The Humanist Way:
An Introduction to
Ethical Humanist Religion
Edward L. Ericson
"Our shared task is to live decently, compassionately, and
caringly in the world we inhabit. "
(Chapter One of "The Humanist Way--An
Introduction to Ethical Humanist Religion" by Edward L. Ericson. A
Frederick Ungar book, The Continuum Publishing Company. Copyright Edward
L. Ericson. All Rights Reserved. Reproduced with the permission of the
author and publisher. Copies of the book are available from the American
Ethical Union in New York.)
"The great use of a life is to spend it for something that
outlasts it," wrote Bertrand Russell. Wise and thoughtful men and
women in all ages have agreed that the greatest lives are those given to
the well-being of others. In promoting human understanding and
happiness, we discover our own deepest and most enduring values.
Many who belong to no church or sect--along with many who do--when
asked to identify their creed, will reply simply: " My religion is
the golden rule." Or they will answer: "Formal church
doctrines and theologies are not important to me. The way in which I
relate to others and to myself is all that finally matters."
Without perhaps having a label for their faith, such people--to the
degree that they live by these convictions--are practicing the essence
of the Humanist religion.
The religious philosophy known as Ethical Humanism (also called
Ethical Culture) is a moral faith based on respect for the dignity and
worth of human life. It is a practical, working religion devoted to
ethical living, without imposing ritual obligations or prescribing
beliefs about the supernatural. Thus it is purely a religion "of
this world."
Yet this life-centered faith is not secular in the commonplace usage
of being antireligious, nor is it to be understood as indifferent to
religious values. On the contrary, for the Ethical Humanist, life itself
is inherently religious in quality; to make this affirmation is simply
to believe that human existence in this world is intrinsically worthy of
reverence, that the world of ordinary experience is capable of inspiring
profound feelings of spiritual devotion.
Commitment to the supreme worth (or sanctity) of human life is the
core of the Ethical Humanist faith. This recognition of a spiritual
obligation to treat human life as sacred persuades Humanists that
their belief can, with justification, be considered a religious faith.
In this connection we note that the words "sacred" and
"sanctity" are derived from the same root as
"sanctuary," meaning that which is set aside and sheltered as
inviolable or holy. In other words, to treat a spiritual object as
sacred is to regard it as "off limits," as not to suffer
violation. The scope of religious history shows that the sacred object
may be variously conceived. The sanctified subject may take the form of
a god or divine personage, or find embodiment in a taboo or sacrament,
or be revered as a mysterious power within a holy artifact. In more
advanced stages of human thought, the object of faith may come to be
conceived purely as an ideal value or a transcending moral or spiritual
principle. Religious Humanism falls into this last category in terms of
its object of reverence. To define the permissible range of religious
veneration more narrowly would be unjustifiably restrictive and
arbitrary.
Ethical Humanists contend that the dignity and moral worth of human
personality should always be respected as the supreme end in view, the summum
bonum, the supreme good to be observed. This affirmation of human
worth is the starting point of Humanist religion.
Many Humanists, as religious naturalists, would go even further to
assert in principle the sanctity of all life, even though the
circumstances of existence may make it impossible for us to live without
violating in some measure the existence of other creatures. But such
violations should always be recognized as intrinsically evil. Like the
Native American hunter who begs forgiveness of the quarry he kills for
necessary food and clothing, we ought always to be humbled by the
thought that life is infinitely precious and to be sheltered from
avoidable harm.
Critics who accuse Humanists of being "man-centered" and of
disregarding the larger world of nature speak in ignorance of the
comprehensive philosophy that buttresses our moral and religious faith,
a school of thought known in academic circles as Naturalistic Humanism.
The restrictive and sometimes divisive label, "secular
humanism," (which suggests that Humanists exclude religious values
and ignore nature) only recently came into vogue as the special bogey of
Humanism's fundamentalist critics. An artificially inflamed religious
hysteria has been fanned by the less scrupulous Fundamentalist
evangelists, who deliberately falsify Humanism's humanitarian ethics and
social philosophy to portray the bogey of "a godless, Satanic
religion" of lawless hedonism and self-indulgence.
