A Secular Humanist Declaration was an argument for and statement of support for democratic secular humanism. The document was issued in 1980 by the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism (CODESH), now the

Council for Secular Humanism The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a US nonprofit organization that works to mitigate belief in pseudoscience and the paranormal, as well as to fight the influence of religion in government. History The Center for Inquiry was established in 199 ...

(CSH). Compiled by

Paul Kurtz Paul Kurtz (December 21, 1925 – October 20, 2012) was an American scientific skeptic and secular humanist. He has been called "the father of secular humanism". He was Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buff ...

, it is largely a restatement of the content of the

American Humanist Association The American Humanist Association (AHA) is a non-profit organization in the United States that advances secular humanism. The American Humanist Association was founded in 1941 and currently provides legal assistance to defend the constitution ...

's 1973

Humanist Manifesto II ''Humanist Manifesto II'', written in 1973 by humanists Paul Kurtz and Edwin H. Wilson, was an update to the previous ''Humanist Manifesto'' published in 1933, and the second entry in the '' Humanist Manifesto'' series. It begins with a state ...

, of which he was co-author with Edwin H. Wilson. Both Wilson and Kurtz had served as editors of '' The Humanist'', from which Kurtz departed in 1979 and thereafter set about establishing his own movement and his own periodical. His Secular Humanist Declaration was the starting point for these enterprises.

# Free Inquiry # Separation of Church and State # The Ideal of Freedom # Ethics Based on Critical Intelligence # Moral Education # Religious Skepticism # Reason # Science and Technology # Evolution # Education

Signatories

Before the list of signatories, the declaration has the following disclaimer: "Although we who endorse this declaration may not agree with all its specific provisions, we nevertheless support its general purposes and direction and believe that it is important that they be enunciated and implemented. We call upon all men and women of good will who agree with us to join in helping to keep alive the commitment to the principles of free inquiry and the secular humanist outlook. We submit that the decline of these values could have ominous implications for the future of civilization on this planet."

United States

* George Abell (professor of astronomy, UCLA) * John Anton (professor of philosophy, Emory University) * Khoren Arisian (minister, First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis) * Isaac Asimov (science fiction author) * Paul Beattie (minister, All Souls Unitarian Church; president, Fellowship of Religious Humanism) *

H. James Birx Harry James Birx (born June 1, 1941 in Canandaigua, New York), is an American anthropologist and a professor of Anthropology at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York. He is a distinguished research scholar at the State University of New York at Ge ...

(professor of anthropology and sociology, Canisius College) *

Brand Blanshard Percy Brand Blanshard (; August 27, 1892 – November 19, 1987) was an American philosopher known primarily for his defense of reason and rationalism. A powerful polemicist, by all accounts he comported himself with courtesy and grace in philoso ...

(professor emeritus of philosophy, Yale) *

Joseph L. Blau Joseph Leon Blau (May 6, 1909 – December 28, 1986) was an American scholar of Jewish history and philosophy. Biography Blau was born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Columbia University, where he studied under Salo Wittmayer Baron. He ea ...

(Professor Emeritus of Religion, Columbia) * Francis Crick (Nobel Prize Laureate, Salk Institute) *

Arthur Danto Arthur Coleman Danto (January 1, 1924 – October 25, 2013) was an American art critic, philosopher, and professor at Columbia University. He was best known for having been a long-time art critic for '' The Nation'' and for his work in philosop ...

(professor of philosophy, Columbia University) *

Albert Ellis Albert Ellis (September 27, 1913 – July 24, 2007) was an American psychologist and psychotherapist who founded rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT). He held MA and PhD degrees in clinical psychology from Columbia University, and was cer ...

(executive director, Institute for Rational Emotive Therapy) * Roy Fairfield (former professor of social science, Antioch) *

Herbert Feigl Herbert Feigl (; ; December 14, 1902 – June 1, 1988) was an Austrian- American philosopher and an early member of the Vienna Circle. He coined the term "nomological danglers". Biography The son of a trained weaver who became a textile designer, ...

