Marriage
& Family
Humanist Manifesto II
-- Preface --
It is forty years since Humanist Manifesto I
(1933) appeared. Events since then make that earlier statement seem far
too optimistic. Nazism has shown the depths of brutality of which
humanity is capable. Other totalitarian regimes have suppressed human
rights without ending poverty. Science has sometimes brought evil as
well as good. Recent decades have shown that inhuman wars can be made
in the name of peace. The beginnings of police states, even in
democratic societies, widespread government espionage, and other abuses
of power by military, political, and industrial elites, and the
continuance of unyielding racism, all present a different and difficult
social outlook. In various societies, the demands of women and minority
groups for equal rights effectively challenge our generation.
As we approach the twenty-first century, however, an affirmative and
hopeful vision is needed. Faith, commensurate with advancing knowledge,
is also necessary. In the choice between despair and hope, humanists
respond in this Humanist Manifesto II with a positive declaration for
times of uncertainty.
As in 1933, humanists still believe that traditional theism, especially
faith in the prayer-hearing God, assumed to live and care for persons,
to hear and understand their prayers, and to be able to do something
about them, is an unproved and outmoded faith. Salvationism, based on
mere affirmation, still appears as harmful, diverting people with false
hopes of heaven hereafter. Reasonable minds look to other means for
survival.
Those who sign Humanist Manifesto II disclaim that they are setting
forth a binding credo; their individual views would be stated in widely
varying ways. This statement is, however, reaching for vision in a time
that needs direction. It is social analysis in an effort at consensus.
New statements should be developed to supersede this, but for today it
is our conviction that humanism offers an alternative that can serve
present-day needs and guide humankind toward the future.
-- Paul Kurtz and Edwin H. Wilson (1973)
The next century can be and should be the humanistic century. Dramatic
scientific, technological, and ever-accelerating social and political
changes crowd our awareness. We have virtually conquered the planet,
explored the moon, overcome the natural limits of travel and
communication; we stand at the dawn of a new age, ready to move farther
into space and perhaps inhabit other planets. Using technology wisely,
we can control our environment, conquer poverty, markedly reduce
disease, extend our life-span, significantly modify our behavior, alter
the course of human evolution and cultural development, unlock vast new
powers, and provide humankind with unparalleled opportunity for
achieving an abundant and meaningful life.
The future is, however, filled with dangers. In learning to apply the
scientific method to nature and human life, we have opened the door to
ecological damage, over-population, dehumanizing institutions,
totalitarian repression, and nuclear and bio- chemical disaster. Faced
with apocalyptic prophesies and doomsday scenarios, many flee in
despair from reason and embrace irrational cults and theologies of
withdrawal and retreat.
Traditional moral codes and newer irrational cults both fail to meet
the pressing needs of today and tomorrow. False "theologies of hope"
and messianic ideologies, substituting new dogmas for old, cannot cope
with existing world realities. They separate rather than unite peoples.
Humanity, to survive, requires bold and daring measures. We need to
extend the uses of scientific method, not renounce them, to fuse reason
with compassion in order to build constructive social and moral values.
Confronted by many possible futures, we must decide which to pursue.
The ultimate goal should be the fulfillment of the potential for growth
in each human personality -- not for the favored few, but for all of
humankind. Only a shared world and global measures will suffice.
A humanist outlook will tap the creativity of each human being and
provide the vision and courage for us to work together. This outlook
emphasizes the role human beings can play in their own spheres of
action. The decades ahead call for dedicated, clear minded men and women
able to marshal the will, intelligence, and cooperative skills for
shaping a desirable future. Humanism can provide the purpose and
inspiration that so many seek; it can give personal meaning and
significance to human life.
Many kinds of humanism exist in the contemporary world. The varieties
and emphases of naturalistic humanism include "scientific," "ethical,"
"democratic," "religious," and "Marxist" humanism. Free thought,
atheism, agnosticism, skepticism, deism, rationalism, ethical culture,
and liberal religion all claim to be heir to the humanist tradition.
Humanism traces its roots from ancient China, classical Greece and
Rome, through the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, to the scientific
revolution of the modern world. But views that merely reject theism are
not equivalent to humanism. They lack commitment to the positive belief
in the possibilities of human progress and to the values central to it.
Many within religious groups, believing in the future of humanism, now
claim humanist credentials. Humanism is an ethical process through
which we all can move, above and beyond the divisive particulars,
heroic personalities, dogmatic creeds, and ritual customs of past
religions or their mere negation.
We affirm a set of common principles that can serve as a basis for
united action -- positive principles relevant to the present human
condition. They are a design for a secular society on a planetary scale.