But prior to the Fundamentalists' discovery of Humanism as a
convenient bugbear for their attacks on secular science and culture, the
term "secular humanism" was only rarely used in Humanist
circles, as a review of the literature of the period will show. (The
situation in Europe may have been different, where an organized
Secularist movement has had a long and distinguished history.) In
American thought, the time-honored and also preferred philosophical
label that has enjoyed acceptance by both religious and nonreligious
Humanists is the designation introduced above--"Naturalistic
Humanism"--a terminology that denotes a conception of the natural
universe free from supernaturalism
As Naturalistic Humanists, we accept our place as children of an
inconceivably vast and ever-creative universe. Whether individual
Humanists, or particular groups of Humanists, prefer to consider
Humanism as religious (the position taken here), or as solely
philosophical, Humanists generally are in agreement that human life is
the outcome of an incalculably dynamic natural universe in its ongoing
evolutionary progression. In this conception of reality, there is no
need to assume a supernatural intelligence presiding over the origin and
destiny of life or the cosmos.
While millions of people in the United States, and millions more
around the world, subscribe to the concepts and attitudes expressed
above as purely personal philosophy or faith, Ethical Humanism also
exists as an organized religious and ethical movement. Founded more than
a century ago in New York City as the Society for Ethical Culture, the
movement has grown into a national federation of local societies known
as the American Ethical Union.
A European Ethical movement, headquartered in Switzerland, was organized
soon after the American development. [Editor's note: the European
Ethical movement's headquarters are as of late 1996 based in Utrecht in
the Netherlands and are expected to move to London].
Individual societies may be known as Ethical societies, Ethical
Culture societies, or Ethical Humanist societies, according to local
preference. But regardless of variations in name, all member groups of
the American Ethical Union share the same essential moral and spiritual
faith that has come to be known as Ethical Humanism.
Today Ethical Humanism is part of the global Humanist movement. In
1952 the American Ethical Union collaborated with the American
Humanist Association and other Humanist and Ethical bodies in
Britain, Western Europe, and India to organize a worldwide alliance of
Ethical Culture and Humanist groups named the International
Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU). Although each member association
retains its independence and historic identity, all are linked in a
worldwide community for the promotion of Ethical Humanist principles and
ideals. Some IHEU organizations, like the American Ethical Union, are
structured as religious bodies in the inclusive meaning of religion
described above. Others, reflecting quite different histories and
interests, are purely secular (in the nonreligious application of that
term). But all share the common denominator of loyalty to human values,
respect for the scientific method and intellectual liberty, and
commitment to a free democratic society. All vigorously resist both
secular and religious authoritarianism.
The Second Humanist Manifesto of
1973, a consensus statement signed by many leading Humanists, struck
a balance between those holding religious and nonreligious conceptions
of Humanism by acknowledging ethical religion as consistent with the
Humanist philosophy, while rejecting autocratic and dogmatic religious
foundations. In the opening paragraphs of the section entitled
"Religion," the Manifesto declared:
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...As
nontheists, we begin with humans, not God, nature not deity.
As the signers of the 1973 consensus viewed the matter, the valid and
permanently valuable aspect of religion is expressed in creative
idealism and humanistic ethics, not in unverifiable claims to possess
secret keys to supernatural knowledge, or of assumed
"revelations" that subordinate human learning and wisdom to
twice-told tales of divine saviors and their pretended emissaries on
earth. We must begin our quest for spiritual understanding on the basis
of sharable human experience--the foundation of all genuine knowledge of
the world--clearly observing the characteristics and limits of that
experience. Only then can we even begin to address intelligently the
conundrum of the existence and nature of God or "ultimate
reality."
