MAIN IDEA:

The main idea of this book is that humanity developed a huge
gap between its technological development and its philosophical and moral
understanding of reality. The author compares it to the situation when a
5-year-old child gets to control a jumbo jet with passengers, which could lead
to a disaster. So here is the author’s explanation of what it is all about:” The
present “Manifesto of Evolutionary Humanism” was commissioned by the Giordano
Bruno Foundation.4 It will attempt to formulate the basic positions of a
“contemporary enlightenment” appropriate to the modern world. The publication
of the manifesto serves the intention of supporting those who already feel
committed to a mainstream culture of humanism and enlightenment, as well as the
hope that some of the arguments presented here may yet reach those who, even
today, are of the opinion that they have to take their “wisdom” from archaic
myths.”

MY TAKE ON IT:

I probably agree with about 60% of the ideas in this manifesto, especially those regarding science and the unnecessity of a god for morality. However, I think that the author mixes two separate and unmixable things: knowledge and beliefs. Knowledge is a testable representation of reality in the human mind, enabling humans to act effectively and even somewhat efficiently. Belief is an untestable description of the world that provides psychological comfort and effective cooperation between individuals, all the way to true believers sacrificing themselves to protect this belief.  There is nothing childish in believing, and the belief in science is no more justified than believing in God as long as these beliefs remain in the proper area of worldview combined with tolerance and acceptance of other worldviews as legitimate, however idiosyncratic. The problem emerges when people start moving their beliefs into the area of action, combined with intolerance. At the minimum, this could be somewhat deleterious to human well-being when resources are spent to build temples for God rather than housing for humans. Still, it is as bad, if not more so, when resources are spent to implement some “Great Leap Forward” or implement “collective farms-based agriculture according to principles of scientific communism.” The tolerance of the worldviews of others is absolutely necessary because otherwise, we are getting screwed, and it does not that much matter if it is by the Inquisition in the name of God or by the KGB in the name of a bright, scientifically defined communist future.  Finally, morality is just an evolutionary developed set of rules for interaction between humans that assure that such interaction benefits all participants, preventing them from fighting and/or taking advantage of each other. A society without morality could not be stable and, therefore, will fail in competition with other societies.