Vonnegut the Humanist

Kurt Vonnegut comes from a long line of Freethinkers, those being individual that but their beliefs in science and skepticism instead of the religious text such as the Bible. In 1992 Kurt Vonnegut was named Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association, during his acceptance speech he explained what Humanist were, stating "Humanist, moreover, I learned, were strikingly secular in their interests and enthusiasms, did not try to factor God Almighty into their equations, so to speak, along with all that could be seen and heard and felt and smelled and tasted in the here and now" (Vonnegut). Thus, Vonnegut believed in the inherent goodness of humankind and thought that morals derived from that goodness. 

Kurt Vonnegut's grandfather, Clemens Vonnegut, wrote essays on Freethinker during the latter half of the 19th century. Vonnegut recounts a quote in 2007 interview with journalist Heather Augustyn of The Humanist magazine, "Clemens had said about Jesus: 'If what he said was good, and it was marvelous, what did it matter if he was God or not?' (The Humanist - March/April 2010). What is remarkable about this view is that good deeds can be from within a person, and not because of a fear of the wrath of a deity. This decision to be good for goodness' sake, because it is the decent, human thing to do provides a much clearer sense of free will. If there is no afterlife, what might be the point of being bad? or good for that matter? The Humanist belief is that while we only get one life, it is a much more enjoyable life if one is good.


Showing his skepticism, Vonnegut even warns of putting too much faith in science and treating it as a new God; again from his acceptance speech, "So science is yet another human made God to which I, unless in a satirical mood, an ironical mood, a lampooning mood, need not genuflect" (Vonnegut). He explains in his speech how when he was younger he was relieved to note that devices of torture, like thumb screws and iron maidens, were not in use anymore. Later, after a lifetime worth of seeing war, from his own service in World War II, to the Korean War, Vietnam, and subsequent military action, he notes "the horrors of those torture chambers--their powers of persuasion--have been upgraded, like those of warfare, by applied science, by the domestication of electricity and the detailed understanding of the human nervous system, and so on" (Vonnegut). Science, while it has no morality, should be influenced by a desire to provide goodness in the world. Instead of finding a God in science, it seems as if we've created a Devil.