{political adept}

“THE HUMANIST MANIFESTO”

Publication

The May—June 1934 issue of the New Humanist contained what was called “The Humanist Manifesto,” a statement that sought to offer an alternative for people unwilling to rely on religion for an explanation of life and its meanings. The signers of the manifesto included distinguished figures such as Harry Elmer Barnes, Robert Morss Lovett, Charles Francis Potter, Llewellyn Jones, and, most important, philosopher John Dewey.

Science over Supernaturalism

“The Humanist Manifesto” sought to focus attention on the evidence science gave about nature and life in order to encourage people to reject supernaturalism. It included such points as the need to recognize that the universe was “self-existing,” not created, and that humanity was a part of nature and had evolved as part of a continuing process. The manifesto rejected the old question of the duality of mind (or soul) and body by incorporating the mind and its functions as a part of the body. Religion, it insisted, was a product of human development and changed according to historical changes. In its fifth point the manifesto insisted that “the nature of the universe depicted by modern science makes unacceptable any supernatural or cosmic guarantees of human values.. , . Religion must formulate its hopes and plans in light of the scientific spirit and method.” Having eliminated God and soul, the manifesto continued by seeking to eliminate the perception that life had eternal meaning by insisting that the religious person should consider “the complete realization of human personality to be the end of man’s life and [seek] its development in the here and now.” The statement concluded by opposing the current system of capitalism.

Response

“The Humanist Manifesto” attracted little attention at the time, although it gave new material for conservatives and reactionaries who disliked Dewey and his ideas. In the charged political climate of the 1930s it was easy for them to link his acknowledged secularism and socialist views with his efforts to reform education and to see “progressive education,” as it was called, as advancing liberal, if not socialist or even communist, ideas. Criticism of the ideas espoused in “The Humanist Manifesto” has continued to resurface on a regular basis—-most recently in the 1980s, when religious conservatives warned of the dangers in schools and in society of secular humanism.

Source:

Paul Kurtz, ed., Humanist Manifestos I and II (Buffalo: Prometheus, 1973).

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