| |
Sermon: WE ARE HUMANISTS Sept. 5, 1999
Dr. John Young, UUCJ
As Unitarian Universalists, a central element of our faith consensus is that
WE ARE HUMANISTS. The fifth tradition in our Unitarian Universalist
Association's summary of UU traditions affirms our faith in: "humanist
teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of
science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit." Today's
sermon is an exploration of what humanism has meant in the past, and an
explanation of what humanism means to Unitarian Universalists today.
Historically, the ancient Greeks and Chinese, among others, had many outstanding
thinkers who were humanists. Protagoras, for instance, made the classic humanist
statement when he said: "man is the measure of all things." Socrates,
Plato, and Aristotle provided a clearly humanistic framework for thought and
living, and Confucius and Lao Tse also focused squarely upon this world and this
life from a human perspective. For instance, Confucius said: "Man is born
for uprightness. By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be
wide apart." So, central elements of both some Western and some Eastern
philosophies were firmly humanistic.
In the West, humanism became a clearly defined cultural movement during the
Renaissance and the Reformation. Beginning in northern Italy and spreading
throughout Europe, this humanism emphasized, at first, the revival of
Greco-Roman-Hebraic antiquities, and the replacement of the Old Learning of the
Middle Ages with the New Learning of the Renaissance. The printing press made
wide circulation possible. Literature and art became ends in themselves. The
preeminent northern humanist was Erasmus, who sought to advance piety and
culture with his translation of the Greek New Testament. Slowly, rationalism and
the new scientific methods began to become central. In both ancient humanism and
Renaissance humanism, there also developed elements of skepticism and cynicism.
Socrate's willingness to question anything and everything got him poisoned.
Machiavelli's political realism seemed to destroy all idealism and to glorify
self-interest. Traditional Western humanism, thus, combined an optimism about
people based upon reason, freedom, and hopefulness, with elements of pessimism
about the human uses of their powers, human laziness, and the difficulties of
progress.
From the 17th to the 20th centuries, Western, and then world culture, have
become progressively more: 1. rationally ordered, understood and organized, 2.
dependent upon scientific methods and technological results, and 3. secular, or
non-spiritual. As the modern dependence upon rational discourse and scientific
experiments increased, humanism began to be considered by some people to be a
secular alternative to religion, instead of a cultural purification or
enrichment of traditional faiths. For some people, humanism became disconnected
from, or even opposed to, transcendence and spirituality. Humanism began to
suggest being non-theistic or even anti-religious to some people. Humanism began
to be considered, both by some of its proponents and most of its opponents, to
be an alternative to religion, or a haven for the anti-religious.
The Unitarians and Universalists have been central throughout these centuries
in the religious uses of humanism. We have been religious people who based their
religions upon reason, education, freedom, cultural creativity, optimism, and
belief in the possibilities of human progress. We have perceived nature as a
primary manifestation of reality. We have been enthusiastic in embracing
scientific knowledge and experimentation as allies of true religion, instead of
its enemies. We have focused our attention and energies upon this world, this
life, individual liberation, and social and political cooperation. So, we have
consistently been enthusiastic and active humanists, but we have, just as
consistently, been enthusiastic religious activists and spiritual experimenters.
At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, a few
religious leaders, most of them Unitarian and Universalists ministers, began to
identify their religions as humanism. In 1933, the first Humanist Manifesto was
signed by 34 Americans, most of them Unitarian ministers and lay-persons. Its
most prominent signer was John Dewey, whose memorial service was held at the
Unitarian Community Church in New York City, which I served in the summer of
1972. My colleague, Rhys Williams, who has just retired from 1st and 2nd
Unitarian Church in Boston, is among its signers who are still alive and active
today.
Humanist Manifesto I said, in part: "Religions the world over are under
the necessity of coming to terms with new conditions created by a vastly
increased knowledge and experience. In every human activity, the vital movement
is now in the direction of a candid and explicit humanism." This Manifesto
rejected superstition and called for the exercise of reason in matters of faith,
but it was also a profoundly spiritual document, arguing that our "larger
understanding of the universe, our scientific achievements, and our deeper
appreciation of the kinship of all people have created a situation which
requires a new statement of the means and purposes of religion. "It also
argued for humanity taking responsibility for making a better world. "The
goal of humanism is a free and universal society in which people voluntarily and
intelligently cooperate for the common good. Humanists demand a shared life in a
shared world....We assert that humanism will: [a] affirm life rather than deny
it; [b] seek to elicit the possibilities of life, not flee from it; and, [c]
endeavor to establish the conditions of a satisfactory life for all, not merely
for the few."
