"GODLESS HARVARD"

Godless, irreligious even atheistic, are terms of reproach at which the Harvard student of today merely shrugs his shoulder. They have been used too long and too often. Yet there are excellent reasons for saying that such opinions are quite illfounded and false When a truly worth-while preacher appears, the Chapel can not contain the crowds that throng to hear him. An average attendance of almost 300 men at an optional course on religion, held at a none too convenient time in a stuffy hall, is a record of which the colleges who are reported to be praying for "Godless Harvard" might well be proud.

Of course there is a reason for this high average; and Mr. Shimer states it very neatly. Only one question arises, and that is why religion should ever be taught in any other manner than that which he outlines. To present facts to a student, to have him do his own thinking, to have him draw his own conclusions are the cardinal principles of instruction in all other fields which he may enter. The student learns to resent the imposition upon him of the beliefs and convictions of his instructor, particularly so when the matter is of such moment as religion. That something, which is eternal and convincing in religion, can assuredly be arrived at through the methods which the student has come to know and trust.

The continuation of this course under the principles which have distinguished its beginning, with better facilities, with a thoroughly representative and brilliant group of speakers is an answer to the critics of Harvard's religious attitude. It is an answer which fits the temper of the age and the spirit of the University. The P. B. H.'s course on religion should become as much an institution as Freshman Hygienc or History 1.