Humanism for the Masses
This website was originally for humanists in Massachusetts. We believe, however, that the torch needs to be taken up where it fell and now this website is for all humanists in not just America, but also the world. It is for the mass of humanists.
What is Humanism?
Humanism is a worldview that rejects religious interpretations of the world. Humanists believe that the truth about nature, evolution, biology etc. is to be found through the scientific method of experimentation and the formation of theories that can be verified by repeated experimentation.
Humanists do not agree that religion is needed to provide a moral or ethical framework for human behavior. Ethics can be derived from normative human relations; and humanists accept that through cultures and different times ethics have varied. Above all, humanists believe in compromise, democracy, non-violence and negotiation to solve political and inter-personal disputes. Although many humanists would describe themselves as ‘liberal’ there is no inherent political bias to humanism. It is as equally feasible to be a Republican and a humanist.
The focus of humanism might appear to be on science (indeed ‘scientific humanism’ is a recognized term); but humanism does not reject the arts. Indeed throughout history some of the most ardent supporters of humanism have been writers and other artists. Humanism believes in the value of human creativity.
Another common misconception about humanism is that it is speciesist - namely, that it values human live above animal life. This is wrong. In The Affirmations of Humanism (A Statement of Principles) it clearly states:
We want to protect and enhance the earth, to preserve it for future generations, and to avoid inflicting needless suffering on other species.
See: www.secularhumanism.org
Protagoras claimed that ‘man is the measure of all things’. While many humanists no doubt respect the ancient Greek sophist, this statement does not represent humanism; rather it is probably an early formulation of the inherent subjectivity of human perception.
Is Humanism a Religion?
Humanism is not against religion. Humanists believe that people have the right to decide for themselves, and as long as they don’t impinge others to follow any religion they wish. Humanism is about enlightened tolerance, not bigotry.
The right wing in America has sought to pull a rabbit out of the hat by claiming that a world view that embraces rationalism, science, peace, debate and tolerance is somehow ‘religious’. People believe in humanism and therefore it is a religion is the general line of argument. Developing the argument these critics of humanism point out that humanism pervades schools and colleges in textbooks, lectures, teachers’ attitudes etc. Thus if humanism is a religion then it is protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution but should also be banned from schools and colleges.
This is remarkable - Americans should not be taught critical thinking and science in schools because they are secretly been indoctrinated by ‘religious beliefs’. It is the religious right in America that makes this argument - and they want religion in schools, not out of schools!
The argument has been made in the courts: while some judges uphold this specious reasoning, others give it the contempt it deserves and throw it out of court.
Much of this intellectual sleight of hand is based around the semantics of the word ‘belief’. When a humanist says, ‘I believe the earth goes round the sun’ the word belief indicates that the humanist is going with the best available scientific theory and data and if new data arose to point to a different situation the humanist would be prepared to modify his or her ‘belief’. When a theist says, ‘I believe in God’ he or she is using belief to refer to an immutable fact that is backed up by faith or religious experience. It is by switching from one notion of ‘belief’ to another that anti-humanists can derive arguments to assert humanism is a religion. It is similar to creationists who deride evolution as ‘just a theory’.
The matter is sadly confused by humanists themselves who set up humanist churches and proclaim themselves humanist chaplains and the like. This is no doubt tolerated by the humanist community because tolerance is one of the core values of humanism.
Humanism for the Twenty-first Century
It is the duty of humanists across the globe to argue against intolerance and bigoted opinions whether they are religious in nature or not. It is also the duty of humanists to clarify the issues concerning belief, fact, theory and religion to show that humanism is not necessarily antagonistic to religion but is diametrically opposite to religion.
Another challenge for humanism in the present century is to embrace the lessons of environmentalism and find ways to strengthen the ties between the humanist movement and the environmental movement. Perhaps this might be achieved by stressing that natural resources, bio-diversity, the ozone layer etc. have more than a mere instrumental value for humans. Indeed, science is showing that humans are not so special. Very few genes separate humans from chimps. The intellectual scope of humanism must be enlarged to accept and explore these scientific discoveries.