For these reasons, we submit this new Humanist Manifesto for the future
of humankind; for us, it is a vision of hope, a direction for
satisfying survival.
-- Religion --
FIRST: In the best sense, religion may inspire
dedication to the highest ethical ideals. The cultivation of moral
devotion and creative imagination is an expression of genuine
"spiritual" experience and aspiration.
We believe, however, that traditional dogmatic or authoritarian
religions that place revelation, God, ritual, or creed above human
needs and experience do a disservice to the human species. Any account
of nature should pass the tests of scientific evidence; in our
judgment, the dogmas and myths of traditional religions do not do so.
Even at this late date in human history, certain elementary facts based
upon the critical use of scientific reason have to be restated. We find
insufficient evidence for belief in the existence of a supernatural; it
is either meaningless or irrelevant to the question of survival and
fulfillment of the human race. As nontheists, we begin with humans not
God, nature not deity. Nature may indeed be broader and deeper than we
now know; any new discoveries, however, will but enlarge our knowledge
of the natural.
Some humanists believe we should reinterpret traditional religions and
reinvest them with meanings appropriate to the current situation. Such
redefinitions, however, often perpetuate old dependencies and
escapisms; they easily become obscurantist, impeding the free use of
the intellect. We need, instead, radically new human purposes and goals.
We appreciate the need to preserve the best ethical teachings in the
religious traditions of humankind, many of which we share in common.
But we reject those features of traditional religious morality that
deny humans a full appreciation of their own potentialities and
responsibilities. Traditional religions often offer solace to humans,
but, as often, they inhibit humans from helping themselves or
experiencing their full potentialities. Such institutions, creeds, and
rituals often impede the will to serve others. Too often traditional
faiths encourage dependence rather than independence, obedience rather
than affirmation, fear rather than courage. More recently they have
generated concerned social action, with many signs of relevance
appearing in the wake of the "God Is Dead" theologies. But we can
discover no divine purpose or providence for the human species. While
there is much that we do not know, humans are responsible for what we
are or will become. No deity will save us; we must save ourselves.
SECOND: Promises of immortal salvation or fear of eternal damnation are
both illusory and harmful. They distract humans from present concerns,
from self-actualization, and from rectifying social injustices. Modern
science discredits such historic concepts as the "ghost in the machine"
and the "separable soul." Rather, science affirms that the human
species is an emergence from natural evolutionary forces. As far as we
know, the total personality is a function of the biological organism
transacting in a social and cultural context. There is no credible
evidence that life survives the death of the body. We continue to exist
in our progeny and in the way that our lives have influenced others in
our culture.
Traditional religions are surely not the only obstacles to human
progress. Other ideologies also impede human advance. Some forms of
political doctrine, for instance, function religiously, reflecting the
worst features of orthodoxy and authoritarianism, especially when they
sacrifice individuals on the altar of Utopian promises. Purely economic
and political viewpoints, whether capitalist or communist, often
function as religious and ideological dogma. Although humans
undoubtedly need economic and political goals, they also need creative
values by which to live.
-- Ethics --
THIRD: We affirm that moral values derive their
source from human experience. Ethics is autonomous and situational
needing no theological or ideological sanction. Ethics stems from human
need and interest. To deny this distorts the whole basis of life. Human
life has meaning because we create and develop our futures. Happiness
and the creative realization of human needs and desires, individually
and in shared enjoyment, are continuous themes of humanism. We strive
for the good life, here and now. The goal is to pursue life's
enrichment despite debasing forces of vulgarization, commercialization,
and dehumanization.
FOURTH: Reason and intelligence are the most effective instruments that
humankind possesses. There is no substitute: neither faith nor passion
suffices in itself. The controlled use of scientific methods, which
have transformed the natural and social sciences since the Renaissance,
must be extended further in the solution of human problems. But reason
must be tempered by humility, since no group has a monopoly of wisdom
or virtue. Nor is there any guarantee that all problems can be solved
or all questions answered. Yet critical intelligence, infused by a
sense of human caring, is the best method that humanity has for
resolving problems. Reason should be balanced with compassion and
empathy and the whole person fulfilled. Thus, we are not advocating the
use of scientific intelligence independent of or in opposition to
emotion, for we believe in the cultivation of feeling and love. As
science pushes back the boundary of the known, humankind's sense of
wonder is continually renewed, and art, poetry, and music find their
places, along with religion and ethics.
-- The Individual --
FIFTH: The preciousness and dignity of the
individual person is a central humanist value. Individuals should be
encouraged to realize their own creative talents and desires. We reject
all religious, ideological, or moral codes that denigrate the
individual, suppress freedom, dull intellect, dehumanize personality.
