John Hassler Dietrich, born 1887, was a Conservative Christian. In College and seminary he studied science and met Unitarians. He became a Minister drawing in thousands of people to hear him speak. He was cut out of his Church because he was too liberal. He became a Unitarian Christian with thousands of listeners in Spokane, WA. He found that early Humans, created demons, Gods & Religion to help them. When they gained power in Politics they repressed people who belied differently. All of these Religions and Gods died out because they were not real. The Religions of the last 2000 years were created in the same way and wherever they became powerful they made war on other people and fought each other. They claimed they knew God and pretended to be Gods leaders of the People. The people had to believe them by faith without evidence. If they did not they were told they were disobeying God. Judaism has existed for about 6,000 years. In the middle of the first thousand years of Christianity, Islam arose with Muhammad. They all had periods of war and suppression. Some did good for others. In the Middle ages they suppressed, tortured and killed people and prohibited education. During this same period and after, Educated people came together and began cooperating, examining the Gods, with the Scientific Method to discover how the World operates, while always being skeptical of man made rules and rechecking for accuracy. When the Founding Fathers created the United States they created Freedom of Religion because in the past when Religions were powerful they suppressed people and made war within Governments as well as outside of them and limited education to their views. Thus, the Nation has always been Secular working toward cooperation by all people of any religion and the secular. Studies of Bibles have found so many problems that it is clear that an intelligent God was not involved, only error prone humans. Dietrich constructed a modern philosophy of life called Modern Humanism, or just Humanism, from the events of Human History based on Science showing people how to move from mythology, to a Philosophy based on the Natural Laws of Nature. Dietrich spoke every Sunday morning in Minniapolis to thousands of people, while other thousands heard him over the radio, and still other thousands all over the World. Scientific knowledge and intelligent research, a better under standing of The Natural Universe, and Natural Laws of Evolution in Nature, existing without a creator. Human rules to live by in this World. Many people have written about Humanism but no one else presented ideas on so many subjects, such as Humanism, Religion, Theism, Agnosticism, Atheism, Ethics, Morality, Families, individuals, Sex, Science, Natural Law, Evolution, Politics, War, death, God, Satan, and all human Welfare. The whole orthodox Christian church today is spending its time in trying to propitiate a God who is not angry, to save souls that are not lost, that they may enter a heaven that does not exist. Expending its energies along mistaken channels toward issues that are entirely imaginary! I, Douglas Peary, raised as a Fundamentalist, educated in a manner like Dietrich and spent the last 45 years of my 75 years discovering the same thing and then discovering that Dietrich had done a better job 100 years ago. I agree with the original publishers of Dietrich's writings who said that the style is that of spoken and not written discourse, and does not so easily lend itself to print. My writing is the same way. Any attempt to change them, however, would have involved a difficult, if not impossible task. Neither would it be desirable. The chief effectiveness of a public address is the manner of presentment, and while it is impossible to impart this to the printed page; it can be done by preserving not changing the original utterances. I find that some of Dietrich's speeches make me feel the way I feel listening to a dynamic speaker. Editor Peary
About the Author: John Hassler Dietrich lived from 1878 to 1957. He started his ministry as an Orthodox Christian Minister, became a moderate Christian, Moderate Christian Unitarian, Scientific Naturalist and then called his teachings Humanism. He became a Humanist Minister in about 1911 in the Unitarian Church of Spokane, Washington, and then at First Unitarian in Minneapolis, Minnesota from 1916 to the 1940's. He said "The Supreme discovery of the ages is that the Universe is governed by Natural Law rather than by a Deity." and " The whole Orthodox Christian church today spending its time in trying to propitiate a God who is not angry, to save souls that are not lost, that they may enter a heaven that does not exist, expending its energies along mistaken channels toward issues that are entirely Imaginary." also, "Those who find Humanism's notion of religion without God absurd, have not been able to sound the depths of its mystic meaning. Those who too easily stigmatize its devotion to reason and reality as cold and meaningless miss its profound call to life and purpose. Our sojourn here becomes a wonder-awakening romance, a pilgrimage through mysteries and marvels, and as we walk together, comforting each other, inspiring each other, helping each other, loving each other, our hearts burn within us." In 2016 the Minneapolis Unitarian Society is Celebrating 100 years as a Humanist Society. There have been many Humanists since that time but no one has laid out more Humanist values than Dietrich. He spoke to many thousands of people live, and on the radio, wrote over 1500 presentations, and copies were distributed across the World. He became Known as the Father of Religious Humanism. His writings reveal that he was a Secular Humanist Leader