How individual members of Christian fundamentalism define "Humanism" depends
on where they are on a scale of 1 to 10 of brain malfunction.
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An example: In a pamphlet produced and mailed out to thousands by a Texas
fundamentalist parents’ group, they described "humanism" in these words: "a
concern for the environment…control of energy...the removal of the free
enterprise system...working for disarmament...a distribution of wealth...the
creation and support of peace movements." The title of this pamphlet: "Is
Humanism Molesting Your Child?"
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For some of this mentality, attacking humanism means removing great
literature from school libraries -- called "book burning" in Nazi Germany.
It means not exposing young people to what they have decided is "obscene."
By their definitions they must then ban the bible from school libraries. The
bible is full of every obscenity known to the human race…rape...gang
rape...sodomy...adultery…genocide...incest…murder...and all in lurid detail..
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What fanatics do to magnificent words and ideas is frightening.
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"Humanism" is one of the most beautiful words in our language. In "Humanist
Meditations," the Hebrew scholar, Emil Weitzner, addresses those who can no
longer believe in the archaic, personal God of the bible, but who still
desire to articulate their sense of awe, wonder and Mystery. He writes of
"that Mystery which keeps our biological and moral existence together….It is
a paradox that as knowledge increases, the Mystery deepens. For all that we
are...for all that we know...for life unfolding in its wonder and
beauty...its promise and hope...let us stand before this Mystery with
gratitude."
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People often ask me, "Bill, are you a Humanist?" I answer "Yes, and how
proud I am to be associated with the humanists...humanitarians...the
humanities and all that it means to be truly human in the most noble sense,
as one devoted to the classics and emphasizing lasting human values...without
losing that sense of the Mystery that Albert Einstein wrote about so
eloquently: ‘The most beautiful thing that we can experience is the Mystery.
It is the source of all true art...and true science.’"
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A majority of everything that an enlightened citizenry cherishes is due to
humanism. We were rescued from the ignorance and brutality of the Christian
church and the Dark Ages by the Renaissance and the humanists. Humanists
became advisers and counselors to senators, dukes and popes. As the
historian, Will Durant, wrote in his volume, Renaissance, "The humanists
transformed the ideal of what it means to be human. The prestige of their
learning, combined with their eloquence, conquered Europe. It was the
humanists who liberated humans from Christian dogma, and taught them to love
life rather than brood about death. It was the humanists who made the
European mind free."
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Humanists are free of biblical and orthodox superstitions, free from the
mental concentration camps of organized religion, free of the primitive fears
preached by clergy and priest, but a list of brilliant humanists who were,
and are, deeply spiritual with a profound sense of the Mystery, would be
endless: Albert Einstein; Plato; Aristotle; Erasmus; Montaigne; Sir Thomas
More; Paracelsus; Nicolaus Cusanus; Sir Francis Bacon; Goethe; Albert
Schweitzer; Thoreau and Emerson; as well as the first six Presidents of this
nation plus Abraham Lincoln.
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How proud I am to be associated with humanists...the humane...the
humanities...and all that it means to be truly human in the most noble
sense...as one devoted to lasting human values.
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