(professor emeritus of philosophy, University of Minnesota) * Joseph Fletcher (theologian, University of Virginia Medical School) * Sidney Hook (professor emeritus of philosophy, NYU, fellow at Hoover Institute) *

George Hourani George Fadlo Hourani (3 June 1913 – 19 September 1984) was a British philosopher, historian, and classicist. He is best known for his work in Islamic philosophy, which focused on classical Islamic rationalism and ethics. Biography George Ho ...

(professor of philosophy, State University of New York at Buffalo) * Walter Kaufmann (professor of philosophy, Princeton) * Marvin Kohl (professor of philosophy, medical ethics, State University of New York at Fredonia) *

Richard Kostelanetz Richard Cory Kostelanetz (born May 14, 1940) is an American artist, author, and critic. Birth and Education Kostelanetz was born to Boris Kostelanetz and Ethel Cory and is the nephew of the conductor Andre Kostelanetz. He has a B.A. (1962) fro ...

(writer, artist, critic) *

(Professor of Philosophy, State University of New York at Buffalo) *

Joseph Margolis Joseph Zalman Margolis (May 16, 1924 – June 8, 2021) was an American philosopher. A radical historicist, he authored many books critical of the central assumptions of Western philosophy, and elaborated a robust form of relativism. His philoso ...

(professor of philosophy, Temple University) * Floyd Matson (professor of American Studies, University of Hawaii) * Ernest Nagel (professor emeritus of philosophy, Columbia) * Lee Nisbet (associate professor of philosophy, Medaille) * George Olincy (lawyer) * Virginia Olincy *

W. V. Quine Willard Van Orman Quine (; known to his friends as "Van"; June 25, 1908 – December 25, 2000) was an American philosopher and logician in the analytic tradition, recognized as "one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century". ...

(professor of philosophy, Harvard University) * Robert Rimmer (novelist) * Herbert Schapiro (Freedom from Religion Foundation) * Herbert W. Schneider (professor emeritus of philosophy, Claremont College) *

B. F. Skinner Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher. He was a professor of psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974. C ...

(professor emeritus of psychology, Harvard) * Gordon Stein (editor, The American Rationalist) * George Tomashevich (professor of anthropology, Buffalo State University College) *

Valentin Turchin Valentin Fyodorovich Turchin (russian: Валенти́н Фёдорович Турчи́н, 14 February 1931 in Podolsk – 7 April 2010 in Oakland, New Jersey) was a Soviet and American physicist, cybernetician, and computer scientist. He ...

(Russian dissident; computer scientist, City College, City University of New York) *

Sherwin Wine Sherwin Theodore Wine (January 25, 1928 – July 21, 2007), Hebrew name שמעון בן צבי, Shimon ben Tzvi, was an American rabbi and a founding figure of Humanistic Judaism, a movement that emphasizes Jewish culture and history as sou ...

(rabbi, Birmingham Temple, founder, Society for Humanistic Judaism) * Marvin Zimmerman (professor of philosophy, State University of New York at Buffalo)

Canada

* Henry Morgentaler (physician, Montreal) * Kai Nielsen (professor of philosophy, University of Calgary)

France

* Yves Galifret (executive director, Union rationaliste) *

Jean-Claude Pecker Jean-Claude Pecker (10 May 1923 – 20 February 2020) was a French astronomer, astrophysicist and author, member of the French Academy of Sciences and director of the Nice Observatory. He served as the secretary-general of the International Ast ...

(professor of astrophysics, Collège de France, Académie des Sciences)

Great Britain (i.e. Scotland, Wales and England)

* Sir

A.J. Ayer Sir Alfred Jules "Freddie" Ayer (; 29 October 1910 – 27 June 1989), usually cited as A. J. Ayer, was an English philosopher known for his promotion of logical positivism, particularly in his books ''Language, Truth, and Logic'' (1936) an ...

