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Humanist Manifesto I
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.