Charles Francis Potter

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Dr Charles Francis Potter (1885-1962) was an American Unitarian minister, theologian and author.

In 1923 and 1924, he became nationally known through a series of debates with Dr. John Roach Straton, a Fundamentalist Christian. The subjects, which Dr. Potter called "part of a crisis in theology," were the infallibility of the Bible, evolution, the Virgin Birth, the divinity of Christ and the Second Coming

1 Scopes Evolution Trial
2 Formative Influences
3 Humanism as Religion
4 Published Works
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Scopes Evolution Trial

In 1925 he was adviser on the Bible to Clarence Darrow in his defense of John Thomas Scopes, a schoolteacher who was charged with teaching evolution in his classes.

[edit] Formative Influences

He was born in Marlboro, Mass., where his father was a shoe-factory worker, and received his education at Bucknell University, Brown University and Newtown Theological Institution.

Dr. Potter began his career as a Baptist minister. He resigned his position in 1925 because, he explained, even a liberal pulpit did not afford all the necessary freedom of expression. The next year he was professor of comparative religion at Antioch College. His progressive ideas led him to found the First Humanist Society of New York in 1929. Dr. Potter was also the founder in 1938 and a director of the Euthanasia Society of America.

[edit] Humanism as Religion

"Humanism is not the abolition of religion," he was quoted as saying.^[1], "but the beginning of real religion. By freeing religion of supernaturalism, it will release tremendous reserves of hitherto thwarted; power. Man has waited too long, for God to do what man ought to do himself and is fully cap-able of doing." It was to be he said, "a religion of common sense; and the chief end of man is to improve himself, both as an individual and as a race."