(professor of philosophy, Oxford University) * H.J. Blackham (former chairman, Social Morality Council and British Humanist Association) *

Bernard Crick Sir Bernard Rowland Crick (16 December 1929 – 19 December 2008) was a British political theorist and democratic socialist whose views can be summarised as "politics is ethics done in public". He sought to arrive at a "politics of action", as ...

(professor of politics, Birkbeck College, London University) * Sir

Raymond Firth Sir Raymond William Firth (25 March 1901 – 22 February 2002) was an ethnologist from New Zealand. As a result of Firth's ethnographic work, actual behaviour of societies (social organization) is separated from the idealized rules of behaviou ...

(professor emeritus of anthropology, University of London) *

Jim Herrick Jim Herrick (born 1944) is a British humanist and secularist. He studied history and English literature at Trinity College, Cambridge University, and then worked as a school teacher for seven years. He has written or edited several books on hu ...

(then editor of The Freethinker) *

Zhores A. Medvedev Zhores Aleksandrovich Medvedev (russian: Жоре́с Алекса́ндрович Медве́дев; 14 November 1925 – 15 November 2018) was a Russian agronomist, biologist, historian and dissident. His twin brother is the historian Roy Med ...

(Russian dissident; Medical Research Council) * Dora Russell (Mrs.

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ar ...

) (author) * Lord Ritchie-Calder (president, Rationalist Press Association) *

Harry Stopes-Roe Harry Verdon Stopes-Roe (27 March 1924 – 11 May 2014) was a British philosopher known mainly for his active role in the humanist movement in Britain and around the world. He was a Vice-President of the British Humanist Association until his ...

(senior lecturer in science studies, University of Birmingham; chairman, British Humanist Association) *

Nicolas Walter Nicolas Hardy Walter (22 November 1934 – 7 March 2000) was a British anarchist and atheist writer, speaker and activist. He was a member of the Committee of 100 and Spies for Peace, and wrote on topics of anarchism and humanism. Background ...

(editor, New Humanist) *Baroness

Barbara Wootton Barbara Wootton, Baroness Wootton of Abinger, CH (14 April 1897 – 11 July 1988) was a British sociologist and criminologist. She was the first of four women to be appointed as a life peer, entitled to serve in the House of Lords, under the L ...

(Deputy Speaker, House of Lords)

India

*B. Shah (president, Indian Secular Society; director, Institute for the Study of Indian Traditions) *

V. M. Tarkunde Vithal Mahadeo Tarkunde (3 July 1909 in Saswad – 22 March 2004 in Delhi), was a prominent Indian lawyer, civil rights activist, and humanist leader and has been referred to as the "Father of the Civil Liberties movement" in India and a former j ...

(Supreme Court Judge, chairman, Indian Radical Humanist Association)

Israel

Shulamit Aloni Shulamit Aloni ( he, שולמית אלוני; 29 December 1928 – 24 January 2014) was an Israeli politician. She founded the Ratz party, was leader of the Meretz party, Leader of the Opposition from 1988 to 1990, and served as Minister of Edu ...

(lawyer, member of

Knesset The Knesset ( he, הַכְּנֶסֶת ; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (with th ...

, head of Citizens Rights Movement)

Norway

Alastair Hannay __NOTOC__ Robert Alastair Hannay (born 2 June 1932) is professor emeritus at the University of Oslo. Educated in Edinburgh and London, where he studied under A. J. Ayer and Bernard Williams and since 1961 resident in Norway. Hannay has written ...

(professor of philosophy, University of Trondheim)

Yugoslavia

* Milovan Djilas (author, former vice president of Yugoslavia) *

Mihailo Marković Mihailo Marković, PhD ( sr-cyr, Михаило Марковић; 24 February 1923 – 7 February 2010) was a Serbian philosopher who gained prominence in the 1960s and 1970s as a proponent of the Praxis School, a Marxist humanist movement that ...

(professor of philosophy, Serbian Academy of Sciences & Arts and University of Belgrade) * Svetozar Stojanović (professor of philosophy, University of Belgrade)

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Secular Humanist Declaration Secular humanism Humanist manifestos Nontheism publications 1980 documents

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