The Search for Extraterrestrial

Humanistic Texts

Aeschylus  al-Biruni  al Ma'arri Amenemope  Asoka  Augustine  Bacon  Bantu  Bedouin   Bentham   Ben Sirach  Bhagavad Gita  Bilhana  Boccaccio  Bruni  Buddha  Bushmen  Carvaka  Cervantes  Chinese Odes  Chong Ch'ol  Chu Hsi  Chuang Tzu  Comnena  Comte  Condorcet  Confucius   Copernicus  Darwin   Dekanawidah  Democritus  Descartes  Du Fu  EC   Egyptians  Elizabethans  Epictetus  Epicurus   Erasmus  Eskimos  Euclid  Euripides  EU  Francis  Galileo  Gandhi  Goethe  Gorgias   Gracian  Greeks  Grotius  Hafiz  Hammurabi  Han Fei Tzu  Hardy   Harvey  Hebrew Scribes  Hippocrates   Hitomaro  Homer  Ibn Khaldun  Ibn Khallikan  Ifaluk  Jefferson   Jesus of Nazareth  Justinian  Kamo no Chomei  Kenko  Khayyam  King  Ki No Tsurayuki  Koheleth  Lao Tzu  Li Po  Locke  Lu Chi  Lucretius  Machiavelli  Magna Carta  Manetti  Maori  Mencius   Montaigne   Mo Tzu   More  Muhammad  Newton   North American Indian  Paine   Petrarch   Po Chui   Polybius  Ptahhotep  Rabelais  Rodó  Sa'di  Samuel  Shakespeare  Sima Qian  Sin-leqe-unnini  Smith  Socrates  Solomon  Sor Juana  Sumer  Sumer Poems Sun Yat-sen  Swiss Federation  Tamil Poems  Thucydides  Tiruvalluvar  Tolstoy  United Nations  Valla  Vardhamana  Vitruvius  Vives Voltaire   Wang Ch'ung  Wang Yang-ming  Wollstonecraft  Xunzi  Yukaghir  Zitkala-Sa

To understand what we might expect if we encounter an extraterrestrial culture, we would be wise to examine our own culture to see how differences might arise.  Much of the wisdom that has emerged on Earth is found in the words of the people and groups listed above. They come from all walks of life and their words show how people around the world have contributed to an understanding of what it is to be human. The extracts given here portray the intelligence, wit, wisdom, and poetry of individuals as they reflect on ethics, philosophy, knowledge, and human relationships. Their words provide an  encounter active, probing human minds. Concepts of what it is to be human can be read as they break through into Earth's history for the first time. To many, the  ideas remain fresh and new.

The excerpts provided by Humanistic Texts, are of sufficient length to convey an author's way of thinking. To facilitate further exploration of any particular line of thought, references to more extensive texts are given. Extracts from individual authors can be accessed alphabetically from the list above, or they can be accessed by time period on the humanistictexts.org website.

Humanistic Texts does not include divisive tenets of religions, but does include the thoughts of great religious leaders.  The extracts show there is much to be gained in human thought when the disputes among religions are put aside. This does not mean that the moral or transcendental aspects of religion are rejected. In fact, the reason for omission of the dogma of organized religion is not because of their associated moral or transcendental aspects but because they make claims that science has shown to be  factually incorrect. With billions of planets in our galaxy likely to support life, there could be tens of thousands of civilizations more advanced than Earth. So, among the hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe, there may be trillions of advanced civilizations. Many of the dogmas of organized religion on Earth fall by the wayside in the face of such numbers.

Although many past religions on Earth have been abandoned, the result has been the gradual emergence of a richer concept of the transcendent. A unifying cosmic religion consistent with science has probably taken root among advanced civilizations in the universe and is something to be pursued. This is the objective of the Search for Extraterrestrial Religion (SETR). It investigates the form religion in an advanced extra-terrestrial civilization might take, removing the discussion of the future of religion away from contentious religious texts of Earth.