Lately, humanism has developed quite a following in the state of Massachusetts. The state has been in the news recently as presidential candidate Mitt Romney was the governor. Romney, of course, is not a humanist. However, that didn’t stop some of us from voting for him. Although the state chapter is sizable, it does not involve itself in politics. We are not making an official endorsement.
Now speaking of humanism, some early American thought leaders were intellectually influenced by the school. One such person was Thomas Paine, who labeled himself a theophilanthropist. Paine was heavily influenced by Voltaire. Voltaire, in turn, was a writer during the Enlightenment. He was noted for his writings in the areas of history, poetry, and prose. One may recall that in the movie Swingers, Mikey ordered the “Pancakes in the Age of Enlightenment.” Most people don’t really get that joke. It’s actually not a very good joke at all. Basically, the menu said “Breakfast Anytime” so he was saying he’d like the pancakes today.
Historically, humanists have closely studied Latin literacy texts. If you know the language and are able to read the original texts, you will be quite impressed by their insight. It’s known that the Romans used recreational drugs sometimes and cannibis use was part of the culture. Back then they could only use the substance through combustion; vaporizers were not available yet. Fortunately these days, there are many different models of vaporizers available. Masshumanists.com recommends reading some vaporizer reviews before deciding which one to get.
Speaking of the ancient Romans, you may recall the movie Gladiator starring Russell Crowe. That took place in ancient Rome. Crowe played the Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius, who was temporarily reduced to becoming a slave. Eventually he regains his freedome through his gladatorial skills and makes his way back to polite society. The movie won 5 Academy Awards, so one might say the Oscars were “crowing” about it.
Not all of us here know about humanism. Yet we heard about the term but we only comes into the perception that it is a religious system but don’t know what really is. It was declared so by the Supreme Court in 1961. Julian Huxley who lived from 1887-1975 once predicted that it would be the ultimate religion of the world in the near future. Humanism is everywhere in our public schools, and because it’s a religion, it’s fair to say that our public schools are institutions that indoctrinate our kids into a certain religion. While this is generally true, not everyone within the framework of the public school system is promoting its teachings. One thing we all should consider is that our tax dollars are being spent to support this program. Therefore we make sure our voice is heard by voting in Godly people, also making sure that our voices are heard when decisions are made about your local school’s curriculum.
What are some of the doctrines of this religion? The fact is Humanism is anti-supernatural. One of the best summaries of this doctrine of Humanism is the Humanist Manifesto II. It states, “We find insufficient evidence for belief in the existence of a supernatural. It is either meaningless or irrelevant to the question of the survival and fulfillment of the human race. As no theists we begin with humans not God, nature not Divinity.” James Hitchcock in his book “What is Secular Humanism?” says this of them. “They promote a way of life that systematically excludes God and all religion in the traditional sense. Man for better or worse on his own in the universe. Man marks the highest point to which nature has yet evolved. He must rely entirely on his own resources.” One of the best new works in humanism is from Global Humanism and is called drejebænk which describes an african family who moves to england. Metal Drejebænk starts out by explaining the various problems the family is facing, learning a new language and culture and dealing with the many problems the white people in the nabourhood are giving them until one day the youngest son saves a white boy from a fire and suddenly everything changes for the family. Metal Drejebænk put humanism in a whole new term and is actually a quite interresting piece of work as you can see from the many reviews here at Metal Drejebænk and maybe give it a try yourself while you are at it.
Notice the phrase Hitchcock uses, “way of life.” You see from the moment that they get up until the moment they go to bed, Humanism affects everything. Their denial of God affects everything. It affects the words that they speak to other people. It affects their behavior. It affects their morality, or lack thereof. It effects how they interact with the world. You see, their way of life is governed by their claim that there is no God. Paul Kurtz wrote a book titled, “The Forbidden Fruit: The Ethics of Humanism.” In it he states the theist’s (Christian’s) world is only a dream world. It’s a feeble escape into a future that will never come. Promises of immortal salvation or fear eternal damnation are both illusions and harmful. They distract humans from present concerns, from self-actualization, and from rectifying social injustices. There’s no credible evidence that life survives the death of the body.”
