Humanist
Manifesto I
Source
The Manifesto is a product of many minds. It was designed
to represent a developing point of view, not a new creed. The individuals
whose
signatures appear would, had they been writing individual statements,
have stated the propositions in differing terms. The importance of
the document is that more than thirty men have come to general agreement
on matters of final concern and that these men are undoubtedly representative
of a large number who are forging a new philosophy out of the materials
of the modern world. Raymond B. Bragg (1933)
The time has come for widespread recognition of the radical changes
in religious beliefs throughout the modern world. The time is past
for mere revision of traditional attitudes. Science and economic
change have disrupted the old beliefs. Religions the world over are
under the necessity of coming to terms with new conditions created
by a vastly increased knowledge and experience. In every field of
human activity, the vital movement is now in the direction of a candid
and explicit humanism. In order that religious humanism may be better
understood we, the undersigned, desire to make certain affirmations
which we believe the facts of our contemporary life demonstrate.
There is great danger of a final, and we believe fatal, identification
of the word religion with doctrines and methods which have lost their
significance and which are powerless to solve the problem of human
living in the Twentieth Century. Religions have always been means for
realizing the highest values of life. Their end has been accomplished
through the interpretation of the total environing situation (theology
or world view), the sense of values resulting therefrom (goal or ideal),
and the technique (cult), established for realizing the satisfactory
life. A change in any of these factors results in alteration of the
outward forms of religion. This fact explains the changefulness of
religions through the centuries. But through all changes religion itself
remains constant in its quest for abiding values, an inseparable feature
of human life.
Today man's larger understanding of the universe, his scientific achievements,
and deeper appreciation of brotherhood, have created a situation which
requires a new statement of the means and purposes of religion. Such
a vital, fearless, and frank religion capable of furnishing adequate
social goals and personal satisfactions may appear to many people as
a complete break with the past. While this age does owe a vast debt
to the traditional religions, it is none the less obvious that any
religion that can hope to be a synthesizing and dynamic force for today
must be shaped for the needs of this age. To establish such a religion
is a major necessity of the present. It is a responsibility which rests
upon this generation. We therefore affirm the following:
FIRST: Religious humanists regard the universe as self-existing and
not created.
SECOND: Humanism believes that man is a part of nature and that he
has emerged as a result of a continuous process.
THIRD: Holding an organic view of life, humanists find that the traditional
dualism of mind and body must be rejected.
FOURTH: Humanism recognizes that man's religious culture and civilization,
as clearly depicted by anthropology and history, are the product of
a gradual development due to his interaction with his natural environment
and with his social heritage. The individual born into a particular
culture is largely molded by that culture.
FIFTH: Humanism asserts that the nature of the universe depicted by
modern science makes unacceptable any supernatural or cosmic guarantees
of human values. Obviously humanism does not deny the possibility of
realities as yet undiscovered, but it does insist that the way to determine
the existence and value of any and all realities is by means of intelligent
inquiry and by the assessment of their relations to human needs. Religion
must formulate its hopes and plans in the light of the scientific spirit
and method.
SIXTH: We are convinced that the time has passed for
theism, deism, modernism, and the several varieties of "new thought".
SEVENTH: Religion consists of those actions, purposes, and experiences
which are humanly significant. Nothing human is alien to the religious.
It includes labor, art, science, philosophy, love, friendship, recreation--all
that is in its degree expressive of intelligently satisfying human
living. The distinction between the sacred and the secular can no longer
be maintained.
EIGHTH: Religious Humanism considers the complete realization of human
personality to be the end of man's life and seeks its development and
fulfillment in the here and now. This is the explanation of the humanist's
social passion.
NINTH: In the place of the old attitudes involved in worship and prayer
the humanist finds his religious emotions expressed in a heightened
sense of personal life and in a cooperative effort to promote social
well-being.
TENTH: It follows that there will be no uniquely religious emotions
and attitudes of the kind hitherto associated with belief in the supernatural.
ELEVENTH: Man will learn to face the crises of life in terms of his
knowledge of their naturalness and probability. Reasonable and manly
attitudes will be fostered by education and supported by custom. We
assume that humanism will take the path of social and mental hygiene
and discourage sentimental and unreal hopes and wishful thinking.
TWELFTH: Believing that religion must work increasingly for joy in
living, religious humanists aim to foster the creative in man and to
encourage achievements that add to the satisfactions of life.