No matter how far our observations and discoveries extend from the
presently understood cosmos into the unknown, our knowledge must remain
always within the bounds of "nature"--that seemingly trackless
cosmos of events, relationships, and processes in which we exist. This
is what the relativity of knowledge consists of--the relational
composition of all perceiving and knowing. The means by which we
comprehend the world, organized within the logical structures of
thinking and knowing, necessarily shapes our knowledge and sets limits
to its reach.
Thus we can never penetrate "pure being" or know ultimate
reality "under the aspect of eternity, " to borrow Spinoza's
telling phrase. An attitude akin to agnosticism is therefore fitting for
those who face the human situation realistically and humbly in an
ultimately unfathomable reality. But even within the limits of
incomplete and fallible human understanding, we can live compassionate,
meaningful lives of love and caring. The conviction that such a life is
possible, with the determination to achieve it, is the cornerstone of
the Ethical Humanist faith.
Although the American Ethical
Union and its member societies have a distinguished history of
social service and intellectual achievement (as any reader can confirm
by consulting standard encyclopedias), their comparatively small numbers
make it inevitable that many people will never encounter an Ethical
society or any other organized group of Humanists. The typical
prospective member usually works out alone a personal religious
philosophy and only then chances to discover that a spiritual fellowship
serving these purposes already exists. I can illustrate this best
perhaps by relating my personal quest that led me to Ethical Humanism
and eventually to a vocation of professional leadership in Ethical
Culture. As a youth reared in a small Southern town of a typically
conservative Protestant family, during adolescence I came to question
the religious doctrines of my childhood training. What I had been taught
to accept as infallibly revealed truth became untenable in the light of
my growing awareness of modern scientific and philosophical thought.
When I sought an explanation for these discrepancies, none was
forthcoming. I was only admonished to "have faith."
In my effort to find satisfactory answers to my questions, I explored
widely the field of religious history and philosophy. There was much
that appealed to me in the life and faith of the Religious Society of
Friends, the Quakers, especially in the spiritual freedom and
universalism of their historically liberal "Hicksite" branch.
But even the most progressive expressions of Quakerism still retained
more of the traditional "religious" vocabulary and doctrine
than I could wholeheartedly accept.
I discovered that the Unitarians and
Universalists came even closer to my spiritual ideal with their
rejection of orthodox Christian doctrine and their emphasis on a
religion of character, reason, and practical philanthropy--beliefs that
prefigured Humanism. But I knew that I was not unitarian (note the lower
case) in the historic dictionary definition: one who rejects the
doctrine of the trinity and the deity of Christ, but who retains belief
in a unitary (one) God. In truth I no longer believed in any kind of
supernatural, personal deity, whether defined as the Christian trinity
or simply as "God the Creator." But my interest in the
Unitarians revived when my dictionary--even then a well-worn copy as old
as I was--gave me the surprising information that "the [Unitarian]
denomination now includes in its ministry and membership a number of
non-theistic humanists. See HUMANISM." I pursued the reference to
Humanism and learned that, among other meanings, it was defined as a
religion "that substitutes faith in man for faith in God," (a
definition that, despite its scholarly source I recognized as
oversimplified.) Still, I was assured that I was not alone in supposing
it possible to have a religion without belief in a deity. The thought
passed through my mind that some day I might become a Humanist minister.
Many questions still required answers. What would a religion without
a doctrine of God teach? The answer necessarily pointed to ethics. So,
with no available library books on the subject, I turned back to my
large dictionary and carefully studied every entry on ethics. My
attention quickened when I came upon the following:
"ethical culture. A religious movement that asserts the
"supreme important of the ethical factor in all relations of
life," and avoids formal creeds or ritual. See AMERICAN ETHICAL
UNION; SOCIETY FOR ETHICAL CULTURE."--Webster's New International
Dictionary, Second Edition.