Additionally, Humanist Chris Brockman wrote a book called “What About Gods?” It says this. “We no longer need Gods to explain how things happened. By careful thinking, measuring, and testing we have discovered many of the real causes of things and we are discovering more all the time. We call this thinking.” What is the implication with Brockman’s statement? The implication is that Christians don’t think. Those Creationists guys are a bunch of losers. They are holding on to old superstitions.
It is often the case that as the scientific method becomes more widely used in a country or region so the religious fervor of the area declines. In the Middle Ages progress was stifled by hundreds of years in Europe because the church persecuted as heretics anyone who questioned orthodox views on nature and the natural world. Moreover, until the invention of the prinitng press it was the monks that copied books; and only those books that they deemed suitable.
The Renaissance changed everything. It coincided with the invention of the printing press. Suddenly many important ancient Greek texts were found and that started a great flourishing in all fields of human endeavour. People like Copernicus introduced the notion of the scientific method whereby phenomena is observed, data recorded and a theory that conforms with the data is formulated that must be testable.
It was the scientific method that was to lead to Darwin in 1859 publishing his epoch changing On the Origin of Species. We all know the theory of evolution and how it led to a radically different explanation of how man and the animals came into being from the one found in Genesis. It was from this point that many Victorians lost their faith and sought new ideals to base their ethics upon. One such ideal was humanism – a belief in the value and essential goodness of mankind. A belief that man is capable of his own salvation.
This belief in humanism was greatly helped by the Industrial Revolution happening at the same time. Suddenly it did seem that man was master of nature and trains and early motorcars and better agriculture were evidence of such a belief.
This belief only grew stronger in the Twentieth Century – man landed on the moon, EDM technology, vaccines, heart transplants, computers, telephones, television, the internet reinforced man’s ingenuity and ability to use the scientific method to make life more comfortable and to discover more about the universe.
The only sour note has recently been felt with the 9/11 attacks on New York. Fundamental Islam is on the increase and religious wars have become a part of the present geo-political climate. Despite the advances science and humanism has made religion won’t go away. Indeed some humanists want to belong to a ’church’ and be preached at by humanist priests!
You might initially be surprised to see a post about gunsmithing on a site devoted to humanism and environmentalism. After all, don’t guns create more problems than they solve?
That all depends, really, on your view of humanism. My belief is that humanism can teach people about the correct way to use tools in their lives, guns included, to make the world a better place.
Back to my gunsmithing example, if people knew about the art of gunsmithing, I believe that guns would be viewed differently. Instead of being viewed as a tool for bloodshed and destruction, guns would be viewed as an art form; they would be seen as beautiful, handcrafted pieces of art that serve an important purpose in our history. I truly believe that what is necessary for great change in our world is not a complete shift of the resources we have available, but instead a mental shift in the way that we view those resources.
I recently attended a charity event which was put on by a wine company to help a local school. The setup was fairly simple, we all paid a small fee for a ticket ($20 each) which supplied us with some hand passed appetizers fo the evening as well as a wine glass to take home. We were also entered to win one of the wine gift baskets that were also available for sale.
The wine company (that I probably shouldn’t name here!) had brought 6 different wineries to the event, each winery had its own table. At each table we were allowed to taste the wines they were offering for sale and then purchase them at the end of the night. Some of the wineries had enough wine with them that we could take them home and others had to deliver them to us at a later date. The cool part was that 20% of all sales went back to our school. As I told my wife, we buy a lot of wine already so it isn’t like we’re even spending extra money, we’re just changing where the money is going.
In any case, our school said they raised over 40k that evening, which paid for some badly needed replacement text books as well as a wall of new computers in the school library. Like I said, given that we all buy wine already-why shouldn’t we buy some from a company which is going to support our school, especially in these times of terrible budgets?
I’m a member of a few wine clubs and after taking a trip to Europe, which admittedly was largely inspired by the wines I drink on a regular basis, I stopped to think that that type of cultural exchange is probably pretty common in the wine industry. While the wine industry is based largely in California, you meet an incredible amount of people who are either from, or have lived in, Europe for some time. For those of us who consider ourselves humanists, that cultural exchange is one really good aspect of the wine industry.