HUMANIST MANIFESTO I

   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 there from (goal or
ideal), and the technique (cult) established for realizing the
satisfactory life. A change in any of there 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 his 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 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 the result of a continuous process.
   Third: Holding an organic view of life, humanists find 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 to
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 relation 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 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 it; and (c) endeavor the 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 these 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. Fagginer Auer                Harold P. Marley
E. Burdette Backus                    R. Lester Mondale
Harry Elmer Barnes                    Charles Francis Potter
L. M. Birkhead                        John Herman Randall, Jr.
Raymond B. Bragg                      Curtis W. Reese
Edwin Arthur Burtt                    Oliver L. Reiser
Ernest Caldecott                      Roy Wood Sellars
A. J. Carlson                         Clinton Lee Scott
John Dewey                            Maynard Shipley
Albert C. Dieffenbach                 W. Frank Swift
John H. Dietrich                      V. T. Thayer
Bernard Fantus                        Eldred C. Vanderlaan
William Floyd                         Joseph Walker
F. H. Hankins                         Jacob J. Weinstein
A. Eustace Haydon                     Frank S. C. Wicks
Llewellyn Jones                       David Rhys Williams
Robert Morss Lovett                   Edwin H. Wilson