In college I pursued these leads and by researching the library
discovered a magazine called The Humanist, edited by a Unitarian
minister, Edwin H. Wilson, who also served as the director of the American
Humanist Association. I corresponded with Dr. Wilson and later
followed his footsteps into the Unitarian ministry, where I spent eight
years in preparation and service. At about the same time that I
encountered The Humanist, I chanced upon a copy of The Standard, then
the official journal, now unfortunately discontinued, of the Ethical
Culture movement. An inquiry to the headquarters of the American Ethical
Union in New York brought me information and introductory books. In
Ethical Culture I found my religious ideals most fully and satisfyingly
expressed. Even after I had encountered the ministry as a Humanist
Unitarian, I continued to look toward Ethical Culture as the flagship of
religious Humanism. When the unexpected invitation came, I entered the
professional leadership in 1959 as a leader of the Ethical Society in
Washington, D.C.
For the following twenty-five years, Ethical leadership was my
full-time vocation. That quarter-century was divided almost equally
between my original post in Washington and a subsequent period of
leadership at the New York Society for Ethical Culture--the society
where the movement had begun a hundred years earlier. Indeed, in 1976,
as Senior Leader in New York, I presided over the national centennial
celebrations that inaugurated the Ethical Humanist movement's second
century. During the course of my leadership, I was also privileged to
serve a term as president of the national federation, the American
Ethical Union. My friendships and associations extended to the
international community as well, including involvement in world
congresses (in both Europe and the US) of the International Humanist and
Ethical Union. During a trip around the world, I enjoyed the hospitality
of Humanists in India.
Thus, this story of the Ethical Humanist movement--its faith, work,
and philosophy--is a personal account told from the perspective of one
who has known at first hand the life and heartbeat of this unique global
community and faith.
With this extended association spanning three continents, imagine my
astonishment to read in the press from time to time that Humanist
religion does not exist. It is said to be merely a "myth"
invented by extremists of the Fundamentalist right! Some of those who
subscribe to this "explanation" grudgingly concede that a few
attempts to organize Humanist congregations have been undertaken, with
the implication that such efforts have been unsuccessful or short-lived.
Yet if one counts the total number of Ethical Culture societies and
fellowships and then adds the Unitarian Universalist churches and
societies that are explicitly or predominantly Humanist in orientation
and practice, plus the various congregations of the Society for
Humanistic Judaism--all existing examples of Humanist religious
organization in the United States and Canada--the sum of such
congregations would be in the hundreds. To that number must be added the
members-at-large of the Fellowship of Religious Humanists and the
considerable body of religious Humanists within the American Humanist
Association, an "umbrella" organization that includes both the
religious and the nonreligious. (In the case of the Unitarian
Universalist churches and fellowships an exact estimate of numbers is
not possible, since there exists a gradation from societies that are
explicitly Humanist in orientation to those in which more traditional
theistic views prevail.) So while the religion of Humanism in North
America is small when compared to other religious movements, it can
hardly be dismissed as a myth created by its enemies!
Felix Adler, the founder of the first Society for Ethical Culture and
organizer of the American Ethical Union, believed that the nucleus of
the spiritual life is to be found in the ethical relatedness of each
person to others. It is because of our involvement in the lives of
others that we are enabled to grow into moral and spiritual beings.
Adler expressed his insight in a deceptively simple maxim: "Act
so as to encourage the best in others, and by so doing you will develop
the best in yourself." This thought is what the term "ethical
culture" was coined to suggest--the cultivation of ethical
relationships on such a basis that the moral and spiritual potential of
every member of the human community will be most fully activated. This
conception of the moral life represents an ideal that we can and should
strive to realize, but which, of course, we recognize can be only
imperfectly achieved.
The flickering idea of the supremacy of ethics began to burst into
flame for me from the moment of my search through the dictionary,
seeking a name for a religion of pure moral idealism. What I discovered
is far more than a name!
