The Humanist Manifesto

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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

Permission to reproduce this material, complete and unmodified, in electronic or printout form is hereby granted free of charge by the copyright holder to nonprofit humanist and freethought publications. All other uses, and uses by all others, requires that requests for permission be made through the American Humanist Association, at www.americanhumanist.org.

[cilla4progress]

1. I was raised a humanist in the

Ethical Culture Society.

Now I'm a member of a UU Fellowship.

Thanks for this!

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2. I have a friend that passed away

that was a member of that org. He was a history prof and studied at the U. of Chicago.

Met him at a UU Fellowship.

[cilla4progress]

3. Bookmarked.

Thanks again!

[OneBro]

4. Why adulterate humanism with religion?

I don’t get it. Religion, almost by definition, subjugates humanity to some deity and, of course, its self-professed oracles.

Humanists/Humanitarians do good deeds for others, for animals, and for the planet out of the goodness of our hearts, not out of a need for public accolades, by command of Zeus, or in trade for entry through the pearly gates.

It isn’t that “we consider the religious forms and ideas of our fathers no longer adequate,” it’s that we recognize religion for what it is - all the good it has done, and all the evil it has done - and we choose not to turn a blind eye just because there is a New and Improved, Revised Religion 3.0.

The lyrics are periodically updated and revised as needed, but religion is essentially the same song it has always been: “We aren’t the Crusades, the witch burnings, or slavery; and we aren’t the thousands upon thousands of child molestations and rapes by clergy, the cover-ups that followed, or the gaudy wealth we fought to keep from the victims. We are love, loaves, and fishes . . . just like the average humanist.”

No sane humanist would ever be comfortable with such a forced marriage.

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5. plenty of evil associated with the term atheist too.

History is full of them.
The term religion is used for lots of philosophy. Take many of the Eastern "religions".
Black and white thinking gets in the way of reality. It's all gray.

[OneBro]

7. Atheists don't blame their evil on Zeus or a Spaghetti Monster.

Nor do atheists pat themselves on the back when a secular society forces them to do the right thing. For ALL humanists, slavery is evil, rape is evil, genocide is evil . . . Yes, black and white. Add religion, and suddenly it's all a gray "way of thinking." The whole point of calling it "religious humanism" is to soft pedal the RELIGION, thereby yet again whitewashing its past with a simple "Yea, that, but look at us now."

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8. I've never heard of Religious Humanism, I think you mean Secular Humanism.

Take a look at TFG and his clone Pootie. I don't think they buy a god thing. About as close as an anti-theist as two people can get. They have no empathy for other humans, as a Humanist would and no fear of a make believe hell as a theist might.
You may want to go back and read the Manifesto. I don't see any of that. It speaks to the basic humanity shared by almost every culture, religious or not. Humanism put humans before gods, that's the point. I think you miss the point and get tied up in hate, just like a religion might teach to attack the "other". Open your mind and read and study some comparative religion classes. Then take some time to look at Zen and Lao Tzu and tell me about what they think and teach.

Anyway, good luck with the journey.

[OneBro]

9. Religious humanists . . . Religious humanism.

The first line of your OP is "FIRST: Religious humanists regard the universe as self-existing and not created."

You confuse my outrage with hate. Spend countless hours over the years with the victims of clergy sex abuse (not just Catholics), watching their lives unravel as the "church" and its congregations move on to the next hymnal, and maybe you'll ask yourself just how much more we need to study yet another religion before we accept that evil, even when cloaked in religion, is evil. Others may equate my hate of child rape with religion-based hate of homosexuals but I distinguish the two.

Not everyone considers Zen or Jainism religions, in no small part because they are non-theistic. Ask an evangelical, ANY evangelical, about putting humans before god, and I suspect you'll find yourself wanting to clearly distinguish religion . . . and humanism.

I suspect you and I agree on more than we disagree. I am very sorry that my response took a post with a presumptively positive intent down this path.

Please be well.

-Onebro

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10. What religion of your choice "regard the universe as self-existing and not created."

Isn't that the essence of non-religious thought?
Of course you can bring out example of evil and disregard those mid-19th Century that brought about the end of slavery, like the Quakers and others. Oh, that doesn't count. Even the Catholic Church has the Franciscans that have done great things for the poor. Look up St.Francis and St.Clair and their devotion to the poor and animals, not perfect, if that is what you are looking for.
Now lets blame some famous Atheists and tie them to all Atheists. Start with Ho Chi Minh who killed 3.5 million. You must love that Atheists Joseph Stalin, deaths, 10-20 million. By the way Hitler was an Atheist that used the RCC, because he could. He was not a devout Catholic. He was a cynical Darwinist Atheist who banned Christianity after using state of the art technology to efficiently kill thousands of Catholic priest and the head of the Lutheran Church.

I think most would consider Jainism a religion. Lao Tzu wrote the Tao Te Ching a book of philosophy that became the "religion" of Eastern countries. You might be interested in reading The Tao of Physics, a great book.

Starting to sound a lot like a gray area. Neither all good or all bad. Unless you wish to deny truth.

Why would I ask Ask ANY evangelical, about putting humans before god? The whole point of Humanism is to deny gods. That is my point, sorry you missed it. It'd be like ask any Atheist to deny Stalin.

[OneBro]

11. Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the show?

The ONLY difference between evil atheists and evil deists is that evil deists often cloak their evil in religion. Then apologists come through and suggest that they simply weren't devout.

Never-mind that the Vatican signed a treaty with Nazi Germany, remained silent as the holocaust bloomed, then helped thousands of Nazi leaders escape to safety after the war. (Same Church that recently secreted an army of child rapists out of the US and relocated them to churches in developing countries with fresh, young victims.). But Catholic-raised Hitler wasn't devout, you say. Sure, maybe he was an atheist who simply took advantage of the Vatican. I mean, how could an oracle of God have known, right?

Nothing better sums up your entire argument than the comments of Msgr Owen Keenan, a priest in Canada who, after learning that 215 children were found in unmarked graves at one site before 751 were found in another, said yea but "there was good done" in those Indian residential schools run by Catholics. THAT, sir, is religion writ large.

Reminds me of a one-liner: "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the show?"

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12. Humanist are not deist.

Humanist do not support the evils of theist or Atheist like Stalin. Now what is your point about Humanist again? Read the original post again. I’m sticking to it. They support science and a natural world without a creator.

[OneBro]

13. Why adulterate humanism with religion?

My point is back where I started: "Why adulterate humanism with religion?" You may conveniently suggests that Humanists are not deists, but the Manifestos all recognize that some humanists can be deists/theists. However, the humanism is supposed to override their god. Adulterating humanism with religion thus ultimately gives religion yet another mulligan, i.e. ignore the evil that we do in the name of god, we are all humanists.

At no point did I suggest that humanists support the evils of theists or atheists like your fav Stalin or your distant black sheep of the family, Hitler. I'm done with responding to straw men.

Do enjoy your new and improved, updated, revised religion.

[Karadeniz]

6. Very good!!!!! However, I personally accept the research into reincarnation and the indestructible

nature of energy.

[Libus1979]

17. religious humanists

FIRST: According to religious humanists, the universe is an uncreated, self-sustaining entity. Second, humanism holds that man has always existed as a part of nature and that his development has been a continuous one. THIRD: Humanists believe that the conventional dualism of mind and body must be discarded since they have an organic perspective on life. Visit This Site