Humanism is simply an ethical and philosophical viewpoint that sees individuals having the freedom to choose their own values and goals. Humanism emphasizes common human needs and seeks rational ways of solving human problems. Humanism carries with it a responsibility for living in a manner that is considerate towards others. Humanism views the world as naturalistic and sees morality evolving naturally from human concerns regarding happiness and suffering. Briefly described below are two different approaches to Humanism.
Religious Humanism
During the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, the idea of religious humanism grew out of the liberal Christian churches. Religious humanists consider a deity (God, with a capital G, reflecting the influence of the Abrahamic religions) to be a human expression of ideals rather than as a distinct supernatural entity.
By 1933, philosopher Roy Wood Sellars, Unitarian minister Raymond Bragg, and others drafted a Humanist Manifesto which was signed by thirty-three Unitarian ministers and philosopher John Dewey. According to this manifesto:
“The time has come for widespread recognition of the radical changes in religious beliefs throughout the modern world. The time is past for mere revision of traditional attitudes. Science and economic change have disrupted the old beliefs.”
The manifesto lists fifteen affirmations and concludes:
“So stand the theses of religious humanism. Though we consider the religious forms and ideas of our fathers no longer adequate, the quest for the good life is still the central task for mankind. 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.”
In 1941, the religious humanists formed the American Humanist Association. This association seeks to bring about a society in which being good without god is an accepted way of life.
In 1963, Sherwin Wine, often called the atheist rabbi, founded Birmingham Temple in suburban Detroit for Jewish freethinkers. This marks the beginning of Humanistic Judaism. Stephen Prothero, in his book God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions that Run the World—And Why Their Differences Matter, writes:
“For Humanistic Jews, Judaism is first and last about ethics—doing ‘good without God.’”
Concerning religious humanism, Vern Bullough, in an entry in The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief, writes:
“A large number of self-identifying humanists refer to themselves as religious. In the United States many members of the Unitarian Universalist Church, as well as other churches, identify themselves as religious humanists.”
Secular Humanism
In 1973, Paul Kurtz and Edwin Wilson, under the auspices of the American Humanist Association, drafted the Humanist Manifesto II which defined humanism as secular and nonreligious. In 1980, philosopher Paul Kurtz and others organized the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism (CODESH) and in 1996 this became the Council for Secular Humanism.
In an entry in The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief, Paul Kurtz writes:
“Succinctly, secular humanism rejects supernatural accounts of reality; but it seeks to optimize the fullness of human life in a naturalistic universe.”
In an article in Free Inquiry, Judy Walker and Tom Flynn write:
“Secular humanism is not a religion. It is in part a worldview, in part a methodology.
In an article in Free Inquiry, Andy Norman puts it this way:
“Humanists have long sought to replace religious ideologies with scientific humility.”
According to the Council for Secular Humanism, Secular Humanism is: (1) a naturalistic philosophy; (2) a cosmic outlook rooted in science; and (3) a consequential ethical system. As a naturalistic philosophy, Secular Humanism holds that reliable knowledge is best obtained through scientifically based investigation. Concerning Secular Humanism, religious studies professor Van Harvey, in an entry in The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief, writes:
“Men and women are said to be responsible for their own destinies and cannot look toward some transcendent being for salvation.”
Judy Walker and Tom Flynn put it this way:
“Secular humanists seek to construct the good life in an undirected universe in which no higher mind observes, much less directs, the blind play of physical forces—a universe in which ‘spiritual’ entities or energies have no place.”
In an article in Free Inquiry, Andy Norman writes:
“At bottom, humanism is a commitment to developing a shared, responsible, reality-based understanding of what matters: a worldview that also happens to immunize its adherents against the worst forms of ideological derangement.”
With regard to ethics, Secular Humanism holds that rational ethics are based on human experience and that ethical choices should be judged by their results. Ethical principles are based on science, reason, and experience. Secular Humanism sees the flourishing of human civilization depending on free intellectual inquiry. It rejects all attempts to restrict this inquiry. It sees the scientific method as the best way of understanding the world.
The goals of ethics are human happiness and social justice. The 2003 Humanist Manifesto states:
“Ethical values are derived from human need and interest as tested by experience. Humanists ground values in human welfare shaped by human circumstances, interests, and concerns and extended to the global ecosystem and beyond.”
The humanistic idea that it is possible for people to be good, for people to have an ethical system, is opposed by those who feel that morality is only possible when dogmatic, rigid ethical rules can be attributed to a deity who will punish people for not following these rules and who can instill fear within people. Atheism and agnosticism do not lead to immorality, as often claimed by theists. Ethics can be separated from religion. In his book The God Argument: The Case Against Religion and for Humanism, A.C. Grayling sums up Humanism this way:
“It is about human life; it requires no belief in an afterlife. It is about this world; it requires no belief in another world.”
Religion 101/102
This series presents topics relating to religion in which the concept of religion is not confined to the Abrahamic religions or to god-centered religions. Religion 102 is an expansion/revision of an earlier essay. More from this series:
Religion 102: Humanism
Religion 201: Deism
Religion 102: Naturalism
Religion 102: Agnosticism
Religion 102: Mythology
Religion 101: The "danger" of books, libraries, and religious freedom
Religion 101: Freethought and women's rights
Religion 101: Religious Prophets