UU Minute #120

The 1933 Humanist Manifesto Highlights



Some highlights from the Humanist Manifesto of 1933:

Religion must be shaped for the needs of this age. To establish such a religion is a major necessity of the present. We therefore affirm:

The universe is self-existing and not created. Man is a part of nature and has emerged as a result of a continuous process.

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 the light of the scientific spirit and method.

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.

Religious emotions are to be expressed in a heightened sense of personal life and in a cooperative effort to promote social well-being.

Existing acquisitive and profit-motivated society has shown itself to be inadequate. A socialized and cooperative economic order must be established to the end that the equitable distribution of the means of life be possible. Our goal is a free and universal society in which people voluntarily and intelligently cooperate for the common good.

Humanism will affirm life rather than deny it; seek to elicit the possibilities of life, not flee from them; and endeavor to establish the conditions of a satisfactory life for all, not merely for the few.

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.

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