Reprinted New Zealand Humanist
June 1997 134
Five Points of Inaugural IHEU Declaration
The fundamentals of modern ethical humanism are as follows:
- IT is democratic.
- It aims at the fullest possible development of every human
being.
- It holds that this is a matter of right.
- The democratic principle can be applied to all human relationships
and is not restricted to methods of government.
- IT seeks to use science creatively, not destructively.
- It advocates a worldwide application of scientific method to
problems of human welfare.
- Humanists believe that the tremendous problems with which mankind
is faced in this age of transition can be solved.
- Science gives the means but science itself does not propose
ends.
- HUMANISM is ethical.
- It affirms the dignity of man and the right of the individual to
the greatest possible freedom of development compatible with the
rights of others.
- There is a danger that in seeking to utilise scientific knowledge
in a complex society individual freedom may be threatened by the very
impersonal machine that has been created to save it.
- Ethical Humanism, therefore, rejects totalitarian attempts to
perfect the machine in order to obtain immediate gains at the cost of
human values.
- IT insists
- that personal liberty is an end that must be combined with social
responsibility in order that it shall not be sacrificed to the
improvement of material conditions.
- Without intellectual liberty, fundamental research, on which
progress must in the long run depend would not be possible.
- Humanism ventures to build a world on the free person responsible
to society.
- On behalf of individual freedom humanism is undogmatic, imposing no
creed upon its adherents. It is thus committed to education free from
indoctrination.
- IT is a way of life,
- aiming at the maximum possible fulfilment, through the cultivation
of ethical and creative living.
- It can be a way of life for everyone everywhere if the individual
is capable of the response required by the changing social order.
American Humanist Coalition: Contract with the American Family
