:
Charles Francis Potter On Humanism
Originally published in 1930
Language updated in 1994
Old: God created the world and humanity.
New: The world and humanity evolved.
Old: Hell is a place of eternal torment for the wicked.
New: Suffering is the natural result of breaking the laws of right living.
Old: Heaven is the place where good people go when they die.
New: Doing right brings its own satisfaction.
Old: The chief end of humanity is to glorify God.
New: The chief end of humanity is to improve ourselves, as individuals and as the human race.
Old: Religion has to do with the supernatural.
New: Religion has to do with the natural; the so-called supernatural is only the not-yet-understood natural.
Old: Humankind is inherently evil and a worm of the dust.
New: Humankind is inherently good and has infinite possibilities.
Old: Humankind should submit to the will of God.
New: Humankind should not submit to injustice or suffering without protest and should endeavor to remove its causes.
Old: Salvation comes from outside humanity.
New: Improvement comes from within. No person or god can save another person.
Old: The ideas of sin, salvation, redemption, prayer, and worship are important.
New: These ideas are unimportant.
Old: The truth is to be found in one religion only.
New: There are truths in all religions and outside of religion.
And this one which I absolutely LOVE...
:
The Humanist rarely loses the feeling of at-homeness in the universe. The Humanist is conscious of being an earth-child. There is a mystic glow in this sense of belonging. Memories of one's long ancestry still linger in muscle and nerve, in brain and germ cell. On moonlit nights, in the renewal of life in the springtime, before the glory of a sunset, in moments of swift insight, people feel the community of their own physical being with the body of mother earth. Rooted in millions of years of planetary history, the earthling has a secure feeling of being at home, and a consciousness of pride and dignity as a bearer of the heritage of the ages.