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Joyce Carol Oats is
a Humanist |
Back in 2007 the author Joyce Carol Oates received the Humanist of the Year award from the American Humanist Association.
In her acceptance speech she asked a very important question, "Why, instead, is humanism not the preeminent belief of humankind? Why don't humans place their faith in reason and in the strategies of skepticism and doubt, and refuse to concede to "traditional" customs, religious convictions, and superstitions?"
I've been wanting to answer that question for years now. Part of the answer is that obviously, some people are believers and some people aren't. But even among the non-believers, Humanism isn't well known and is certainly not ubiquitous.
It seems to me that the main reason Humanism isn't the preeminent belief of human kind is because we Humanists haven't really bothered to tell anyone about it. Perhaps if we did, people would know that Humanism is choice. Yes, I know, there are Humanists group out there working hard at getting the message out. That's not what I am talking about. I'm talking about Humanists being open about the fact that this is the philosophy that is driving them.
Most people I talk to have never heard of it before despite the fact that some of the most influential people in the world are Humanists. Why is that? Well, because it didn't come up that often. How many reporters interviewed Einstein? A gazillion probably. How many knew that a big part of who he was was that he was a Humanist? Nearly none.
I'm not blaming Einstein for not touting his Humanism more strongly. Humanism is a personal choice and not something we would ever try to force on others. I'm the same way. But we do need to do a better job of talking about and sharing our philosophy with others. Because Ms. Oates is correct, there is no reason why Humanism shouldn't be the preeminent belief of human kind. Our values certainly are.
