Happiness Through Humanism: We need to do better at explicitly promoting Humanism!

I was chatting with a friend the other day. It was lovely to be out at a coffee shop (outside) discussing all manner of things. Haven't done that in ages.

The topic turned to - faith journeys and journeys away from faith, which I've never experienced. I grew up in a non-religious household. I'm 3rd generation freethinker on both sides of my family. But my friend, comes out of Mormonism!

I mentioned that people who lose their faith eventually find their way to Humanism, after exploring all sorts of believe systems. She lit up. And she was angry. She said, I just described her and when she finally found Humanism she was furious!!! This philosophy was here the entire time and we were keeping it a secret!?!!? She struggled. And people with the answers on how to live life well and happily and ethically existed, but weren't sharing their knowledge!! And she had to figure it out on her own! She was mad.

And she has a right to be. We Humanists, have kind of cracked the secret to life, the universe and everything. And instead of shouting it to the mountaintops. We don't. We gather together in little groups and in those groups, we talk about everything BUT the Humanist philosophy.

I think for those of us who are Humanists, it's understood. But it's also important to understand that we owe the seekers of the world our presence. They WANT to find us. But - we don't promote or advertise. We don't explain to people why our way is better. We don't market ourselves.

Part of it is, for me, it's my personal philosophy. I'm totally ok with people approaching life differently. As the great sage John Lennon once said, whatever gets you through the night, it's all right. Who am I to judge. But this - hands off approach to other people's beliefs, is hurting people who want to find us. Because instead of finding Humanism, they find an endless variety of snake oil salesmen selling them on the latest fad belief.

My request, to those of you who are Humanist - be open about it. Allow people to find you and to find Humanism. You don't have to proselytize, but we should at LEAST be witnessing for the Humanist approach to - life, the universe and everything.