HUMANISM, RELIGIOUS

Includes Dewey 's Pragmatic Humanism; Santayana's Aesthetic Humanism ; and Russell and Julian Huxley 's Scientific Humanism. There is no supernatural, personal deity, nor ground of being. Religion is the quest for a more worthwhile life. The ultimate value is "all the natural forces and conditions including man and human association that promote the growth of the ideal and that further its realization" ( Dewey ). Santayana pictures religion as the "symbolic expression of highest ideals." Russell urges man to develop his highest ideals and aspirations in the face of cosmic indifference. Julian Huxley advocates the full implementation of evolution both biological and cultural for human good. Teilhard de Chardin finds the God hypothesis necessary in order to explain the consistent movement of evolution toward the production of ever higher levels of consciousness in what he calls an "irreversibly personalizing universe."