textfiles/occult/humanst2.txt

                            Humanist Manifesto II
    
    [Humanist Manifesto I is now a historical document, superseded by
    Humanist Manifesto II.  Like the first, this second document does
    not represent a binding creed or doctrine, but is merely a
    consensus statement on social policy.]
                                              
    The next century can be and should be the humanistic century.
    Dramatic scientific, technological, and ever-accelerating social
    and political changes crowd our awareness.  We have virtually
    conquered the planet, explored the moon, overcome the natural
    limits of travel and communication; we stand at the dawn of a new
    age, ready to move farther into space and perhaps inhabit other
    planets.  Using technology wisely, we can control our environment,
    conquer poverty, markedly reduce disease, extend our life-span,
    significantly modify our behavior, alter the course of human
    evolution and cultural development, unlock vast new powers, and
    provide humankind with unparalleled opportunity for achieving an
    abundant and meaningful life.

    The future is, however, filled with dangers.  In learning to apply
    the scientific method to nature and human life, we have opened the
    door to ecological damage, overpopulation, dehumanizing
    institutions, totalitarian repression, and nuclear and biochemical
    disaster. Faced with apocalyptic prophesies and doomsday
    scenarios, many flee in despair from reason and embrace irrational
    cults and theologies of withdrawal and retreat.
    
    Traditional moral codes and newer irrational cults both fail to
    meet the pressing needs of today and tomorrow.  False "theologies
    of hope" and messianic ideologies, substituting new dogmas for
    old, cannot cope with existing world realities.  They separate
    rather than unite peoples.

    Humanity, to survive, requires bold and daring measures.  We need
    to extend the uses of scientific method, not renounce them, to
    fuse reason with compassion in order to build constructive social
    and moral values. Confronted by many possible futures, we must
    decide which to pursue. The ultimate goal should be fulfillment of
    the potential for growth in each human personality - not for the
    favored few, but for all of humankind.  Only a shared world and
    global measures will suffice.
    
    A humanist outlook will tap the creativity of each human being and
    provide the vision and courage for us to work together.  This
    outlook emphasizes the role human beings can play in their own
    spheres of action.  The decades ahead call for dedicated,
    clear-minded men and women able to marshal the will, intelligence,
    and cooperative skills for shaping a desirable future.  Humanism
    can provide the purpose and inspiration that so many seek it can
    give personal meaning and significance to human life.
    
    Many kinds of humanism exist in the contemporary world.  The
    varieties and emphases of naturalistic humanism include
    "scientific," "ethical," "democratic," "religious," and "Marxist"
    humanism.  Free thought, atheism, agnosticism, skepticism, deism,
    rationalism, ethical culture, and liberal religion all claim to be
    heir to the humanist tradition. Humanism traces its roots from
    ancient China, classical Greece and Rome, through the Renaissance
    and the Enlightenment, to the scientific revolution of the modern
    world.  But views that merely reject theism are not equivalent to
    humanism.  They lack commitment to the positive belief in the
    possibilities of human progress and to the values central to it.
    Many within religious groups, believing in the future of humanism,
    now claim humanist credentials.  Humanism is an ethical process
    through which we all can move, above and beyond the divisive
    particulars, heroic personalities, dogmatic creeds, and ritual
    customs of past religions or their mere negation.
    
    We affirm a set of common principles that can serve as a basis for
    united action - positive principles relevant to the present human
    condition.  They are a design for a secular society on a planetary
    scale.
    
    For these reasons, we submit this new "Humanist Manifesto" for the
    future of humankind; for us, it is a vision of hope, a direction
    for satisfying survival.

    
                                   RELIGION
    
    FIRST:  In the best sense, religion may inspire dedication to the
    highest ethical ideals.  The cultivation of moral devotion and
    creative imagination is an expression of genuine "spiritual"
    experience and aspiration.
    
    We believe, however, that traditional dogmatic or authoritarian
    religions that place revelation, God, ritual, or creed above human
    needs and experience do a disservice to the human species.  Any
    account of nature should pass the tests of scientific evidence; in
    our judgment, the dogmas and myths of traditional religions do not
    do so. Even at this late date in human history, certain elementary
    facts based upon the critical use of scientific reason have to be
    restated.  We find insufficient evidence for belief in the
    existence of a supernatural; it is either meaningless or
    irrelevant to the question of the survival and fulfillment of the
    human race. As nontheists, we begin with humans not God, nature
    not deity. Nature may indeed be broader and deeper than we now
    know; any new discoveries, however, will but enlarge our knowledge
    of the natural.
    
    Some humanists believe we should reinterpret traditional religions
    and reinvest them with meanings appropriate to the current
    situation. Such redefinitions, however, often perpetuate old
    dependencies and escapisms; they easily become obscurantist,
    impeding the free use of the intellect.  We need, instead,
    radically new human purposes and goals.
    
