References for Secular Humanism Series

by Lewis Loflin

References

The following sources were consulted for the three-part series "Secular Humanism: The Atheist Illusion and America’s Roots" (Parts 1, 2, and 3), published on March 18, 2025.

• McNally, David. *Socialism from Below*. Chicago: Aspens Press, 1984. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/435008.Socialism_from_Below
  • Quote: “The great French revolution of 1789-1799 involved the most massive popular struggles that had yet been seen in history... the revolution rose on the backs of the masses of poor people in Paris who united under the banner of 'liberty, equality and brotherhood'... Out of the French Revolution, then, emerged the essential socialist idea that democracy and freedom require a society of (material) equality. The French radicals recognized that genuine freedom presupposed the liberty of all to participate equally in producing and sharing the wealth of society...”
• Kurtz, Paul. *Defense of Eupraxophy*. Humanism Today, 1991.
  • Quote: “After a century of Marxism—and Marx was no doubt the greatest humanist thinker of the nineteenth century—and after the patent failure of Marxism, the question can now be raised, Where does atheism now stand?”
  • Quote: “Humanism must address itself to the heart and the passions; it must have some relevance to practice and conduct; and it must have some effect upon how we live. I submit that broadly conceived the free thought movement has failed in that direction.”
  • Quote: “Marxism was an effort to apply humanism to practice, and indeed Marx said that atheism was merely abstract, that it only became meaningfully expressed when it was realized in terms of Communism; and so Communism offered a program and an agenda for the future liberation of mankind.”
  • Quote: “The Marxist-Leninists failed because they developed a new tyranny. And so we now see that Marxism without freedom is not an authentic humanism. But we must not give up on Marx’s basic insight that humanism only has meaning if it is related to practice.”
  • Quote: “to move beyond ego-centric individualism and chauvinistic nationalism.”
  • Quote: “We need to step up to a new plateau, and that, I submit, must be a plateau that defines a new eupraxophy that is relevant to the human condition, can inspire human beings to commitment and action, and provide meaning to their lives. This task is all the more pressing given the apparent collapse of Marxism, and the great vacuum in the world for inspiring ideals. Unless an authentic, democratic, scientific, and secular humanism can be identified as a viable alternative, then we may again be threatened by a new outburst of orthodox theism, and new cults of irrationality are most likely to emerge to plague humankind.”

Note: For full context of Paul Kurtz’s quotes, refer to sullivan-county.com.

Acknowledgment: This series was developed with assistance from Grok, an AI by xAI. The final edits and perspectives are my own.