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| Edwin Henry Wilson, an editor and in 1933 the youngest signer of the original Humanist Manifesto |
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May 1, 1933: The day the organized Humanist movement went public.
With the publication of the first Humanist Manifesto, Humanism became visible, its purpose clear. In a time of despair, Humanism offered a new and hopeful vision.
The world was in a desperate condition. Adolf Hitler was three months in office, his followers turning to despotism to relieve them of their social misery. In America, thousands were unemployed, the economy was collapsing, hope was low. The Humanists stepped up and presented a way forward.
The 34 signers knew they were not merely continuing an old point of view. They were forging a new philosophy out of the materials of the modern world.
Their ranks included secular philosophers, ministers of religion, a rabbi, an atheist (Harry Elmer Barnes), a denier of atheism (Curtis Reese), and thinkers who were not averse to the word God (John Dewey, John H. Dietrich.) How could persons differing so profoundly possibly agree to sign the Manifesto together?
They agreed because they saw what Humanism is: an ethical process through which we can move above and beyond the dogmatic beliefs of old religions and denials of them that are so divisive.
Humanists agree: ethics is based on human experience, and requires no reference at all to anything supernatural. Like the US Constitution, the Manifesto neither affirms nor denies any metaphysical claim; its focus is on human behavior.
The time is past for issues of theism; religious emotions and attitudes are liberated from supernaturalism. Associations exist to fulfill human life. Ethics is a human enterprise. Experience, not conformity to revelation, measures the good.
The central task for humanity is the quest for the good life. We humans are responsible to make real the world of which we dream. To seek the power to achieve it we must look within humanity, not outside it. In a dark time, Humanism's founders affirmed humanity's ability to achieve a better world. They call on us to set intelligence and will to the task.
Since 1933, Humanism has been thoroughly studied, discussed and developed. It's alive and evolving, yet Humanism is now a clearly defined, well articulated new worldview, not merely derivative nor needing to be encumbered by any permanent alliances. It is unique, fully worthy of the capital H recommended by the International Humanist and Ethical Union, and it needs no adjective.
The language of the original Humanist Manifesto makes clear that Humanism is not just a mere developing of ideas already in place. It is radical rather than reformist - "radical" implying that it reviews issues from the root. While drawing upon the experience of previous movements such as rationalism, freethought, atheism, secularism and democracy, Humanism is a truly new structure of ideas and ideals, a new beginning.
Humanism is not a "Band Aid" approach and does not seek merely to ameliorate or repair a broken world but to start afresh, to build the world anew. The Humanists are out to change the world. Their inventory of resources refers to intelligence and will and calls upon us to use these to carry humanity forward to "the world of our dreams," a society in which life's possibilities are recognized. Human beings are not doomed from birth "by Adam's sin;" each individual is honored as caoable of fulfilment in goodness.
The quest for the good life, they said, is the enduring task held central in humankind. In confidence that humanity has within itself the resources to move forward to the ideal future, Humanism asserts that we humans are responsible to make the best possible conceived human future become real, that we can do it.
The founders' optimism, expressed when America was at a low point, is a statement of immense significance: while the religious forms and ideas of our predecessors are demonstrably inadequate, Humanism will point the way forward to a world of freedom in which people cooperate voluntarily and intelligently for the good of all.
The existence of all institutions and associations is not self-justified. All are subject to ongoing evaluation. The measure of their worth is their contribution to the enhancement of human life. They must all be directed with a view to making possible a better life not just for few but for all.
It follows that Humanists firmly reject the Marxist doctrine of historical determinism, Calvinist teachings of predestination, Judaism's "chosen people" myth, orthodox Christian "original sin," and fundamentalists' assumption that the will of God is over all and whatever happens is in fulfillment of prophecy or the working out of a divine plan. Life, says Humanism, is what you make it. What exists in this life is what you get, so deal with it.
Humanists say "No" to the proposition that religious emotions and attitudes are necessarily associated with belief in the supernatural. Humanists discourage sentimental and unreal hopes and wishful thinking. The founders of Humanism refer to this, in the 1933 Humanist Manifesto, as "mental hygiene."
"By this positive morale and intention Humanism will be guided," they proclaimed, "and from this perspective and alignment the techniques and efforts of Humanism will flow."
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