by Bob Powers, Jun 8, 1998

What happens when we die? That question, along with the meaning of life, has intrigued humanity for centuries. At some point, everyone turns to these questions and the majority find an answer in some form of religion.

For others, however, belief in a life after death seems to go against all science. Although never a major movement in the United States, humanism continues to attract a small following of admirers. The American Humanist Association maintains a web site filled with information about the theories of those who reject the supernatural concept of God.

Prometheus Books, a small publishing house based in the Buffalo, NY area, for years has published books about religion, many seeking to debunk the teachings of Christianity. One of the latest -- and one of the best -- is Problems of Life and Death: A Humanist Perspective ($29.95), written by Kurt Baier. The author also wrote The Moral Point of View which has been called a groundbreaking treatise on the topic.

In his new book, based on lectures Baier delivered in 1993 at the Prometheus Lectures series in Buffalo, Baier attempts to explain in everyday language the theories and ideas voiced by a movement that has taken many names. Best known today as humanism, these ideas began in ancient Greece, had a revival during the Renaissance, and developed through scientific revolution and the Enlightenment to contemporary attempts to dispense with theistic solutions for nonscientific issues. Those issues include the meaning of life, whether life can be worth living, and how we tell what is morally right or wrong, without any assumption based on faith. Baier addresses these questions in part one of his book.

Part two deals with answers to broad questions of practical wisdom from the rationalist point of view. The central questions, of course, are with finding meaning in life and whether life can be worth living if there's no afterlife. Finally, Baier gives a rationalist conception of morality, which humanists see as replacing "the will of God" as the impetus for human action. Baier, writing with grace and distinction, applies this moral stance to contemporary moral questions.

Baier's book serves as a good companion to Corliss Lamont's venerable discussion of the topic in The Philosophy of Humanism (Humanist Press, $16.95). Now in its eighth edition, Lamont's landmark book remains compelling and important.

First published in 1949, the book offers a one-volume introduction to the movement's ideas, couched in simple, straightforward terms. There's no air of the academic in Lamont's writing, although the author (who died in 1995 at the age of 93) studied at Harvard, Oxford, and Columbia. He was a director of the American Civil Liberties Union, fought the actions of Sen. Joseph McCarthy and won an important Supreme Court ruling against mail censorship.

Humanists believe that the supreme ethical aim of Humanism "is, in fact, the earthly well-being of all humankind, with reliance on the methods or reason and science, democracy and love." Humanism incorporates the sound principles of other philosophies or religions. However, Humanists find no evidence of a supernatural God functioning on earth, guiding the human race to a divine destiny.

Stating firmly that "philosophy is everybody's business," Lamont defines Humanism as "a philosophy of joyous service for the greater good of all humanity in this natural world and advocating the methods of reason, science, and democracy."

Humanists believe that "people have but one life to lead and should make the most of it in terms of creative work and happiness; that human happiness is its own justification and requires no sanction or support from supernatural sources; that in any case the supernatural, usually conceived of in the form of heavenly gods or immortal heavens, does not exist; and that human beings, using their own intelligence and cooperating liberally with one another, can build an enduring citadel of peace and beauty upon this life."

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