Charles Francis Potter

Rev. Dr. Charles Francis Potter (October 28, 1885 – October 4, 1962)
was an American Unitarian minister, theologian, and author.
In 1923 and 1924, he became nationally known through a series of
debates with Dr. John Roach Straton, a fundamentalist Christian.
They were soon published in four volumes entitled The Battle Over the
Bible, Evolution versus Creation, The Virgin Birth—Fact or
Fiction? and Was Christ Both Man and God? Scopes Trial
In 1925 he was adviser on the Bible to Clarence Darrow in his defense
of John Thomas Scopes, a schoolteacher who was charged with
teaching evolution in his classes. Education He was born in Marlborough, Massachusetts, where his
father was a shoe-factory worker, and received his education at Bucknell University, Brown
University and Newton Theological Institution. Beginning his career as a Baptist minister, his developing
liberal theological views led him to resign his ministry and convert to Unitarianism serving in a number of
congregations before being called to the West Side Unitarian Church in New York City in 1920. However,
he resigned his position in 1925 because, he explained, even a liberal pulpit did not afford all the necessary
freedom of expression. The next year he took a position of professor of comparative religion at Antioch
College. Humanism In 1927 Potter returned to the ministry at the Church of the Divine Paternity,
a Universalist congregation on Manhattan's Upper West Side. In 1929, his progressive ideas led him to
resign his post and found the First Humanist Society of New York, whose advisory board included Julian
Huxley, John Dewey, Albert Einstein, and Thomas Mann. Together with Dewey, Potter was one of the
original 34 signers of the first Humanist Manifesto in 1933. Humanism as religion "Humanism
is not the abolition of religion," Potter was quoted as saying, "but the beginning of real religion. By
freeing religion of supernaturalism, it will release tremendous reserves of hitherto thwarted power.
Man has waited too long for God to do what man ought to do himself and is fully capable of doing."
It was to be, he said, "a religion of common sense; and the chief end of man is to improve himself, both as
an individual and as a race."
Umanismul nu înseamnă abolirea religiei, - a spus Potter - ci începutul adevăratei religii.
Prin eliberarea religiei de elementul supranatural vor fi descătușate rezerve de putere
extraordinare, ținute până acum în frâu. Omul a așteptat prea mult ca Dumnezeu să facă
ceea ce însuși omul ar fi trebuit să facă singur și este deplin capabil să realizeze. has waited
too long for God to do what man ought to do himself and is fully capable of doing." Ar fi, a spus el,
"o religie a bunului simț; iar țelul final al omului trebuie să fie perfecționarea de sine, atât
ca individ cât și ca rasă".
Social justice Potter became a vocal advocate for social reform, campaigning vigorously against
capital punishment, promoting "civil divorce laws," and supporting birth control and women's rights. He was
also the founder, in 1938, of the Euthanasia Society of America, helping to raise the issue of euthanasia
before the American public.