Forty years later, in the late 1970s, Humanist Manifesto II was published.
Again, many Unitarian-Universalists were signers, but there was a wider range of
participants, including Ethical Culture Leaders [most of whom are ethnically
Jewish], members of the American Humanist Association, and an array of
unassociated secular humanists. This document admitted that Humanist Manifesto I
had been "far too optimistic." It was still critical of a
prayer-hearing God and of salvational religion, but it was much more aware of
the wide variety of humanisms, and it asserted that "views that merely
reject theism ....or are mere negation....are not equivalent to humanism."
It had grasped that any philosophy or ideology could be dogmatic, and that some
humanists want to reinterpret and reinvest traditional religions with meanings
appropriate to the current situation. It still rested its hopes upon reason,
critical intelligence and scientific methods, but it understood that these must
be used in a context which cultivated emotions and love, the arts, and religion.
It recognized that movements claiming to be human-centered and anti-traditional
had caused immense suffering in the 20th century; so, Humanist Manifesto II was
a considerably more humble and careful document.
This congregation has a proud humanist heritage. As in the humanist movement
nationally, there may be some who were or are anti-religious, even vigorously
non-spiritual; however, the vast majority of the laity who identified themselves
as humanists, were and are clearly religiously active and spiritually
interested.
What does humanism mean today in this congregation and in our Unitarian
Universalist denomination?
Our humanistic faith is clearly centered upon human beings living responsibly
during their lives in this world. We believe passionately in: a world community,
the democratic process, personal freedom, and individual responsibility. Like
classical humanists, we revere the wisdom of every person who has worked on
behalf of all people from ancient times until today. We savor the arts and
literature as worthwhile in themselves. We are thoroughly modern humanists:
embracing a rationally ordered life, happily dependent upon scientific methods
and technological results, but not secular, that is, neither non-spiritual nor
anti-religious. Some of our membership may still be bitter about their own
religious pasts. We are all concerned about religious and other ideological
intolerances and spiritual and non-spiritual superstitions, but almost everyone
of us is also actively religious and spiritually involved. Like our Unitarian
Universalist humanist ancestors, we are religious and spiritual humanists, not
anti-religious or non-spiritual secularists.
Few of us believe in a traditional deity, a salvational religion, or a
hierarchical or orthodox spirituality, but almost all of us do believe that we
are part of something larger than ourselves, or even of the human species alive
today, that we can do much to save ourselves and the human future, and that
spirituality is not only appropriate but necessary. This reflects significant
growth and transformation since the old days. Since we have and are creating the
new religious vision and spiritual practices that Humanist Manifestos I and II
hoped for and visualized, we do not need to work so hard at rejection and
cynicism. As survivors of the 20th century, we may be less optimistic, but we
are more hopeful. We have seen human powers grossly misused, and we have also
known the tendencies of human laziness to dominate human interactions. However,
we have also seen human reason overcome massive oppressions; we have seen human
creativity overcome habitual human entropy; and, we have not despaired when
progress became far from inevitable.
Unitarian Universalist humanism is better balanced today. It is neither naive
nor cynical; it is neither focused on the negative nor loud with the language of
sarcasm. Yes, we are a reasonable religion, but we also embrace our emotions and
depend upon our intuitions. Our religion is based as much or more upon our life
experiences as upon our logical arguments. We continue to learn so much from
science and to savor so much from technology, but, in the late 20th century, we
know better than to act as if scientific fact can make our value choices for us,
or that technology can make sacrifice unnecessary. We are clearer now, that
humanism produces an appropriate foundation and an exciting context in which it
remains desirable to depend upon Creation, to be in awe of Reality, to learn how
to save ourselves by saving one another, and to enthusiastically live a fervent
individual spirituality within the vibrant community of other active religious
liberals. We are religious and spiritual humanists.
|
