Humankind is confronted by two possible scenarios: the first is humanistic. It adopts an optimistic and courageous forward-looking stance regarding the Human Prospect, placing confidence in the ability of human beings to solve their problems. Humanists emphasize reason, science, and technology as vital to improving the human condition. They recognize that many societies are embroiled in political and economic wars and conflicts, and that ignorance and mistrust often dominate flash points, such as in Africa and the Middle East today. Meanwhile, environmental problems present awesome challenges as economic growth gallops ahead: global warming, melting glaciers, disappearing rainforests, desertification, and the population explosion evoke dire prognostications of Armageddon. Yet humanists believe that we can and must solve these problems. If we are to do so, however, it is essential that we advance education for all children on the planet, extend genuine democracy and human rights everywhere, and strive to overcome the ancient religious, ethnic, nationalistic, racial, and ideological divisions of the past.

Humanists welcome the disappearance of the colonial empires of Europe, and the rapid emergence of Asia—Japan, South Korea, China, and India—though they recognize that economic and political conflicts for natural resources (oil, gas, and mineral wealth) will most likely intensify. Humanists are critical of the unilateral hegemony of the American Empire, and they maintain that a new humanistic global ethics needs to be developed if the future is to be bountiful. Rodrigue Tremblay eloquently defends this form of rational humanism. We need to work together, he recommends, if we are to contribute to the continued amelioration of human life on the planet. He prescribes ten basic principles embodied in a code of global ethics to guide us.

Pitted against this affirmative humanistic outlook is a second pessimistic scenario rooted in dogmatic religions of the past. Especially troubling is the resurgence of intolerant fundamentalist religions that block human progress and have little confidence in the capacity of human beings to solve their problems or to contribute to a better life. These reactionary religions wish to return to the ancient “sacred books” of bygone ages. Their texts were spawned in pre-modern rural and nomadic cultures that were rooted in fear and superstition and burdened by economies of scarcity. They were contrived in a pre-scientific age before the industrial, democratic, and information revolutions of the modern age, or the emergence of the Enlightenment in the eighteenth century. It is clear that the world needs to assert a New Enlightenment in the twenty-first century that expands reason and science, education and democracy. But this will not happen easily until we recognize our mutual interdependence and make the case for a new global ethics. Especially necessary in this great task is a new commitment to Planetary Humanism and the need to accept the “natural dignity and inherent worth of all human beings” as a first premise. This universal principle is based on reason, but inspired by empathy. If the humanist scenario is to succeed, we need to embark upon a vigorous campaign devoted to the well-being of humanity as a whole.[1]

Historically, many authors—secular and religious—have praised the “brotherhood of men,” no doubt an anachronistic term today. Nevertheless, stoicism in the Hellenic world recognized the importance of a universal moral principle, as did Christianity and other patriarchical religions. Too often, however, the latter are tied to creeds anchored in faith— Christianity, Judaism, or Islam—which implicitly presupposed the concept of “the chosen people.” Regrettably, this was limited to only those who were committed to their religious faith; they alone would receive the keys to the Gates of Heaven, the divine Rapture, or Salvation. All others would be condemned to Hell. How discriminatory and destructive this apocalyptic vision has been, for theologians have consigned to perdition those who did not accept the divine Commandments, allegedly revealed to this or that prophet or sect. Too many wars have been waged in the name of divine sanctions—it is time that humankind declares its independence of them all.

Dr. Tremblay points out in this book that we need to abandon selective moralities concocted in the infancy of the species. We need to move to a higher plane in which all members of the human family are treated equally as persons, “ends in themselves,”—as Immanuel Kant postulated in his second categorical imperative. The salient point that is evident today is the urgent need to bring a universal ethical code into fruition.

A compelling reason why this is the time to develop a new global ethics is that scientific studies have for the first time empirically demonstrated that homo sapiens has common roots. Beginning in Africa, humans migrated some 60,000 years ago to Europe, Asia, Australia, and across the Bering Straits to North and South America. Genetic studies of our common DNA indicate that we are truly members of the same homo sapiens. We share a global songline based on genetic markers that indelibly point to our unitary origin. Thus our species is not divided along fixed racial lines; constant migrations tie us indelibly together. Humans traversed the continents by foot, caravan, camel, donkey, and chariot, and in modern times by ship, airplane, and spacecraft. Invading armies on land and armadas on the high seas, as well as peaceful trade, commerce, immigration and emigration enabled humans to continuously intermingle and intermarry.

Today North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa are open to peaceful transactions, and now, we live in an interdependent world. We breathe the same air, share the same atmosphere, and we need uncontaminated drinking water, food and shelter to survive. Although there are geographical differences, we share the same generic history as a species. Accordingly, each of us, no matter where we live, has a stake in the preservation of our planetary abode. Vividly dramatized by space travel, for the first time we can view our blue-green planet from afar, and realize that the historical-political-socio-economic boundaries that divided humankind for millennia are fictitious. Geologists have demonstrated that the continents are shifting, however slowly, that our Earth is undergoing constant processes of change, and that all species need to adapt if they are to survive. The intricate fossils preserved in the Burgess Shale of Canada for 500 million years show that millions of species are extinct. Will the human species survive? Only if we take the bold steps necessary to achieve progress.

We have developed the scientific method that powerfully enables us to make wise choices. Unfortunately, there exists a great disparity between the continued discoveries of the sciences on the one hand, and the cultural lag of inherited moral doctrines rooted in theistic religions on the other. Will we overcome this dualism between science and morality that persists? Only if we develop, this insightful book recommends, a new rational humanistic ethics. Scientific technology makes this feasible today because of the invention and proliferation of new communications media. There are no longer isolated pockets of humans living in remote regions of the world; radio, television, the iPod, and especially the Internet bind us instantaneously together. Whether Canadian or American, Latin-American or African, Chinese or Russian, French or Indian, we can come to know and appreciate each other today as never before.

“No deity can save us, we must save ourselves,” states Humanist Manifesto II.[2] We need a realistic appraisal of the human condition and a resolute determination to take responsibility for our own destinies—as far as we can—in our own hands. This is the Prometheus model, the myth of the Titan who challenged the gods and bequeathed fire and the arts and sciences so that primitive humans might leave the caves in which they huddled and enter the world with the courage to change it. Today we have the power to do so. We need as never before to recognize the necessity of developing shared values and working cooperatively to bring about a better world. But if we are to do so, we need a new code of global ethics. This book issues a powerful clarion call to do just that.