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Paul Kurtz Biography

Paul Kurtz (/kɜːrts/; December 21, 1925 – October 20, 2012) was a prominent 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 Buffalo, having previously also taught at Vassar, Trinity, and Union colleges, and the New School for Social Research.

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Paul Kurtz Quotes

The beginning of wisdom is the awareness that there is insufficient evidence that a god or gods have created us and the recognition that we are responsible in part for our own destiny. Human beings can achieve this good life, but it is by the cultivation of the virtues of intelligence and courage, not faith and obedience, that we will most likely be able to do so.

Atheism, Beginning, Destiny, Evidence, Good Life, Human

We need to be skeptical of utopianists who offer unreliable totalistic visions of other worlds and strive to take us there. We need some ideals, but we also need to protect ourselves from the miscalculations and misadventures of visionaries.

Atheism, Other Worlds, Protect, Skeptical, Totalistic, Vision

A skeptic is one who is willing to question any truth claim, asking for clarity in definition, consistency in logic, and adequacy of evidence.

Adequacy, Asking, Clarity, Consistency, Truth

Most humans feel the transcendent temptation, the emotional drive to festoon the universe with large-scale meaning.

Emotional, Humans, Meaning, Scales, Temptation, Universe

Many humanists have argued that happiness involves a combination of hedonism and creative moral development; that an exuberant life fuses excellence and enjoyment, meaning and enrichment, emotion and cognition.

Creative, Excellence, Happiness, Involves, Meaning, Moral Development

The skeptic has no illusions about life, nor a vain belief in the promise of immortality. Since this life here and now is all we can know, our most reasonable option is to live it fully.

Atheism, Belief, Know, Option, Promise, Vain

As I see it, creative achievement is the very heart of the human enterprise. . . The destiny of man, of all men and of each man, is that he is condemned to invent what he will be - condemned if he is fearful but blessed if he welcomes the great adventure. We are responsible in the last analysis, not simply for what we are, but for what we will become; and that is a source of either high excitement or distress.

Achievement, Adventure, Blessed, Condemned, Destiny, Heart

Only a fool of a scientist would dismiss the evidence and reports in front of him and substitute his own beliefs in their place.

Belief, Fool, Front, Scientist

Human life has no meaning independent of itself. There is no cosmic force or deity to give it meaning or significance. There is no ultimate destiny for man. Such a belief is an illusion of humankind's infancy. The meaning of life is what we choose to give it. Meaning grows out of human purposes alone. Nature provides us with an infinite range of opportunities, but it is only our vision and our action that select and realize those that we desire.

Destiny, Grows, Independent, Men, Provides, Range

Free inquiry entails recognition of civil liberties as integral to its pursuit, that is, a free press, freedom of communication, the right to organize opposition parties and to join voluntary associations, and freedom to cultivate and publish the fruits of scientific, philosophical, artistic, literary, moral and religious freedom.

Artistic, Free, Party, Philosophical, Publish, Religious

Parents have no right to impose their religion on their children. . . A Fundamentalist Protestant parent has no right to expect the state to support his own narrow conception of education.

Children, Christian, Education, Narrow, Religion, Religious

It is not the courage to be that we must develop as much as the courage to become. We are responsible for our destiny. The meaning of life is not located in some hidden crevice in the womb of nature but is created by free persons, who are aware that they are responsible for their own futures and have the courage to take this project into their own hands.

Courage, Created, Destiny, Hands, Take

In contemporary society secular humanism has been singled out by critics and proponents alike as a position sharply distinguishable from any religious formulation. Religious fundamentalists in the United States have waged a campaign against secular humanism, claiming that it is a rival "religion" and seeking to root it out from American public life. Secular humanism is avowedly non-religious. It is a eupraxsophy (good practical wisdom), which draws its basic principles and ethical values from science, ethics, and philosophy.

Against, Philosophy, Religious, Rival, Roots, Secular

Secular humanism is avowedly non-religious. It is a eupraxsophy (good practical wisdom), which draws its basic principles and ethical values from science, ethics, and philosophy.

Atheism, Basic, Eupraxsophy, Good, Philosophy, Religious

We cannot remain silent when someone of the Pope's stature and credibility confuses religious principles for science

Principles, Religious, Remain, Silent, Stature

Life, when fully lived under a variety of cultural conditions, can be euphoric and optimistic; it can be a joy to experience and a wonder to behold.

Cultural, Enthusiasm, Fully, Joy, Life, Optimistic

Skepticism is essential to the quest for knowledge, for it is in the seedbed of puzzlement that genuine inquiry takes root. Without skepticism, we may remain mired in unexamined belief systems that are accepted as sacrosanct yet have no factual basis in reality.

Accepted, Essentials, Mired, Reality, Roots, Seedbed

We have never denied that it is possible, indeed probable, that other forms of life, even intelligent life, exist in the universe. But this is different from the belief that we are now being visited by extraterrestrial beings in spacecraft, that they are abducting people, and the there is a vast government cover-up.

Denied, Exist, Forms, Government, Intelligent, People

The theist can only find meaning by leaving this life for a transcendental world beyond the grave. The human world as he finds it is empty of 'ultimate purpose' and hence meaningless. Theism thus is an attempt to escape from the human condition; it is a pathetic deceit.

Atheism, Deceit, Escape, Human, Leaving, Pathetic

The overriding need is "to develop a new Planetary Humanism" that will seek to preserve human rights and enhance human freedom and dignity and will emphasize our commitment "to humanity as a whole. " The underlying ethical principle "is the need to respect the dignity and worth of all persons in the world community. " Thinkers as diverse as Peter Singer and Hans Küng also emphasize the need for a new global ethic beyond nationalistic, racial, religious, and ethnic chauvinism.

Commitment, Emphasize, Enhance, Ethical Principles, Kung, Religious

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