Virtue vs. Piety

We Humanists aren't all that interested in religious piety. That is because we understand that piety does not guarantee virtue. Being virtuous requires you to be a good person. A moral person. Being pious only requires that you adhere religiously to your religion. And it is pretty obvious that not everyone who is religious is moral.

Being Humanists, we don't care what you believe, only that you are a good person. So, we are only really concerned with virtue. We seek to cultivate virtue in ourselves and seek out virtuous people for our friends.

Plus - it always seems like the more pious someone is, the more immoral they actually are. Like they are trying to cover up their immoral behavior with a show of religious piety. So, I always take conspicous religious piety with a very large grain of salt.

I'll Pray for You

I had a friend tell me that an older woman approached her at the supermarket because her children were acting wild after having eaten the free sugar cookies they give out in the bakery. The woman offered to pray to get the sugar out of the kids. My friend didn’t have a good retort.

After discussing this with my husband, we both agree. If this ever happens to us, we would thank them and let them to know that if they succeed in praying the sugar out of our kid, we would be converting to their religion immediately. Then, we would go along our merry little way.

Because, let’s face it. We aren’t skeptics to be contrary; we just want to see the proof first.

Gotta Be Me

Being comfortable with who you are is important. You cannot be happy if you don't like yourself. So don't let other people's insecurities rub off on you. Just be who you are and allow yourself to be happy.

Fear or Sanity

We Humanists are very big on reason.  It isn’t that we don’t honor our emotions; we just think that as fun as they can be – they aren’t always that reliable when it comes to decision-making.  Long story short, we respect our emotions and we allow them to have input, but we don’t let our emotions make our decisions for us.  We use our reason for that.

I bring this up because there has been a lot of fear mongering going on lately.  And making decisions based on fear usually doesn’t end well.  That is because fear tends to distort reality and making good decisions depends entirely on dealing productively with reality.  After all – you don’t want to do something stupid because you were too fearful to get your facts straight.

As a current example - one side of the health care debate is telling people that if they support health care reform – you or someone you love will die!  Pretty scary – but easily proven as lies.  There are plenty of perfectly rational reasons why you may or may not support health care reform.  Fear of death panels, rationing or the specter of socialism should not be amongst those reasons.

Just Because You Can

Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. Humanists are really big on thinking before we act. We have found that if we don't think before we act, we are liable to do something stupid, or worse, dangerous.

This is especially true when you are hurt in some way. Just remember, you don't have to act on every emotion you feel. Especially when you are feeling feelings of revenge. Just think about what the consequences of your actions will be. And... wait a few days to before acting on any negative emotion. What seemed perfectly reasonable in the heat of emotion will often seem really idiotic once reason has regained supremecy. Remember, you are in control of what you do. Don't let your emotions control you.

Swinging on a Star

This song is one of the greatest Humanist songs ever! Do good or you could grow up to be a fish or a pig or a mule. Or, you could swing on a star - the choice is yours.