    We appreciate the need to preserve the best ethical teachings in
    the religious traditions of humankind, many of which we share in
    common. But we reject those features of traditional religious
    morality that deny humans a full appreciation of their own
    potentialities and responsibilities.  Traditional religions often
    offer solace to humans, but, as often, they inhibit humans from
    helping themselves or experiencing their full potentialities.
    Such institutions, creeds, and rituals often impede the will to
    serve others.  Too often traditional faiths encourage dependence
    rather than independence, obedience rather than affirmation, fear
    rather than courage.  More recently they have generated concerned
    social action, with many signs of relevance appearing in the wake
    of the "God Is Dead" theologies.  But we can discover no divine
    purpose or providence for the human species.  While there is much
    that we do not know, humans are responsible for what we are or
    will become.  No deity can save us; we must save ourselves.
                                     
    SECOND:  Promises of immortal salvation or fear or eternal
    damnation are both illusory and harmful.  They distract humans
    from present concerns, from self-actualization, and from
    rectifying social injustices.  Modern science discredits such
    historic concepts as the "ghost in the machine" and the "separable
    soul."  Rather, science affirms that the human species is an
    emergence from natural evolutionary forces.  As far as we know,
    the total personality is a function of the biological organism
    transacting in a social and cultural context. There is no credible
    evidence that life survives the death of the body. We continue to
    exist in our progeny and in the way that our lives have influenced
    others in our culture.
                                                                      
    Traditional religions are surely not the only obstacles to human
    progress.  Other ideologies also impede human advance.  Some forms
    of political doctrine, for instance, function religiously,
    reflecting the worst features of orthodoxy and authoritarianism,
    especially when they sacrifice individuals on the altar of Utopian
    promises. Purely economic and political viewpoints, whether
    capitalist or communist, often function as religious and
    ideological dogma.  Although humans undoubtedly need economic and
    political goals, they also need creative values by which to live.

    
                                    ETHICS
    
    THIRD:  We affirm that moral values derive their source from human
    experience.  Ethics is autonomous and situational, needing no
    theological or ideological sanction.  Ethics stems from human need
    and interest.  To deny this distorts the whole basis of life.
    Human life has meaning because we create and develop our futures.
    Happiness and the creative realization of human needs and desires,
    individually and in shared enjoyment, are continuous themes of
    humanism.  We strive for the good life, here and now.  The goal is
    to pursue life's enrichment despite debasing forces of
    vulgarization, commercialization, bureaucratization, and
    dehumanization.
    
    FOURTH:  Reason and intelligence are the most effective
    instruments that humankind possesses.  There is no substitute:
    neither faith nor passion suffices in itself.  The controlled use
    of scientific methods, which have transformed the natural and
    social sciences since the Renaissance, must be extended further in
    the solution of human problems.  But reason must be tempered by
    humility, since no group has a monopoly of wisdom or virtue.  Nor
    is there any guarantee that all problems can be solved or all
    questions answered. Yet critical intelligence, infused by a sense
    of human caring, is the best method that humanity has for
    resolving problems.  Reason should be balanced with compassion and
    empathy and the whole person fulfilled.  Thus, we are not
    advocating the use of scientific intelligence independent of or in
    opposition to emotion, for we believe in the cultivation of
    feeling and love.  As science pushes back the boundary of the
    known, man's sense of wonder is continually renewed, and art,
    poetry, and music find their places, along with religion and
    ethics.

    
                                THE INDIVIDUAL
    
    FIFTH:  The preciousness and dignity of the individual person is a
    central humanist value.  Individuals should be encouraged to
    realize their own creative talents and desires.  We reject all
    religious, ideological, or moral codes that denigrate the
    individual, suppress freedom, dull intellect, dehumanize
    personality.  We believe in maximum individual autonomy consonant
    with social responsibility. Although science can account for the
    causes of behavior, the possibilities of individual freedom of
    choice exist in human life and should be increased.
    
    SIXTH:  In the area of sexuality, we believe that intolerant
    attitudes, often cultivated by orthodox religions and puritanical
    cultures, unduly repress sexual conduct.  The right to birth
    control, abortion, and divorce should be recognized.  While we do
    not approve of exploitive, denigrating forms of sexual expression,
    neither do we wish to prohibit, by law or social sanction, sexual
    behavior between consenting adults. The many varieties of sexual
    exploration should not in themselves be considered "evil."
    Without countenancing mindless permissiveness or unbridled
    promiscuity, a civilized society should be a tolerant one. Short
    of harming others or compelling them to do likewise, individuals
    should be permitted to express their sexual proclivities and
    pursue their life-styles as they desire.  We wish to cultivate the
    development of a responsible attitude toward sexuality, in which
    humans are not exploited as sexual objects, and in which intimacy,
    sensitivity, respect, and honesty in interpersonal relationships
    are encouraged. Moral education for children and adults is an
    important way of developing awareness and sexual maturity.
     

