The first manifesto, entitled simply Humanist Manifesto, was written in 1933 primarily by Raymond Bragg and was published with thirty-four signatories. Unlike the later ones, the first manifesto talked of a new "religion", and referred to humanism as a religious movement meant to transcend and replace previous, deity-based religions. The document outlines a fifteen-point belief system, which, in addition to a secular outlook, opposes "acquisitive and profit-motivated society" and outlines a worldwide egalitarian society based on voluntary mutual cooperation.
List of signers
34 individuals signed, these being:
- J.A.C. Fagginger Auer (Parkman Professor of Church History and Theology, Harvard University; Professor of Church History, Tufts College.)
- E. Burdette Backus (Unitarian Minister.)
- Harry Elmer Barnes (General Editorial Department, ScrippsHoward Newspapers.)
- L.M. Birkhead (The Liberal Center, Kansas City, Missouri.)
- Raymond B. Bragg (Secretary, Western Unitarian Conference.)
- Edwin Arthur Burtt (Professor of Philosophy, Sage School of Philosophy, Cornell University.)
- Ernest Caldecott (Minister, First Unitarian Church, Los Angeles, California.)
- A.J. Carlson (Professor of Physiology, University of Chicago.)
- John Dewey (Columbia University.)
- Albert C. Dieffenbach (Formerly Editor of The Christian Register.)
- John H. Dietrich (Minister, First Unitarian Society, Minneapolis.)
- Bernard Fantus (Professor of Therapeutics, College of Medicine, University of Illinois.)
- William Floyd (Editor of The Arbitrator, New York City.)
- F.H. Hankins (Professor of Economics and Sociology, Smith College.)
- A. Eustace Haydon (Professor of History of Religions, University of Chicago.)
- Llewellyn Jones (Literary critic and author.)
- Robert Morss Lovett (Editor, The New Republic; Professor of English, University of Chicago.)
- Harold P. Marley (Minister, The Fellowship of Liberal Religion, Ann Arbor, Michigan.)
- R. Lester Mondale (Minister, Unitarian Church, Evanston, Illinois.)
- Charles Francis Potter (Leader and Founder, the First Humanist Society of New York, Inc.)
- John Herman Randall, Jr. (Department of Philosophy, Columbia University.)
- Curtis W. Reese (Dean, Abraham Lincoln Center, Chicago.)
- Oliver L. Reiser (Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh.)
- Roy Wood Sellars (Professor of Philosophy, University of Michigan.)
- Clinton Lee Scott (Minister, Universalist Church, Peoria, Illinois.)
- Maynard Shipley (President, The Science League of America.)
- W. Frank Swift (Director, Boston Ethical Society.)
- V.T. Thayer (Educational Director, Ethical Culture Schools.)
- Eldred C. Vanderlaan (Leader of the Free Fellowship, Berkeley, California.)
- Joseph Walker (Attorney, Boston, Massachusetts.)
- Jacob J. Weinstein (Rabbi; Advisor to Jewish Students, Columbia University.)
- Frank S.C. Wicks (All Souls Unitarian Church, Indianapolis.)
- David Rhys Williams (Minister, Unitarian Church, Rochester, New York.)
- Edwin H. Wilson (Managing Editor, The New Humanist, Chicago, Illinois; Minister, Third Unitarian Church, Chicago, Illinois.)