In Ethical Culture I found a Humanist movement consisting of local
societies that serve in much the same way as other religious
congregations--as humanly supportive spiritual communities--with the
important difference that the "gospel" in an Ethical society
is belief in the spiritual sufficiency of ethical living. Societies
generally hold regular Sunday morning meetings--or assemble at such
other times as they find suitable. They conduct Ethical Sunday Schools
for children, sponsor worthy projects in their communities, organize
adult education classes and forums, struggle for human rights and
freedom of conscience, and unite with other faiths to promote world
peace--in short, do everything possible that one would expect of a group
dedicated to humanistic values.
The societies also provide pastoral services, conduct weddings,
funerals, or memorial services, do personal counseling, and organize
social and cultural events for adults and young people. Their
professionally trained leaders serve a role fully comparable to that of
rabbis and ministers and are authorized under federal and state statutes
to function as ministers of religion--a right that has been duly
sustained in the courts. In every sense of the word an Ethical Culture
leader is a minister of Humanist religion.
Humanists believe that religion has its foundation in human needs and
sympathy and that religious knowledge is not different from any other
kind of human knowledge. It is distinct only in the quality of the
experience and the unique value that we attribute to the moral life. In
brief, religion is a creation of human living, not a revelation from
gods on high. As a result of their human origin and character, religious
concepts are always variable and unfinished, requiring continuous
correction and revision, if they are not to become obsolete and
oppressive.
It is the sufficiency of ethics-being-lived as the foundation of an
enriching moral and spiritual development that leads Ethical Humanists
to stress its religious quality and potential. When the charter of the
New York Society for Ethical Culture was amended in 1910, thirty-four
years after its founding, Felix Adler urged that the statement of
purpose clarify the religious purpose of the Society. The charter, thus
amplified, states definitively Ethical Culture's specific concept of
religion:
"Interpreting the word 'religion' to mean fervent devotion to
the highest moral ends, our Society is distinctly a religious body. But
toward religion as a confession of faith in things superhuman the
attitude of the Society is neutral. Neither acceptance or rejection of
any theological doctrine disqualifies for membership."
The story of how this distinctive religious and educational movement
came to be and how its philosophy was foreshadowed in the evolution of
both Jewish and Christian ethics will be sketched in the next two
chapters. But first it may be helpful to consider briefly two basic
matters that may require further clarification: how ethical creativity
becomes transformative in living and what exactly "nontheistic"
religion means.
Our sense of right and wrong emerges out of the process of living
together as social beings. Humanity's social nature is the product of a
long evolutionary development having its roots in the gregarious
behavior of the species from which human beings descended. Yet in human
beings the development of language and symbolic thought has given a
whole new dimension of meaning to social feeling.
We do not, for example, merely grieve for our lost companions or
offspring. Even other species exhibit feelings of pain and distress on
losing their offspring or mates. But as human beings, we are capable of
transforming our pain into sentiments that provide solace and healing
and that bring deeper insights into the meaning of life. Thus grief can
take on qualitative meanings that have the capacity to heal and
transform the character of life.
In the creative mind of a Sophocles or a Shakespeare, benumbing
suffering can be transformed into the rich colors of tragedy. The death
of a Lincoln can recall a great democracy to its moral purpose. The
martyrdom of a Martin Luther King may bring the shock of recognition
necessary to arouse the moral consciousness of a nation and validate the
dignity of all people. It may awaken in us, whether we are black or
white, an awareness of our vulnerability as frail members of the human
family subject to injury and suffering, exclusion and injustice. It may
make us better people, better able to come to terms with our own
mortality and enable us to live our brief lives with strengthened
resolution, compassion, and appreciation.
We thus learn to accept our lives with serenity. Inner peace is the
distilled essence of reflection on our profoundest experiences,
separated from the illusion and superstition that unfortunately are so
often associated with ideas of the spiritual. We come to recognize that
the seed of the spiritual life is contained in moral passion. Spirit is
born of flesh and nurtured in human love. We need not look to the occult
and the other-worldly for the secret places of the inner life. It is the
most delicate flower of human caring and love.
