Ed: Seventy five years ago this May, thirty-four ministers (mostly Unitarian), philosophers and others, put their signatures to, and published, a document designed to provide direction to and the beginnings of structure for, a movement that had been growing since the mid teens. Some saw in its tenets, the future of the American Unitarian Association, others undoubtedly saw the beginnings of a completely new direction.  With its interchanging use of the terms “Religious humanism” and “Humanism,” the document proclaimed both a break from, and a progressive continuation and remaking of, traditional religion.  Though it has been rewritten and re-issued twice (1973 and 2002) the Manifesto remains one of the clearest statements of that trend in religious and ethical thought proudly carried by the title of this publication.

the nature of the universe depicted by modern science makes unacceptable any supernatural or cosmic guarantees of human values… Religion must formulate its hopes and plans in the light of the scientific spirit and method.