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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
satis- factions 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.
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