                              DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY
    
    SEVENTH:  To enhance freedom and dignity the individual must
    experience a full range of civil liberties in all societies.  This
    includes freedom of speech and the press, political democracy, the
    legal right of opposition to governmental policies, fair judicial
    process, religious liberty, freedom of association, and artistic,
    scientific, and cultural freedom.  It also includes a recognition
    of an individual's right to die with dignity, euthanasia, and the
    right to suicide.  We oppose the increasing invasion of privacy,
    by whatever means, in both totalitarian and democratic societies.
    We would safeguard, extend, and implement the principles of human
    freedom evolved from the "Magna Carta" to the "Bill of Rights,"
    the "Rights of Man," and the "Universal Declaration of Human
    Rights."
    
    EIGHTH:  We are committed to an open and democratic society.  We
    must extend participatory democracy in its true sense to the
    economy, the school, the family, the workplace, and voluntary
    associations. Decision-making must be decentralized to include
    widespread involvement of people at all levels - social,
    political, and economic. All persons should have a voice in
    developing the values and goals that determine their lives.
    Institutions should be responsive to expressed desires and needs.
    The conditions of work, education, devotion, and play should be
    humanized.  Alienating forces should be modified or eradicated and
    bureaucratic structures should be held to a minimum. People are
    more important than decalogues, rules, proscriptions, or
    regulations.

    NINTH:  The separation of church and state and the separation of
    ideology and state are imperatives.  The state should encourage
    maximum freedom for different moral, political, religious, and
    social values in society.  It should not favor any particular
    religious bodies through the use of public monies, nor espouse a
    single ideology and function thereby as an instrument of
    propaganda or oppression, particularly against dissenters.
    
    TENTH:  Humane societies should evaluate economic systems not by
    rhetoric or ideology, but by whether or not they increase economic
    well-being for all individuals and groups, minimize poverty and
    hardship,  increase the sum of human satisfaction, and enhance the
    quality of life.  Hence the door is open to alternative economic
    systems.  We need to democratize the economy and judge it by its
    responsiveness to human needs, testing results in terms of the
    common good.
    
    ELEVENTH:  The principle of moral equality must be furthered
    through elimination of all discrimination based upon race,
    religion, sex, age, or national origin.  This means equality of
    opportunity and recognition of talent and merit.  Individuals
    should be encouraged to contribute to their own betterment.  If
    unable, then society should provide means to satisfy their basic
    economic, health, and cultural needs, including, wherever
    resources make possible, a minimum guaranteed annual income. We
    are concerned for the welfare of the aged, the infirm, the
    disadvantaged, and also for the outcasts - the mentally retarded,
    abandoned, or abused children, the handicapped, prisoners, and
    addicts - for all who are neglected or ignored by society.
    Practicing humanists should make it their vocation to humanize
    personal relations.

    We believe in the right to universal education.  Everyone has a
    right to the cultural opportunity to fulfill his or her unique
    capacities and talents.  The schools should foster satisfying and
    productive living. They should be open at all levels to any and
    all; the achievement of excellence should be encouraged.
    Innovative and experimental forms of education are to be welcomed.
    The energy and idealism of the young deserve to be appreciated and
    channeled to constructive purposes.
    
    We deplore racial, religious, ethnic, or class antagonisms.
    Although we believe in cultural diversity and encourage racial and
    ethnic pride, we reject separations which promote alienation and
    set people and groups against each other; we envision an
    integrated community where people have a maximum opportunity for
    free and voluntary association.
                   
    We are critical of sexism or sexual chauvinism - male or female.
    We believe in equal rights for both women and men to fulfill their
    unique careers and potentialities as they see fit, free of
    invidious discrimination.
    

                               WORLD COMMUNITY
    
    TWELFTH:  We deplore the division of humankind on nationalistic
    grounds.  We have reached a turning point in human history where
    the best option is to transcend the limits of national sovereignty
    and to move toward the building of a world community in which all
    sectors of the human family can participate.  Thus we look to the
    development of a system of world law and a world order based upon
    transnational federal government.  This would appreciate cultural
    pluralism and diversity. It would not exclude pride in national
    origins and accomplishments nor the handling of regional problems
    on a regional basis.  Human progress, however, can no longer be
    achieved by focusing on one section of the world, Western or
    Eastern, developed or underdeveloped.  For the first time in human
    history, no part of humankind can be isolated from any other.
    Each person's future is in some way linked to all.  We thus
    reaffirm a commitment to the building of world community, at the
    same time recognizing that this commits us to some hard choices.
    
