Human beings are not wholly depraved and the judicious exercise of human reason is absolutely essential to a Christian life. There is no great insurmountable chasm between nature and the supernatural and the mark of the Divine Creator can be detected in every creature. To deny the freedom to pursue the ideals of truth, beauty, and benignant love is to undermine every profound human venture, including science, morality, and philosophy. The freedom crucial to human existence is untenable if the individual is dependent for one’s existence upon any other being, including a Creator-God or an Absolute One. Therefore, self-determining beings must be uncreated and eternal; yet the unique quality of human freedom presupposes that each person stands in an individual relationship to other persons, subpersonal beings, and God. How, then, does this plurality of uncreated beings compose a Universe and not a mere collection of beings, a pluriverse? Well, the very nature of undeniable, self-active, unified, thinking beings to define themselves and to fulfill themselves as individuals. In this very act of self-definition and self-fulfillment they find themselves related to other beings. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8

Thus, in thinking itself as eternally real, each spirit thinks the reality of other spirits. “Bring the souls of humans unto me, while the World shall stand,” reports 3 Nephi 28.9. Is there a God to unify the many grades of self-active beings? Yes, but any unification must not infringe upon individual growth to moral perfection.  Creation as efficient cause must give way to creation in accordance with an Ideal present in each being. The fulfillment of this Ideal calls for a World composed of all the individual differences compatible with the mutual reality of it all. Thus, basic harmony is possible because, as each individual defines oneself, one finds the Ideal of self-definition which to measure oneself. And God, who is defined as self-existent by every other self-defining being, is the indispensable standard for measuring reality. The impinging of the Infinite on human’s experience, emotions, and will implies the spiritual nature of the Infinite; for otherwise it would be hard to account for its inspiring power.  The fundamental institutions of the medieval World—the empire, the church, and feudalism—seemed to be the guardians of a cosmic order which humans have to accept but which they cannot modify to the slightest degree. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8

The nature of love exhibited by one’s mother and father are of particular meaning for every human being. For this can either inhibit or accelerate one’s own ability to love. They work primarily to show that all the material and spiritual goods to which humans can aspire (from daily bread to truth) derive from the order to which they belong, that is, the hierarchies which are the interpreters and custodians of the cosmic order. “And behold, the Heavens were opened, and they were caught up into Heaven, and saw and heard unspeakable things. And it was forbidden them that they should utter; neither was it given unto them power that they could utter the things which the heard,” reports 3 Nephi 28.13-14. Humanism, which was born in the cities and the communes that had fought and were fighting for their autonomy and that saw in traditional hierarchical orders an obstacle rather than an assistant to the goods indispensable to humans, defended human’s freedom to project one’s life in the World in autonomous ways. In exalting freedom, they exalted human’s capacity to form this World, to vary it, and to better it absolutely. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8

As much as any person in our time, we all must control our moral and intellectual dilemmas and comprehend a humanity that seems determined to heal. “I have given you, Adam, neither a predetermined place nor a particular aspect nor any special prerogatives in order that you may take and possess these through your own decision and choice. The limitations on the nature of other creatures are contained within my prescribed laws. You shall determine your own nature without constraint from any barrier, by means of the freedom to whose power I have entrusted you. I have placed you at the center of the World so that from that point you might see better what is in the World. I have made you neither Heavenly nor Earthly, neither mortal nor immortal so that, like a free and sovereign artificer, you might mold and fashion yourself into that form you yourself shall have chosen,” reports God. Wisdom confers on people the powers which perfect their nature. “And whether you are in the body or out of the body, you cannot tell of the unspeakable things saw and heard in Heaven; for it did seem unto you like a transfiguration of yourselves, that you were changed from this body of flesh into an immortal state, that you could behold the things of God,” reports 3 Nephi 28.15. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8

 One deals here (as evident today) with speculations influenced by an excessive confidence in human’s capacity to shape life in the World, a confidence in human’s capacity to shape one’s life in the World, a confidence which is tempered by the skeptical development that humanism underwent outside of Italy from 1533-1603. This confidence, however, constituted the new doctrine of humanism in contrast with the medieval mentality. “And ye may know that the words of the Lord, which have been spoken by the holy prophets, shall all be fulfilled; and ye need not say that the Lord delays his coming. And ye need not imagine in your hearts that the words which have been spoken are vain, for behold, the Lord will remember his covenant which he hath made unto his people,” reports 3 Nephi 29.2-3. Human interest, values and dignity are to predominate. There is an ultimate faith in humankind, which believes that human beings possess the power or potentiality of solving their own problems, through reliance primarily upon reason and scientific method applied with courage and vision. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8

Humanism upholds human reason, ethics and justice, and is a component of a variety of more specific philosophical systems, and is incorporated into religious schools of thought. It is an optimistic attitude to life whose ultimate goal is human flourishing, doing good and living well in the here and now, and leaving the World better for those who come after. The conviction that humans are part of nature—that nature is their realm, and the features which tie them to nature (one’s body, one’s needs, one’s sensations) are essential to one to the point that one cannot abstract from them nor ignore them—one can speak of naturalism in humanism. Though the humanists exalted the soul of human beings for its powers of freedom, they did not forget the body that which it pertains to it. The widespread recognition of the value of pleasure among the humanists and their aversion to medieval asceticism clearly show the new evaluation of human’s natural aspects. As an ethical doctrine, it affirms the dignity and worth of all people and their ability to determine right and wrong purely by appeal to universal human qualities, especially rationality. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8

Humanity searches for truth and morality through human means in support of human interests, and focuses on the human capacity for self-determination. It endorses universal morality (Moral Universalism) based on the commonality of the human condition. Pleasure is the sole good for humans, that is, the sole end of human activities. The laws that regulate cities have been made for utility, which in turn generates pleasure. Every government is directed to this same end. Virtue is none other than the calculus of pleasure; and pleasure, or at least utility, it the end of the liberal arts, like medicine, jurisprudence, poetry, and oratory, which attempt to satisfy the needs of life. Moral philosophy is, so to speak, our territory. Those who betray it, and give themselves over to physics, seem in a way to occupy themselves over to physics, seem in a way to occupy themselves with foreign affairs and to neglect their own. If love is a capacity of the mature, productive character, it follows that the capacity to love in an individual living in any given culture depends on the influence this culture has on the character of the average person. One thing is for certain: the nature of one’s love for God corresponds for the nature of love for humanity. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8

If we should succeed in keeping alive a vision of mature life, the development of fairness and ethics develop. “And it came to pass that there were other disciples ordained in their stead; and also many of that generation had passed away. And it came to pass that there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people. And there were no envyings, nor strifes, nor tumults; and surely there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God,” 4 Nephi 1.15-16. Perhaps the most important lesson the World has learned in the past seventy five years is that it is not true that human nature is unchangeable. Human nature, on the contrary, can be changed with the greatest ease and to the utmost possible extent. If in this is possessed huge potential danger, it also contains some of the brightest hopes that we have for the future of humankind. Each of us is programmed by the culture to think and feel in specified ways. And though a certain latitude is permitted, with some alternatives allowed, most of us are socialized to be more or less similar in the content to our minds. Love is a key to the secret of life. With love subtracted, life will become tasteless and colourless. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8