Humanists, 1952

Phidippides: "What do they call themselves?"

Strepsiades: "I do not know exactly, but they are deep thinkers and most admirable people."

--"The Clouds" of Aristophanes

At the dawn of the Renaissance, a Humanist was a scholarly Christian interested in reviving classical philosophy and literature. Since then the title has undergone a sea change. People who call themselves "humanists" nowadays generally have a vague but smiling faith in human progress, an awed respect for natural science and psychology, and a strong conviction that man can get along in this world without God.

Lately some humanists have felt an urge to formalize their beliefs. Last week, in the quiet lecture halls of the University of Amsterdam, 250 delegates from Europe and the U.S. met for the first International Congress on Humanism and Ethical Culture. In the auditorium, a British lady asked her Dutch neighbor how humanism was doing in the U.S. "I don't think they're strong in numbers," was the reply, "but there's a lot of humanist spirit there. They put 'In God We Trust' on their pennies, but I think they put more faith in their own ingenuity and powers."

On the opening day of the convention, British Biologist Julian Huxley, former head of UNESCO, proposed launching a formal humanist religion. Present religions, he felt, are doing the job badly, and insisting too much on supernatural beliefs and absolute truth. Specifically, he suggested, the Roman Catholic stand on birth control and India's belief in sacred cows are good examples of religion's retarding influence.

To streamline the religious approach, Huxley outlined a new faith of the future: "Evolutionary humanism . . . firm yet flexible, simple yet rich and capable of development." He continued: "Man has the possibility of guiding change by means of conscious purpose in the light of rational experience . . . Man's past includes a primarily religious phase. We now live in a technological and rationalist age. The next phase of history could and . . . should be a humanist phase."

After Huxley's talk the humanists sat down to evaluate his thesis. There was vague disagreement. Some felt that any religion--even a humanist variety--is unscientific. Others doubted that evolutionary humanism would readily attract converts. A French delegate put his finger on a traditional humanist problem. "What troubles me," he said, "is that we're in the clouds."

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