We believe in maximum individual autonomy consonant with social
responsibility. Although science can account for the causes of
behavior, the possibilities of individual freedom of choice exist in
human life and should be increased.
SIXTH: In the area of sexuality, we believe that intolerant attitudes,
often cultivated by orthodox religions and puritanical cultures, unduly
repress sexual conduct. The right to birth control, abortion, and
divorce should be recognized. While we do not approve of exploitive,
denigrating forms of sexual expression, neither do we wish to prohibit,
by law or social sanction, sexual behavior between consenting adults.
The many varieties of sexual exploration should not in themselves be
considered "evil." Without countenancing mindless permissiveness or
unbridled promiscuity, a civilized society should be a tolerant one.
Short of harming others or compelling them to do likewise, individuals
should be permitted to express their sexual proclivities and pursue
their life-styles as they desire. We wish to cultivate the development
of a responsible attitude toward sexuality, in which humans are not
exploited as sexual objects, and in which intimacy, sensitivity,
respect, and honesty in interpersonal relations are encouraged. Moral
education for children and adults is an important way of developing
awareness and sexual maturity.
-- Democratic Society --
SEVENTH: To enhance freedom and dignity the
individual must experience a full range of civil liberties in all
societies. This includes freedom of speech and the press, political
democracy, the legal right of opposition to governmental policies, fair
judicial process, religious liberty, freedom of association, and
artistic, scientific, and cultural freedom. It also includes a
recognition of an individual's right to die with dignity, euthanasia,
and the right to suicide. We oppose the increasing invasion of privacy,
by whatever means, in both totalitarian and democratic societies. We
would safeguard, extend, and implement the principles of human freedom
evolved from the Magna Carta to the Bill of Rights, the Rights of Man,
and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
EIGHTH: We are committed to an open and democratic society. We must
extend participatory democracy in its true sense to the economy, the
school, the family, the workplace, and voluntary associations.
Decision-making must be decentralized to include widespread involvement
of people at all levels -- social, political, and economic. All persons
should have a voice in developing the values and goals that determine
their lives. Institutions should be responsive to expressed desires and
needs. The conditions of work, education, devotion, and play should be
humanized. Alienating forces should be modified or eradicated and
bureaucratic structures should be held to a minimum. People are more
important than decalogues, rules, proscriptions, or regulations.
NINTH: The separation of church and state and the separation of
ideology and state are imperatives. The state should encourage maximum
freedom for different moral, political, religious, and social values in
society. It should not favor any particular religious bodies through
the use of public monies, nor espouse a single ideology and function
thereby as an instrument of propaganda or oppression, particularly
against dissenters.
TENTH: Humane societies should evaluate economic systems not by
rhetoric or ideology, but by whether or not they increase economic
well-being for all individuals and groups, minimize poverty and
hardship, increase the sum of human satisfaction, and enhance the
quality of life. Hence the door is open to alternative economic
systems. We need to democratize the economy and judge it by its
responsiveness to human needs, testing results in terms of the common
good.
ELEVENTH: The principle of moral equality must be furthered through
elimination of all discrimination based upon race, religion, sex, age,
or national origin. This means equality of opportunity and recognition
of talent and merit. Individuals should be encouraged to contribute to
their own betterment. If unable, then society should provide means to
satisfy their basic economic, health, and cultural needs, including,
wherever resources make possible, a minimum guaranteed annual income.
We are concerned for the welfare of the aged, the infirm, the
disadvantaged, and also for the outcasts -- the mentally retarded,
abandoned, or abused children, the handicapped, prisoners, and addicts
-- for all who are neglected or ignored by society. Practicing
humanists should make it their vocation to humanize personal relations.
We believe in the right to universal education. Everyone has a right to
the cultural opportunity to fulfill his or her unique capacities and
talents. The schools should foster satisfying and productive living.
They should be open at all levels to any and all; the achievement of
excellence should be encouraged. Innovative and experimental forms of
education are to be welcomed. The energy and idealism of the young
deserve to be appreciated and channeled to constructive purposes.
We deplore racial, religious, ethnic, or class antagonisms. Although we
believe in cultural diversity and encourage racial and ethnic pride, we
reject separations which promote alienation and set people and groups
against each other; we envision an integrated community where people
have a maximum opportunity for free and voluntary association.
We are critical of sexism or sexual chauvinism -- male or female. We
believe in equal rights for both women and men to fulfill their unique
careers and potentialities as they see fit, free of invidious
discrimination.
