Our topic this week is Humanism. The program was recorded live at at meeting of the American Humanism Assocation, in San Jose.

Well, one might wonder, what controversy can we find in Humanism? We usually think of Humanism as that glorious movement in thought that began in the Renaissance, with the rediscovery and re-appreciation of the texts and art of the Greeks and Romans. Human life, in this world, moves to the center of attention, while God, Heaven, angels and the like, the focus of medieval thought, move aside. Humanism led to the Enlightenment, to Locke and Hume and Kant, to democracy and science and progress. Not to mention to Humanities Divisions in modern universities, with philosophy departments, and philosopher hired to teach and think. Three cheers for Humanism!

Descrbied this way, Humanism doesn’t seem very controversial. For one thing, it doesn’t seem opposed to religion in general or Christianity in particular, as long as it pays suitable attention to humans. Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel. Leonardo da Vinci painted the Last Supper. Locke wrote a book about the Reasonableness of Christianity. So all these important Renaissance and Enlightenment humanists seem to have been Christians.

But that raises the question: why are religious types, and fundamentalist Christians in particular, so upset these days about Humanism -- calling Humanism a plot to take over our schools, introduce relativism into morals, and all sorts of other evil things?

Well, they are thinking ofSecularHumanism. So is secular humanism an alternative to Humanism, or a species of it, or what? Secular humanism, or scientific humanism, is really a species of humanism in the more general sense. But many see it as the natural development of the ideas implicit in all humanism. Secular humanism doesn’t just move the focus of attention from God and heaven and angels to humans, it drops God and heaven and Angels from the picture altogether. It doesn’t just appreciate science, it takes the reality science discloses to beall事实是这样的。

所以世俗人文主义真的超越了欣赏以人为本的艺术;它涉及一套哲学理论。事实上，哲学家约翰·杜威(John Dewey)对1933年第一版《人文主义宣言》(Humanist Manifesto)的起草起到了重要作用。很哲学!这是一个草图。宇宙不是由任何人创造的;人类是自然世界的一部分;拒绝身心二元论;人类的价值没有超自然或宇宙的保障;人类生命的终结是此时此刻，而不是来世，还有很多。

So how about the Humanists spread out in the audience before us as we recorded this program, humanists of the American Humanist Association. -- are they just old fashioned, "Humans are sort of important and the Greeks and Romans were cool” type humanists, or are theysecular humanists？定后者。美国人文主义协会是杜威和他的朋友们的后代。你可以在他们的网站上找到宣言1，以及宣言2和宣言3。我们我们绝对是在世俗的，科学的，不惧怕上帝的，人文主义者的面前。

That means, according to Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin and Bill O’Reilly, and quite possibly the Pope too, these people are bound and determined to undermine the moral basis of America, subvert values, educate a generation of atheists, and God knows what else -- or maybe I shouldn’t put it that way…

But we don’t need Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and Bill O’Reilly, or even the Pope, to tell us what the American Humanist movement is about, because our guest was one of their intellectual leaders -- Jennifer Bardi, editor ofThe Humanistmagazine.

Here are the fifteen points of the original AHA Manifesto --- for later revisions, see their website.

FIRST: Religious humanists regard the universe as self-existing and not created.

SECOND: Humanism believes that man is a part of nature and that he has emerged as a result of a continuous process.

THIRD: Holding an organic view of life, humanists find that the traditional dualism of mind and body must be rejected.

FOURTH: Humanism recognizes that man's religious culture and civilization, as clearly depicted by anthropology and history, are the product of a gradual development due to his interaction with his natural environment and with his social heritage. The individual born into a particular culture is largely molded by that culture.

第五:人文主义主张，现代科学所描述的宇宙的性质使得任何超自然的或宇宙的人类价值的保证都是不可接受的。显然，人文主义并不否认尚未被发现的现实的可能性，但它确实坚持认为，确定任何和所有现实的存在和价值的方法是通过智慧的探究和评估它们与人类需求的关系。宗教必须按照科学的精神和方法来制定自己的希望和计划。

第六:我们相信有神论、自然神论、现代主义和各种“新思想”的时代已经过去了。

SEVENTH: 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.

第八:宗教人文主义认为人的人格的完全实现是人生命的终结，并在此时此地寻求其发展和实现。这就是人文主义者的社会激情的解释。

第九:在过去的敬拜和祈祷的态度中，人文主义者发现他的宗教情感表达在个人生活的高度意识和促进社会福祉的合作努力中。

TENTH: It follows that there will be no uniquely religious emotions and attitudes of the kind hitherto associated with belief in the supernatural.

ELEVENTH: Man will learn to face the crises of life in terms of his knowledge of their naturalness and probability. Reasonable and manly attitudes will be fostered by education and supported by custom. We assume that humanism will take the path of social and mental hygiene and discourage sentimental and unreal hopes and wishful thinking.

TWELFTH: Believing that religion must work increasingly for joy in living, religious humanists aim to foster the creative in man and to encourage achievements that add to the satisfactions of life.

宗教人文主义认为，所有的联系和制度都是为了人类生活的圆满而存在的。对这些协会和机构进行智能的评价、改造、控制和引导，以提高人类生活水平，是人文主义的目的和程序。当然，为了在现代世界中有效地发挥作用，宗教机构、宗教仪式形式、教会方法和公共活动必须在经验允许的范围内尽快重组。

第十四:人道主义者坚定地相信，现有的以获取和利益为动机的社会已经证明自己是不够的，必须对方法、控制和动机进行根本性的改变。必须建立一种社会化和合作化的经济秩序，以便能够公平地分配生活资料。人文主义的目标是建立一个自由的、普遍的社会，在这个社会中，人们为了共同的利益自愿地、聪明地合作。人文主义者要求在共享的世界里共享生活。

FIFTEENTH AND LAST: We assert that humanism will: (a) affirm life rather than deny it; (b) seek to elicit the possibilities of life, not flee from them; and (c) endeavor to establish the conditions of a satisfactory life for all, not merely for the few. By this positive morale and intention humanism will be guided, and from this perspective and alignment the techniques and efforts of humanism will flow.