A. Demand for the Homo Sapiens Institute-a Call To Action

Introduction- a Humanist View

We exist in a natural world empirically known to us solely by means of our human perceptual and cognitive capacities. Except for faith in the Divine Order we have no independent proof of its reality. We thus say that this natural world we know is experiential. It is in its purview that we experience ourselves as central and primary, hence ascendant over the entire non-human realm. However, most of us are preoccupied with that realm and our involvement with humanity remains limited by this preoccupation. As a result, human beings die early and suffer from many dire problems. They also lead deprived and stunted lives because they do not lay claim to the great gift of embracing experiential communion with their own Kind. It is clear that we should turn our attention to extensive, serious knowledge and care of homo sapiens. This duty and privilege which we owe ourselves is long overdue.

Human Longevity

In the first place, human beings occupy themselves with various arbitrary pursuits in the face of the fact that the problem of early death has not been sufficiently resolved. They give scant and desultory attention to the possibility of death as if they were children or creatures divorced from reality. We must understand that we should not dwell on death in the way of being morbid or despairing, but that we should instead train our best capabilities on studying and overcoming all the sources of early death extant. To that end we should be ready to expend resources that are far more extensive than those we have accorded this great battle to date.

October 2002

The Present Situation

At the present time there are many uncoordinated and scantily funded attempts to combat death and lethal suffering in our world. There is not enough monitoring and systematic application to assure that these attempts will succeed. No one seems to show concern with such a state of affairs. No one questions this haphazard approach to the most humanly urgent and drastic contingencies of our lives. Yet in other enterprises the civilization shows remarkable powers of cohesion of effort, organization, and persistence. It is as if we were insensate to the issues that should absorb us the most. Surely it is evident that without a comprehensive and concerted approach we will fail.

The Homo Sapiens Institute

It is time that human beings show the same exactitude and consistent spirit in the task of saving lives and relieving untenable pain as they exhibit in matters of lesser import. One thing which must be accomplished now, without delay, to achieve this as soon as possible is the establishment of a Homo Sapiens Institute as a necessary preliminary. This pioneering Institute would be an international facility which would gather data on Lethal and Dire Pain Problems around the globe, compiling statistics and studies from which plans for address of these human emergencies can be determined. At a later date, the Institute would be developed into specialized facilities containing Libraries and Archives of resolved problems. We have described such Annals in our earlier writings.

The funding of the Homo Sapiens Institute should initially come primarily from endowed universities and other centers of learning, and later, if necessary, from the Community of Nations. This imperative of our times cannot be neglected any longer.

B. Christ as Role Model for Secular Humanists

In our previous writings we tried to stress the point that Christ's mission was central to his activity on Earth and that it was to serve as a model for the evolution of the whole Race.

According to the scriptures he was given to calling himself the Son of Man as well as Son of God. Thus, matters preternatural aside, he considered himself the scion and representative of all Humanity. Whether we believe in his miracles or not, his efforts were always directed at the welfare of human beings and at the improvement of their lot. He was also tolerant to people of other faiths and he took their beliefs very seriously, as evidenced by his discourses with those of other nations and religious groupings. He was therefore in the public sphere a humanist, a thinker and a visionary who saw far into the future of Mankind. No doubt his attitude to religious law, his emphasis on the Two Commandments, which are the epitome of all that is humane, and which include as a separate Law the humanist creed, indicates that he accepted Secular Humanism as a legitimate system of belief. Thus his love of human beings encompassed secular humanists.

In order to emphasize his human dimension we have called him Teacher of Mankind who sowed the seeds of evolution in the human domain so many years ago. We might also call him Doctor, and Defender of the Downtrodden, for he did much to help those who were dispossessed and unprotected by a reasoned law. We would like to stress again that we believe in an Ecumenical Humanism which would unite all faiths including Secular Humanism into one movement that could evolve life on Earth to a better, more uplifting existence for all.

October 2002

C. Against the Death Penalty as Societal Redress
The Humanization of Morality and Law

The development of the social sciences, that is, psychiatry, psychology, sociology and anthropology has made great strides in changing human attitudes to the moral and legal aspects of societal process. The discovery that mental disorders involve compulsions and obsessions which limit free will has caused a sea change in thinking about human culpability for many transgressions, which at earlier times were seen as the embodiment of evil and the transgressor's sole responsibility. Consider, for example, the treatment of Anti-Social Personality Disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition (the DSM4), which states that the disorder is exhibited by a demonstrable lack of the subject's social conscience, that is, by a complete indifference to the rights, the plight, and the suffering inflicted on others. Thus that which previously was considered to be the direct result of baseness of character, abject immorality and intrinsic evil is now recognized to be the result of a disease which the individual cannot help. This metamorphosis in moral and legal responsibility has shifted the onus of evil from the persona who acts compelled by pathological impulse to the objective situation created by him or her. Thus the reality of death in case of murder is evil, but the perpetrator is driven to the act by criminal insanity. While not all criminal situations are as yet resolved in this way, there is an increase in that kind of resolution. Two things should be stressed at this point. When criminal insanity is adjudicated, there are still societal sanctions for the perpetrator in the shape of isolation from society and freedom deprivation. Secondly, the dissociation of the perpetrator from the evil created is tantamount to forgiveness, which puts and end to revenge-seeking and hate, as commanded by our conscience, religious or civic, our humanity and our rationality.

We can see that reverting to branding humans as evil is a regression to primitive and incendiary notions of justice. What is more, it shuts the door to scientific and social inquiry into the root causes of the real evil that plagues our lives and impedes our progress. 

October 2002

D. The Death Penalty-a Case of Societal Murder

The most important implication of the humanization of morality and law is the injunction it places on the death penalty. The fact that perpetrators of capital crimes are known or suspected of not being responsible for their actions means that a most grave moral responsibility attaches to depriving them of life. This life, we can see, is, even in such cases, precious and potentially redeemable, for despite modest medical research funding, there is some headway in rendering it harmless by drug therapy. According to all our religious and civic conscience we have no right to take it. That is the primary reason why the death penalty should be condemned. In addition to this indictment of those who would use the death penalty, there is an increasing body of evidence that a sizable number of those put to death are legally innocent. This last contingency has prompted some death penalty advocates to" try to improve it" so that "innocent people would not die". It is evident that not all social groupings take seriously the medical findings on responsibility for capital crimes. They are therefore unenlightened and the result is a disquieting duality in the practice of societal killing of offenders. Application of the death penalty varies from place to place. In the United States it varies from state to state. This in itself puts the death penalty to the test. In general, the societies which have rejected it are in other ways more humane and sapient. There is no question that a society practicing the societal murder of its members cannot be considered evolved and caring. Consider the feeling of those who face the fact that the might of their whole social edifice has conspired to put them to death for an act of mental distortion or desperation. That in itself is "cruel and unusual punishment" enough for any human being.

It is therefore evident that the death penalty should be abolished everywhere on Earth. We cannot condone its inhumanity and perversion any longer.

October 2002