These reflections should suffice to illustrate the point that there
nothing of "mere mortality" is the moral life as it is lived
by sensitive and spiritually inspired human beings. Ethical religion is
a transforming moral faith when it becomes vital--when it represents the
harvest of first-hand living. The Ethical Axiom In founding the Ethical
Culture movement, Felix Adler (in his time a widely influential
philosopher and educator) worked out an approach to ethical living that
he believed to be universally valid. He recognized that moral customs
and ideas of right and wrong vary widely from person to person and from
culture to culture. Nevertheless, he was convinced that a moral constant
runs throughout the history of ethical religion and philosophy. That
unvarying principle asserts that the individual human being is of
infinite value and must not be degraded or abused. The most perceptive
sages and teachers of all ages have accepted this rule, whatever might
be the differences in their theological arguments. In its usual form
this "nonviolation ethic" is essentially negative. While it
represents an advance over previous methods of regarding human beings,
Adler considered it to be inadequate. He was dissatisfied with an
ethical principle that fails to move from passive nonviolation to
constructive moral engagement. He also considered the Golden Rule to be
an inadequate guide to desirable conduct. "Do unto others as you
would have them do unto you," leaves room for the temptation to
remake others in our own image, to impose what we think is best for
them. As Bertrand Russell would later quip, do not do unto others what
you would have them do unto you, because their tastes may be different!
Adler believed we can avoid the problem of projecting our personal moral
egocentricity upon others--compelling them to conform to our
expectation--by recognizing the unique personal difference of each and
so conduct ourselves as to encourage the fullest development of the
special gifts and distinctive positive attributes of others. By living
in this creative relationship, he believed, we would also actualize our
own highest moral potential. He summarized this concept in the maxim we
have already cited and which is familiar to every member of the Ethical
Culture movement: "So act as to bring out the best in others, and
thereby in yourself."
Of course, ethics did not begin with the founding of the Ethical
movement. What Felix Adler and his early associates provided was the
insight that the nurturing of ethics is primary in human development. As
such it is a sufficient foundation for a life-giving religious faith.
Thus while the germ of ethical religion is at least as old as
civilization--if we count the various religious traditions that have a
strong ethical component--it nevertheless remained for the founders of
Ethical Culture to make explicit the idea of ethics as the supreme
principle and to build a movement on that sole foundation. But also many
other men and women, including members of orthodox churches and
synagogues, have valued their faiths primarily for their ethical and
humanistic content.
Ethical Humanism stands in a tradition of cultural evolution that
accepts all of history and moral experience as part of its unfolding
story. Unlike the established creeds that proclaim a completed gospel of
salvation "once delivered to the saints," as the New Testament
author of the Epistle of Jude has phrased it, Ethical religion embodies
the ongoing living and learning of the human spirit through the ages. In
his history of the Ethical movement Toward Common Ground, Howard
B. Radest observes:
Some [religions] find their meaning in a unique event, an intrusion
into history from outside sources. Other see themselves as set apart
from their time in a sacred enclave. Still others root themselves in
revelation. By contrast, Ethical Culture claims no revelation, no
mysteriously touched central figure, no sacred mystery. It was not
discontinuity that marked its birth, but a natural evolution. A
Different Way of Thinking About Religion "Be ye lamps unto
yourselves. Work out your own salvation," admonished the Buddha.
Unlike the monotheistic prophets and reformers of Asia Minor--Isaiah,
Jesus, and Mohammed--the introspective sage who founded the "Middle
Way" that we know as Buddhism put no stock in gods and saviours.
Like the ancient Roman poet Lucretius, Gautama the Buddha believed that
if the gods exist, they are of no concern to us. If anything,
speculations about the gods distract us from what we must do to
accomplish our primary psychological and spiritual task of self-mastery.
