Values ... they're important

“I believe that we have to content ourselves with our imperfect knowledge and understanding, and treat values and moral obligations as a purely human problem – the most important of all human problems.”

Humanist Albert Einstein said that. And yes, right and wrong are known by human experience, say the Humanists. Not by “revelation” from outside. By human intelligent observation of what happens as the outcome when a choice is made.

When Albert Einstein lectured in Vienna, Karl Popper listened to him. Later, at the University of London, Humanist Karl Popper proposed this way of knowing right from wrong: the good act is the one which leads to the minimum of avoidable suffering.

Humanist ideas were once discussed by a group that met regularly at the University of Chicago. Among them, a Canadian, Rev. A. Eustace Hayden, was a professor at the School of Religion in trouble with his Baptist denomination for freethinking ideas.

In 1933, the Humanists issued the original Humanist Manifesto. By 1941-1943 they were incorporated as the AHA. What is now a worldwide movement was on its way.

By 1954, AHA had authorized chartering of local chapters. When AHA executive director Edwin Wilson visited San Diego, the first chapter here was established. Support came from a Unitarian minister, Peter Sansome. His wife was the daughter of E. Burdette Backus, one of the signers of the 1933 Humanist Manifesto. The first president of that original chapter was Dr. Jack Hardebeck.

The Humanist Fellowship of San Diego became an AHA chapter in 1982. Dr Jack Hardebeck, and Irene Backus, widow of Burdette Backus, both joined the Fellowship, giving it links with the roots of organized Humanism.