Humanist Manifesto I
original source: http://csmaclab-www.uchicago.edu/philosophyProject/sellars/humanist.html
Humanist Manifesto I
Editor's Note: The first draft of this document was written by Roy Wood Sellars, and published in The New Humanist (May-June, 1933): 58-61. I have copied the material from a posting by the American Humanist Association, adding some stylistic changes and the names of those who signed it. Andrew Chrucky
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.
Eight: 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.
| J. A. C. Fagginger Auer | E. Burdette Backus | Harry Elmer Barnes |
| L. M. Birkhead | Raymond B. Bragg | Edwin Arthur Burtt |
| Ernest Caldecott | A. J. Carlson | John Dewey |
| Albert C. Dieffenbach | John H. Dietrich | Bernard Fantus |
| William Floyd | F. H. Hankins | A. Eustace Haydon |
| Llewllyn Jones | Robert Morse Lovett | Harold P. Marley |
| R. Lester Mondale | Charles Francis Potter | John Herman Randall, Jr. |
| Curtis W. Reese | Oliver L. Reiser | Roy Wood Sellars |
| Clinton Lee Scott | Maynard Shipley | W. Frank Swift |
| V. T. Thayer | Eldred C. Vanderlaan | Joseph Walker |
| Jacob J. Weinstein | Frank S. C. Wicks | David Rhys Williams |
| Edwin H. Wilson | | |
Note: 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)