    THIRTEENTH:  This world community must renounce the resort to
    violence and force as a method of solving international disputes.
    We believe in the peaceful adjudication of differences by
    international courts and by the development of the arts of
    negotiation and compromise.  War is obsolete.  So is the use of
    nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. It is a planetary
    imperative to reduce the level of military expenditures and turn
    these savings to peaceful and people-oriented uses.
    
    FOURTEENTH:  The world community must engage in cooperative
    planning concerning the use of rapidly depleting resources.  The
    planet earth must be considered a single ecosystem.  Ecological
    damage, resource depletion, and excessive population growth must
    be checked by international concord.  The cultivation and
    conservation of nature is a moral value; we should perceive
    ourselves as integral to the sources of our being in nature.  We
    must free our world from needless pollution and waste, responsibly
    guarding and creating wealth, both natural and human.
    Exploitation of natural resources, uncurbed by social conscience,
    must end.
          
    FIFTEENTH:  The problems of economic growth and development can no
    longer be resolved by one nation alone; they are worldwide in
    scope. It is the moral obligation of the developed nations to
    provide - through an international authority that safeguards human
    rights - massive technical, agricultural, medical, and economic
    assistance, including birth control techniques, to the developing
    portions of the globe. World poverty must cease.  Hence extreme
    disproportions in wealth, income, and economic growth should be
    reduced on a worldwide basis.
                         
    SIXTEENTH:  Technology is a vital key to human progress and
    development.  We deplore any neo-romantic efforts to condemn
    indiscriminately all technology and science or to counsel retreat
    from its further extension and use for the good of humankind.  We
    would resist any moves to censor basic scientific research on
    moral, political, or social grounds.  Technology must, however, be
    carefully judged by the consequences of its use; harmful and
    destructive changes should be avoided.  We are particularly
    disturbed when technology and bureaucracy control, manipulate, or
    modify human beings without their consent.  Technological
    feasibility does not imply social or cultural desirability.
    
    SEVENTEENTH:  We must expand communication and transportation
    across frontiers.  Travel restrictions must cease.  The world must
    be open to diverse political, ideological, and moral viewpoints
    and evolve a worldwide system of television and radio for
    information and education. We thus call for full international
    cooperation in culture, science, the arts, and technology across
    ideological borders.  We must learn to live openly together or we
    shall perish together.
    
    
                             HUMANITY AS A WHOLE
    
    IN CLOSING:  The world cannot wait for a reconciliation of
    competing political or economic systems to solve its problems.
    These are the times for men and women of goodwill to further the
    building of a peaceful  and prosperous world.  We urge that
    parochial loyalties and inflexible moral and religious ideologies
    be transcended.  We urge recognition of the common humanity of all
    people.  We further urge the use of reason and compassion to
    produce the kind of world we want - a world in which peace,
    prosperity, freedom, and happiness are widely shared.  Let us not
    abandon that vision in despair or cowardice.  We are responsible
    for what we are or will be.  Let us work together for a humane
    world by means commensurate with humane ends.  Destructive
    ideological differences among communism, capitalism, socialism,
    conservatism, liberalism, and radicalism should be overcome. Let
    us call for an end to terror and hatred.  We will survive and
    prosper only in a world of shared humane values.  We can initiate
    new directions for humankind; ancient rivalries can be superseded
    by broad-based cooperative efforts.  The commitment to tolerance,
    understanding, and peaceful negotiation does not necessitate
    acquiescence to the status quo nor the damming up of dynamic and
    revolutionary forces.  The true revolution is occurring and can
    continue in countless nonviolent adjustments.  But this entails
    the willingness to step forward onto new and expanding plateaus.
    At the present juncture of history, commitment to all humankind is
    the highest commitment of which we are capable; it transcends the
    narrow allegiances of church, state, party, class, or race in
    moving toward a wider vision of human potentiality.  What more
    daring a goal for humankind than for each person to become, in
    ideal as well as practice, a citizen of a world community.  It is
    a classical vision; we can now give it new vitality. Humanism thus
    interpreted is a moral force that has time on its side.  We
    believe that humankind has the potential intelligence, goodwill,
    and cooperative skill to implement this commitment in the decades
    ahead.
    
    We, the undersigned, while not necessarily endorsing every detail
    of the above, pledge our general support to "Humanist Manifesto
    II" for the future of humankind.  These affirmations are not a
    final credo or dogma but an expression of a living and growing
    faith. We invite others in all lands to join us in further
    developing and working for these goals.
    
    [Thousands of names have been added to the list of signatories
    which followed the original "Humanist Manifesto II," published in
    the September/October 1973 issue of "The Humanist" by the American
    Humanist Association, 7 Harwood Drive, P. O. Box 146, Amherst, New
    York 14226-0146, (716)839-5080.]