The early followers of Buddha, and even those today who are most
faithful to his teachings, take great pains to prevent the elevation of
their Master to the status of a divine being. Even the Buddha,
superstitiously worshiped, would become a stumbling block to
enlightenment.
"If you meet the Buddha on the highway, kill him," goes a
somewhat startling Buddhist proverb. But the harsh maxim drives home a
vital truth: No holy prophet, messiah, christ, avatar, or even a great
god in heaven can do your spiritual or ethical task for you. Free
yourself. Be a lamp unto your own salvation!
Although the more conservative students of comparative religion still
refuse to accept early Buddhism as one of the world's religions (because
of its lack of belief in a God), from the standpoint of this book--and
that of many other students of religious philosophy--such an objection
is unwarranted. To restrict religion solely to theism (belief in God) is
the tendency of those who have never seriously considered alternative
expressions of religions faith and experience. But religion is a term we
choose to claim, and to apply to Humanism's spiritual life, believing
that the function that religion serves in living remains as vital as
ever.
It is natural, spontaneous, and inevitable to experience ethical
commitment as religious, because ethical feeling functions as religion
has always functioned, guiding and uplifting our hearts and minds as
religion has always done. Ethical faith is unitive. It gives wholeness
to personality and to our vision of life. Religion provides human beings
with a sense of relatedness and rootage in the sources of our being,
offering focus, direction, and motivation to our moral struggles and
aspirations, undergirding social idealism, and highlighting the beauty
and mystery of our universe.
Emerson was right in observing that we will worship
"something," and we had therefore beware what gods we adore,
lest they engrave their likenesses on our faces. If we serve unworthy
masters, or make idols of false theories and ideologies, we hasten to
the destruction of our own designing. But if we desire to live and be
free, we must plot our course by freedom's star.
Since a nontheistic conception of religion is basic to Naturalistic
Humanism, it may be helpful to be as specific as possible in our usage
of that term. At the outset, it is essential to understand that "nontheistic"
is not used as synonym or euphemism for "atheistic." The
atheist, like the theist, takes a definite position with respect to the
doctrine that God exists. The atheist denies or disbelieves it. The
theist affirms it. But while the individual member of the Ethical
Humanist movement may be an atheist, agnostic, theist, deist, or believe
whatever else the individual regards to be probable or true about the
God question, the ethical philosophy takes no official position with
respect to such belief. As nontheistic religion is defined, the prefix
"non" should be understood to mean simply that the theistic
reference does not apply. Ours is a religion or belief of a totally
different type in which the God question is not of primary concern. As
we have emphasized before, Ethical Humanism's starting point is ethics,
not speculative theology.
Ethical Humanism is commitment to a way of life, to a creative
relationship to others and thereby to ourselves, in which metaphysical
and theological arguments are set aside. Whether or not God exists may
be an interesting question. But the answer to that question--if
answerable at all--should make no crucial difference in how we ought to
live, how we ought to treat our fellow beings. My ethical obligations
and potentialities--and yours--remain exactly the same, whether God
exists or does not exist. Our shared task is to live decently,
compassionately, and caringly in the world we inhabit.
Albert Einstein said it best on behalf of all Ethical Humanists when
he commended the New York Society for Ethical Culture on the occasion of
its seventy-fifth anniversary year. He noted that the idea of Ethical
Culture embodied his personal conception of what is most valuable and
enduring in religious idealism. Humanity requires such a belief to
survive, Einstein argued. "Without 'ethical culture' there is no
salvation for humanity," the great physicist and Humanist observed.
That thought, we are convinced, is the greatest idea in the world.
Chapter One of "The Humanist Way--An
Introduction to Ethical Humanist Religion" by Edward L. Ericson. A
Frederick Ungar book, The Continuum Publishing Company. Copyright Edward
L. Ericson. All Rights Reserved. Reproduced with the permission of the
author and publisher. Copies of the book are available from the American
Ethical Union in New York.
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