THIRTEENTH: Religious humanism maintains that all associations and
institutions exist for the fulfillment of human life. The intelligent
evaluation, transformation, control, and direction of such associations
and institutions with a view to the enhancement of human life is the
purpose and program of humanism. Certainly religious institutions,
their ritualistic forms, ecclesiastical methods, and communal activities
must be reconstituted as rapidly as experience allows, in order to
function effectively in the modern world.
FOURTEENTH: The humanists are firmly convinced that existing acquisitive
and profit-motivated society has shown itself to be inadequate and
that a radical change in methods, controls, and motives must be instituted.
A socialized and cooperative economic order must be established to
the end that the equitable distribution of the means of life be possible.
The goal of humanism is a free and universal society in which people
voluntarily and intelligently cooperate for the common good. Humanists
demand a shared life in a shared world.
FIFTEENTH AND LAST: We assert that humanism will: (a) affirm life
rather than deny it; (b) seek to elicit the possibilities of life,
not flee from them; and (c) endeavor to establish the conditions of
a satisfactory life for all, not merely for the few. By this positive
morale and intention humanism will be guided, and from this perspective
and alignment the techniques and efforts of humanism will flow.
So stand the theses of religious humanism. Though we consider the
religious forms and ideas of our fathers no longer adequate, the quest
for the good life is still the central task for mankind. Man is at
last becoming aware that he alone is responsible for the realization
of the world of his dreams, that he has within himself the power for
its achievement. He must set intelligence and will to the task.
(Signed)
J.A.C. Fagginger Auer—Parkman Professor of Church
History and Theology, Harvard University; Professor of Church History,
Tufts
College.
E. Burdette Backus—Unitarian Minister.
Harry Elmer Barnes—General Editorial Department, ScrippsHoward
Newspapers.
L.M. Birkhead—The Liberal Center, Kansas City, Missouri.
Raymond B. Bragg—Secretary, Western Unitarian Conference.
Edwin Arthur Burtt—Professor of Philosophy, Sage School of
Philosophy, Cornell University.
Ernest Caldecott—Minister, First Unitarian Church, Los Angeles,
California.
A.J. Carlson—Professor of Physiology, University of Chicago.
John Dewey—Columbia University.
Albert C. Dieffenbach—Formerly Editor of The Christian Register.
John H. Dietrich—Minister, First Unitarian Society, Minneapolis.
Bernard Fantus—Professor of Therapeutics, College of Medicine,
University of Illinois.
William Floyd—Editor of The Arbitrator, New York City.
F.H. Hankins—Professor of Economics and Sociology, Smith
College.
A. Eustace Haydon—Professor of History of Religions, University
of Chicago.
Llewellyn Jones—Literary critic and author.
Robert Morss Lovett—Editor, The New Republic; Professor of
English, University of Chicago.
Harold P Marley—Minister, The Fellowship of Liberal Religion,
Ann Arbor, Michigan.
R. Lester Mondale—Minister, Unitarian Church, Evanston, Illinois.
Charles Francis Potter—Leader and Founder, the First Humanist
Society of New York, Inc.
John Herman Randall, Jr.—Department of Philosophy, Columbia
University.
Curtis W. Reese—Dean, Abraham Lincoln Center, Chicago.
Oliver L. Reiser—Associate Professor of Philosophy, University
of Pittsburgh.
Roy Wood Sellars—Professor of Philosophy, University of Michigan.
Clinton Lee Scott—Minister, Universalist Church, Peoria,
Illinois.
Maynard Shipley—President, The Science League of America.
W. Frank Swift—Director, Boston Ethical Society.
V.T. Thayer—Educational Director, Ethical Culture Schools.
Eldred C. Vanderlaan—Leader of the Free Fellowship, Berkeley,
California.
Joseph Walker—Attorney, Boston, Massachusetts.
Jacob J. Weinstein—Rabbi; Advisor to Jewish Students, Columbia
University.
Frank S.C. Wicks—All Souls Unitarian Church, Indianapolis.
David Rhys Williams—Minister, Unitarian Church, Rochester,
New York.
Edwin H. Wilson—Managing Editor, The New Humanist, Chicago,
Illinois; Minister, Third Unitarian Church, Chicago, Illinois.
Copyright © 1933 by The New Humanist and 1973
by the American Humanist Association
Continue—Humanist Manifesto II