-- World Community --
TWELFTH: We deplore the division of humankind on
nationalistic grounds. We have reached a turning point in human history
where the best option is to transcend the limits of national
sovereignty and to move toward the building of a world community in
which all sectors of the human family can participate. Thus we look to
the development of a system of world law and a world order based upon
transnational federal government. This would appreciate cultural
pluralism and diversity. It would not exclude pride in national origins
and accomplishments nor the handling of regional problems on a regional
basis. Human progress, however, can no longer be achieved by focusing
on one section of the world, Western or Eastern, developed or
underdeveloped. For the first time in human history, no part of
humankind can be isolated from any other. Each person's future is in
some way linked to all. We thus reaffirm a commitment to the building
of world community, at the same time recognizing that this commits us
to some hard choices.
THIRTEENTH: This world community must renounce the resort to violence
and force as a method of solving international disputes. We believe in
the peaceful adjudication of differences by international courts and by
the development of the arts of negotiation and compromise. War is
obsolete. So is the use of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons.
It is a planetary imperative to reduce the level of military
expenditures and turn these savings to peaceful and people-oriented
uses.
FOURTEENTH: The world community must engage in cooperative planning
concerning the use of rapidly depleting resources. The planet earth
must be considered a single ecosystem. Ecological damage, resource
depletion, and excessive population growth must be checked by
international concord. The cultivation and conservation of nature is a
moral value; we should perceive ourselves as integral to the sources of
our being in nature. We must free our world from needless pollution and
waste, responsibly guarding and creating wealth, both natural and
human. Exploi- tation of natural resources, uncurbed by social
conscience, must end.
FIFTEENTH: The problems of economic growth and development can no
longer be resolved by one nation alone; they are worldwide in scope. It
is the moral obligation of the developed nations to provide -- through
an international authority that safeguards human rights -- massive
technical, agricultural, medical, and economic assistance, including
birth control techniques, to the developing portions of the globe.
World poverty must cease. Hence extreme disproportions in wealth,
income, and economic growth should be reduced on a worldwide basis.
SIXTEENTH: Technology is a vital key to human progress and development.
We deplore any neo-romantic efforts to condemn indiscriminately all
technology and science or to counsel retreat from its further extension
and use for the good of humankind. We would resist any moves to censor
basic scientific research on moral, political, or social grounds.
Technology must, however, be carefully judged by the consequences of
its use; harmful and destructive changes should be avoided. We are
particularly disturbed when technology and bureaucracy control,
manipulate, or modify human beings without their consent. Technological
feasibility does not imply social or cultural desirability.
SEVENTEENTH: We must expand communication and transportation across
frontiers. Travel restrictions must cease. The world must be open to
diverse political, ideological, and moral viewpoints and evolve a
worldwide system of television and radio for information and education.
We thus call for full international cooperation in culture, science,
the arts, and technology across ideological borders. We must learn to
live openly together or we shall perish together.
-- Humanity As a Whole --
IN CLOSING: The world cannot wait for a
reconciliation of competing political or economic systems to solve its
problems. These are the times for men and women of goodwill to further
the building of a peaceful and prosperous world. We urge that parochial
loyalties and inflexible moral and religious ideologies be transcended.
We urge recognition of the common humanity of all people. We further
urge the use of reason and compassion to produce the kind of world we
want -- a world in which peace, prosperity, freedom, and happiness are
widely shared. Let us not abandon that vision in despair or cowardice.
We are responsible for what we are or will be. Let us work together for
a humane world by means commensurate with humane ends. Destructive
ideological differences among communism, capitalism, socialism,
conservatism, liberalism, and radicalism should be overcome. Let us
call for an end to terror and hatred. We will survive and prosper only
in a world of shared humane values. We can initiate new directions for
humankind; ancient rivalries can be superseded by broad-based
cooperative efforts. The commitment to tolerance, understanding, and
peaceful negotiation does not necessitate acquiescence to the status
quo nor the damming up of dynamic and revolutionary forces. The true
revolution is occurring and can continue in countless nonviolent
adjustments. But this entails the willingness to step forward onto new
and expanding plateaus. At the present juncture of history, commitment
to all humankind is the highest commitment of which we are capable; it
transcends the narrow allegiances of church, state, party, class, or
race in moving toward a wider vision of human potentiality.
What more daring a goal for humankind than for each person to become,
in ideal as well as practice, a citizen of a world community. It is a
classical vision; we can now give it new vitality. Humanism thus
interpreted is a moral force that has time on its side. We believe that
humankind has the potential, intelligence, goodwill, and cooperative
skill to implement this commitment in the decades ahead.
We, the undersigned, while not necessarily endorsing every detail of
the above, pledge our general support to Humanist Manifesto II for the
future of humankind. These affirmations are not a final credo or dogma
but an expression of a living and growing faith. We invite others in
all lands to join us in further developing and working for these goals.