THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 5, 1995 TAG: 9508310021
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
The letter ``Humanism's legacy'' (Aug. 23) is inaccurate. Humanists do not control the government. They are not anti-God. Most humanists are either deists, agnostics or atheists, but they respect the views of all.
Thomas Jefferson, a deist, was a humanist, as were many of his contemporaries in the group called the Jeffersonians, who helped frame the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
Humanists search for and govern their lives by ethical teachings in the Bible and in the philosophies of all cultures, both ancient and contemporary.
Most try to live and act in a manner that will elicit the best in others and in doing this bring out the best in themselves. They respect the intrinsic worth of all people.
Humanism is optimistic about human nature and is confident that human reason and science are the best means of reaching human fulfillment.
Humanists affirm that humans are a product of the evolutionary process common to all living organisms, and all ideas, knowledge, values and social systems are based on human experience.
For humanists, creative ability and personal responsibility are strongest when the mind is free of supernatural belief and operates in an atmosphere of freedom and democracy.
As for blaming all the crime, drugs, immorality, etc., on humanists, I ask the writer to determine how many inmates in our prisons are humanists (as defined above).
Humanists are a minority. Like most minorities, they are targeted as scapegoat for the failures of the majority.
GEORGE F. OERTEL
Painter, Aug. 26, 1995 by CNB