20 Apr 2018; 07:30PM - The Horrific Death and Humanistic Genius of My Friend Madalyn Murray O’Hair |
The Nature of Worship and Service
The primary purpose of worship in humanistic theology is to create heightened receptivity for awareness of ideal reality - God. It is designed to provide insights, inspire and awaken thoughts and sentiments having a direct bearing on how a person relates to oneself and others and to ultimate challenges and issues. The development of a loving, rational character is a prerequisite for a humanist personality. Humanist inspirational meetings and workshops attempt to fuse intellectual and emotional activity indispensable to the process of enlightenment. There are many forms of humanistic worship of God. The most effective ones include faith, awareness, devotion and work.
The Meaning of Religion
Religion is one's awareness of, and response to, the ultimate challenges of life and the answer to the perennial question: whom, or which forces in the world, do you serve with your life? What is your life causing in this world? Religion is the sum total of one's beliefs and feelings about that which determines destiny and the way one relates to oneself, society and the universe. It is also a person's readiness to strive for the realization of ultimate ideals in face of great adversity or danger.
The Meaning of God.
The concept of reality in its ideal or perfect state points to the meaning of the word God. The actualization of the divine is therefore a sacred act of life. Serving God, in this sense, means to devote one's time, space and energy to the highest good and the application of all creative human resources (science, art, literature and social action) to bring about a world of freedom, justice and peace. Serving God in the personal domain means the aspiration toward the fullest development of the human potential of any individual.
The Validity of Truth and Ethics
The concept of objective truth is essential to any ethical system. Without it, personal responsibility for cruel or destructive acts is reduced to a mere opinion. Many people, therefore, gladly accept only a relativistic concept of truth, because it allows them to rationalize their deeds. The reconstruction of the concept of truth is therefore crucial in the context of humanistic theology. As there is only one reality, there is only one truth, namely the statement and perception of this reality. Many people dichotomize this important issue, asserting that absolute and relative theories of truth are mutually exclusive. The following synthesis seems helpful in resolving this conflict: while an absolute or objective truth exists about anything, the same truth is also relative to other phenomena. Thus, the concept of truth is both, absolute and relative, and that without contradiction.
In humanistic theology we do not claim to possess or represent an absolute truth, nor do we attempt to impose it on others. We are concerned with the search for truth and living it. In moving closer to the truth we are coming closer to God and towards the good life for all.
Important Reading
These authors have influenced our understanding and appreciation of humanism. Please share your thoughts with us here.
Adler, Felix:An Ethical Philosophy of Life
Arendt, Hannah: The Origins of Totalitarianism
Bergman, Hugo Samuel: Faith and Reason
Berrigan, Daniel: To Dwell in Peace
Bernard, Walter: Spinoza and Brunner
Berne, Eric: Games People Play
Black, Algernon: Without Burnt Offerings
Blackham, H. J.: Reality, Man and Existence
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich: Ethics; The Cost of Discipleship
Boyd, Malcolm: The Underground Church
Breastead, James H.: The Dawn of Conscience
Brunner, Constantin: Science, Spirit, Superstition
Buber, Martin: I and Thou; Between Man and Man
Buehrens, John A., and F. Forrester Church:Our Chosen Faith
Camus, Albert: The Rebel
Capek, Norbert F., and Karel Haspl:Creative Religion
Cronbach, Abraham: The Realities of Religion
Dewey, John: A Common Faith; Philosophy in Reconstruction
Dunham, Barrows: Heroes and Heretics
Commoner, Barry: Science and Survival
Dietrich John: What I Believe; Thoughts on God
Einstein, Albert: The World As I See It; Out of My Later Years
Ellis, Albert: Sex Without Guilt
Ellis Albert, and R. A.Harper:A Guide to Rational Living
Emerson, Ralph Waldo: The Portable Emerson (edited by Mark Van Doren)
Erasmus of Rotterdam: In Praise of Folly
Erickson, Edward L.: The Free Mind through the Ages
Feinstein, David, and Stanley Krippner: Personal Mythology
Fischer, Louis: Gandhi - His Life and Message
Frankl, E. Viktor: Man's Search for Meaning
Fromm, Erich: Psychoanalysis and Religion; The Art of Loving; The Heart of Man; Revolution of Hope
Frothingham, Richard: John Dietrich's Theism
Greer, Germaine: The Female Eunuch
Havel, Vaclav: The Power of the Powerless
Hawton, Hector: The Humanist Revolution
Horney, Karen: The Neurotic Personality of Our Time; Our Inner Conflicts
Huxley, Aldous: The Perennial Philosophy; Brave New World
Huxley, Julian: Religion without Revelation; Knowledge, Morality and Destiny
James, William: Varieties of Religious Experience
Jefferson, Thomas: On Democracy (Edited by Saul K. Padover)
Kohn, Hans: Living in a World Revolution
Ketcham, Charles: The Search for Meaningful Existence
Keys, Donald: God and the H-Bomb
Korzybski, Alfred: Selections from Science and Sanity
Krippner, Stanley: The Song of the Siren
Laing, R. D.: The Politics of Experience; The Politics of the Family; The Divided Self
Leary, Timothy: The Politics of Ecstasy
Leshan, Lawrence: How to Meditate; The Medium the Mystic and the Physicist
Lowen, Alexander: The Betrayal of the Body
Marshall, George N.: Challenge of a Liberal Faith
Masaryk, Tomas Garrigue: Humanistic Ideals; Modern Man and Religion
Maslow, Abraham: Toward a Psychology of Being; Religions, Values and Peak Experiences; The Psychology of Science
May, Rollo: Love and Will
Meerloo, Joost A. H.: The Rape of the Mind
Merton Thomas: The Root of War
Milgram, Stanley: Obedience to Authority
Niebuhr, Reinhold: Christ and Culture
O'Hair, Madalyn Murray: What on Earth Is an Atheist?; Freedom under Siege
Orwell, George: 1984
Otto, Herbert, and John Mann: Ways of Growth
Otto, Max C.: Science and the Moral Life
Otto, Rudolf: The Idea of the Holy
Paine, Thomas: The Age of Reason
Patton, Kenneth L.: A Religion for One World
Perls, Frederick, Ralph F. Hefferline, and Paul Goodman:Gestalt Therapy
Potter, Charles Francis: The Preacher and I; Humanism: A New Religion
Reese, Curtis, W.: Humanist Religion; The Meaning of Humanism
Rieser, Oliver: Cosmic Humanism
Reich, Wilhelm: Character Analysis; Selected Writings; Mass Psychology of Fascism
Rogers, Carl R.: On Becoming a Person
Russell, Bertrand: Unpopular Essays; The Faith of a Humanist
Robinson, John A. T.: Honest to God
Schatzman, Morton: Soul Murder
Schutz, William C.: Joy
Schweitzer, Albert: The Philosophy of Civilization; Out of My Life and Thought
Sellars, Roy Wood: Religion Coming of Age
Sohrab, Ahmed: The Bible of Mankind
Szasz, Thomas: Law, Liberty and Psychiatry
Stevens, John O.: Awareness
Tillich, Paul: Dynamics of Faith; The Courage to Be; The Shaking of the Foundations
Wiener, Norbert: God and Golem
Weil, Simon: The Need for Roots
Wieman, Henry N.: The Source of Human Good; Religious Experience and Scientific Method
Zuckerman, William: Voice of Dissent