ABSTRACT
The collapse of communism has reinforced our belief in the open, democratic society, the importance of human freedom, and the need to defend human rights. Marxist-Leninists were willing to use terror and to sacrifice those who stood in their way. Marxism failed on its own terms because it was unable to deliver the economic goods that it promised; and this, largely, because its ideal picture of human nature was profoundly mistaken. The key dilemma for secularists and humanists is to ask what will replace the moral frameworks. Granted that religious institutions are often hypocritical and many of them insist upon stances that secularists and humanists find repellent, such as their dogged defense of sexual repression and their anti-woman, anti-choice, or anti-euthanasia attitudes. Humanists surely appreciate ethnic differences, but humankind must transcend the tribal loyalties and dangerous absolutist religious dogmas of the past.
