Humanism

Founders of new religions are apt to announce that they have been sent by God, that their teaching is divinely inspired, themselves the definitive prophet. Not so Religionist Charles Francis Potter. Last week he hired a hall (Steinway) in Manhattan, packed it (capacity 244), turned away hundreds. Making no audible claims to prophetic succession, he announced "Humanism" and handed out prospectuses thereof.

Religionist Potter did not even claim to be the originator of "Humanism." Said he: "A new religion has suddenly and simultaneously appeared in many quarters. . . . From California to New York, and even in India and Japan, Humanist groups are in process of formation, and every week brings fresh news of the growth of the new movement."

"Humanism's" tenets, described as new, inspiring, scientific, proved to be tangential, vague. "Humanists unanimously agree in rejecting the supernatural. This is the great dividing line between them and all other religions of today. . . . So fundamental is the distinction between supernatural religion and Humanism, that there are those who deny that Humanism is a religion at all. . . . Humanists do not so much desire a new idea of God, as they desire a new idea of man. If Humanists were to make a creed, the first article would be: 'I believe in Man.' . . . Humanists are not only opposed to all movements, institutions and practices which tend to cramp and confine the human personality and prevent its proper development, but they are also actively engaged in helping those movements which tend to release, develop and expand the life of man."

Only one of Religionist Potter's announced tenets was revolutionary. "Humanist" weddings, he said, would be quiet, simple. Couples would be encouraged to compose their own ceremony.

Other leaders in the Humanist movement, said Religionist Potter, were Irving Babbitt, Walter Lippmann, Paul Elmer More. Evidently he referred to Babbitt's, Lippmann's, More's cultural attitude, not their religious faith. Paul Elmer More, ( philosopher and critic, is a devout Episcopalian. Said he: "I utterly repudiate Potter." Walter Lippmann said: "No connection whatever." Said Irving Babbitt: "His use of word humanism has almost nothing in common with mine."

Religionist Potter, onetime Bible expert for the defense in the famed Evolution trial at Dayton, Tenn. (1925), resigned a year ago from the Universalist Church. He has been a Baptist, a Unitarian. Short, clean-shaven, getting bald, fond of colored neckties, he has a voice which carries well.