In Praise of Humanism "My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble minds. That deeply emotional c Einstein’s numerous biographers all attest to the fact that he was endowed, not only with a superior intellect, but also proclaimed to his many admirers that he was seldom concerned with the existence of any God. Rather, he was concerned with endowing and improving the lives of humanity via humanitarian modes. To Einstein, man-made religions, their dogmas, beliefs, and canons, constituted a humorous circus of humanity. Such has been the Humanistic philosophy of the ages, especially since its streamlined uprising of the 17th century. The Greeks adored Prometheus, one of the ancient gods of Greek mythology. Prometheus defied Zeus, the father-god of all other gods. He stole the fire of the gods and brought it down to earth. For this he was punished. Yet he continued his defiance amid his tortures. He serves as a symbol today of the present Humanistic challenge to authority in all religious and civil matters.
This concept and analogy of a persistent defiance of authority can be epitomized in the classical epic poem of John Milton’s Paradise Lost in the seventeenth century, based not only on Prometheus, but also on the world’s biblical acceptance of God vs. Satan. Satan will forever be condemned as the Evil One, but will persist, as the Judeo-Christian traditional belief remains today, as one who still exists and is perpetually defiant to the rules of the Almighty – the gods of Good and Evil, forever in combat, but gods whom no one can define or understand – gods who are perpetually, as audio engineers behind the stage’s curtains in the drama of life, withdrawn from the producers, the actors, and their respective scripts. Still today, legal scholars are impotent to define insurance clauses, “An act of God” or “An act of Nature.” Who or what controls whom or what?
Religious disagreements, proclamations, antagonisms, conflicting theological treatises, and papal encyclicals flourished for centuries, especially since the Protestant Reformation, regarding the Rules of this Supreme Ruler, -- rules, mandates, and exhortations to be found in the Supreme Ruler’s book, the Bible.
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The Rule Book itself is up for grabs: For Jews, since Jesus was not the Son of God as he proclaimed, the entire New Testament is bogus. Catholic bishops, since the earliest centuries, deleting the Apocryphal books via their renowned scriptural scholars, d Who is this Supreme Ruler? For Jews and all Christians, he has traditionally been, “God our Father in Heaven.” Yet, even outstanding Christians, such as Mother Theresa, now on the quasi-throne of sainthood in the Catholic Church, shook her Papal authorities when asked by the media, “Can you justify why your God would send so much misery to so many innocent people?” she wittingly responded, “I’m too busy right now to give you any definite answer, but when I get to Heaven, I’ll ask her.” As Rodney King proclaimed to the media, after his brutal beating on the street, “Can’t we all just get along?” For all worldwide religions, the definite answer is “No.”
Socrates was a dedicated humanist. Unconcerned about the gods above, he taught his students and followers, as they were to fulfill their missions in serving the needs of their fellow Grecians, to Socrates responded, "One will be enough. If any gods exist, they will look upon me as one who only wished to serve mankind."
WJK-8/09
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onviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God. "I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation. It is enough for me to contemplate the mystery of conscious life perpetuating itself through all eternity, to reflect upon the marvelous structure of the universe which we can dimly perceive, and to try humbly to comprehend even an infinitesimal part of the intelligence manifested in Nature
eemed a total of 73 books. Along strut the Protestant scholars of the seventeenth century with their first King James Bible, totaling only 66 books, proclaiming that the Catholic Bible contains either some Apocryphal books or books that were not divinely inspired. 
