire and pleasure are
> regarded with suspicion as "temptations of the flesh" leading to sin, in creatures
> "conceived in iniquity" and "born in evil." To the Bahá'í, the ideal life is both
> physical
> and spiritual development and happiness. `Abdu'l-Bahá said, "All material things are
> for
> us so that through our gratitude we may learn to understand life as a divine benefit." "In
> creation, there is no evil; all is good." The only evil is misuse. Bahá'u'lláh
> wrote, "All
> men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization. The Almighty
> beareth Me witness: To act like the beasts of the field is unworthy of man."
> "Chastity," said Shoghi Effendi, "should be strictly practiced by both sexes, not
> only because it is in itself highly commendable ethically, but also due to its being the
> only way to a happy and successful marital life." Dr. Hart and other investigators have
> measured the happiness of married persons from different backgrounds and thus are able
> to distinguish which factors are followed by happiness and which by unhappiness. For
> example, "the marriages of virgins to virgins are reported as about 30 percent above the
> average in happiness, while those of thoroughly promiscuous couples are a little more
> than half as happy as the average." In good scientific tradition, conclusions are
> questioned: "Conceivably some people are promiscuous because of certain instabilities of
> personality which would cause unhappiness even if the person were strictly
> monogamous. However, a number of reasons are apparent why promiscuity should cause
> unhappiness, and these reasons fit well with the data which have just been cited."
> 
> What may these reasons be? Perhaps the most important is spiritual degeneration,
> which causes the greatest unhappiness. "Disencumber yourselves of all attachment to
> this world and the vanities thereof," Bahá'u'lláh advises us. "Beware that ye
> approach
> them not, inasmuch as they prompt you to walk after your own lusts and covetous
> desires, and hinder you from entering the straight and glorious Path." The Harts, as
> sociologists, affirm this fact: "Studies of actual instances of promiscuous sex relations
> indicated a very widespread tendency for people who engage in them to take the
> individualistic rather than the altruistic attitude toward their partners and toward the other
> personalities involved in their adventures . . . .
> 
> "In general, Bromley and Britten's data indicate that the more promiscuous a man
> is, the more callous is his indifference to what happens to his sex partners. The
> psychological laws which govern social relations make this ruthless individualism
> unsuccessful as a means of seeking fulfillment of personality. The persons toward whom
> we take an exploitive or ruthless attitude are practically certain, in the long run, to come
> to regard us as menacing and damaging stimuli. Toward such stimuli most people take
> attitudes of reprisal, precautionary attack, or avoidance. The ruthless and exploitive
> person, therefore, builds up against himself, in the people around him a rising tide of
> anger, hatred, and loathing. These emotional forces seek to attack and demolish his
> personality. The longer he persists in his individualistic exploitation, the stronger
> becomes this destructive pressure. Instead of fulfillment of personality, he is creating
> increasingly inevitable damage of personality."
> 
> Bahá'u'lláh said, "They that have followed their lusts and corrupt
> inclinations
> have erred and dissipated their efforts. They indeed are of the lost." This loss is now
> seen by sociologists. "When the physiological motive predominates strongly," write the
> Harts, "esthetic, intellectual, affectional, and social overtones which make love relations
> intensely beautiful are largely lacking, or are present only in crude and unsatisfactory
> forms . . . Either the relationships must be kept free from really intense and splendid
> emotional experience, or one or both of the participants is apt to fall in love with the
> other. These adventures are likely to build up the habit of casualness — a habit strongly
> buttressed as a defense against acquiring emotional encumbrances."
> 
> Shoghi Effendi said, "The Bahá'í Faith recognizes the value of the sex
> impulse,
> but condemns its illegitimate and improper expressions such as free love, companionate
> marriage and others, all of which it considers positively harmful to man and to the society
> in which he lives." How harmful to society? Perhaps it is best shown by these
> conclusions from a study of the attitude toward marriage of sexually experienced
> unmarried persons: "Only two-thirds of the women would like to be married and none of
> the men . . . It is not for love that the women desire marriage but for security,
> companionship, and protection, and in several cases, for children. The men are afraid of
> marriage and of fatherhood; all are afraid of the economic burden of a family and some
> fear the moral obligation of being faithful to one woman."
> 
> Of this and similar studies, the Harts write: "Such data confirm the conclusion that
> sexual promiscuity does not tend to produce an abundant supply of mentally and
> physically healthy children. This conclusion will affect various types of people
> variously. Some men and women care a great deal about whether they participate
> normally and creatively in the processes of the universe of which they are a part . . . .
> 
> "Many other people are indifferent to any racial significance of their lives. They
> want merely to have an exciting time with their bodies and in their social relationships.
> Such people, today, are given a good deal of freedom to make that choice and to live that
> sort of life . . . The attempt to ignore the larger and more fundamental racial meanings of
> one's existence may, however, involve a series of unexpectedly painful maladjustments
> and failures. In the long run the inexorable processes of survival will ruthlessly eliminate
> from the earth those biological and social groups who prefer sexual promiscuity to
> creative parenthood."
> 
> Shoghi Effendi said, "Sex relationships of any form, outside marriage, are not
> permissible therefore, and whoso violates this rule will not only be responsible to God,
> but will incur the necessary punishment from society." The assertion that one couple's
> promiscuousness affects no one else and is therefore of no concern to society is discussed
> by the Harts: "Advocates of more freedom have urged that sex relations should be
> regarded as a personal matter, and should be no more interfered with or regulated than
> are friendships. But the study of history and of ethnology indicates that in all probability
> there has never been a culture in which sex relations have not been regulated by public
> sentiment, if not by laws. The reason for this is readily seen in the nature of expanded
> personalities. People interpenetrate each other; they are emotionally parts of each other.
> Rare is the couple which does not have, on one or both sides, parents, brothers, sisters, or
> close friends in whose lives they play a vital part. Even if a couple should be completely
> independent of these social bonds, their conduct affects the general patterns of sexual
> conduct, and every member of society feels that those patterns are likely to menace or
> bless his own life."
> 
> Thus, we can see how emphatically a scientific, sociological approach to sex
> conduct affirms the teachings of the Manifestations. While enrolled in the course under
> Dr. Noel Keys, I marveled at the unerring wisdom of the Revelators of God, Who, with
> no scientific research at Their disposal, knew how to guide men to the only way of life
> which could give the greatest happiness which God intended for them. This academic
> course, more than any other, helped me to appreciate the meaning of these words from
> the Kitáb-i-Aqdas: "Consider the pettiness of men's minds. They ask for that which
> injureth them, and cast away the thing that profiteth them . . . We find some men desiring
> liberty, and priding themselves therein. Such men are in the depths of ignorance . . . That
> which beseemeth man is submission unto such restraints as will protect him from his own
> ignorance, and guard him against the harm of the mischief-maker. Liberty causeth man
> to overstep the bounds of propriety, and to infringe on the dignity of his station. It
> debaseth him to the level of extreme depravity and wickedness . . . Say: The liberty that
> profiteth you is to be found nowhere except in complete servitude unto God, the Eternal
> Truth. Whoso hath tasted of its sweetness will refuse to barter it for all the dominion of
> earth and heaven."
> 
> * Personality and the Family, by Hornell Hart and Ella B. Hart (Boston, D. C. Heath, 1935 / 1941).
> 
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> Views13244 views since posted 1998; last edit 2012;
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> previous at archive.org.../cornell_scientific_approach_moral;
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> — *Scientific Approach to Moral Conduct (Used by permission of the curator)*