Is a Humanist an Atheist?

The answer is not necessarily.

A  humanist approaches the world in a secular way. Problem solving etc are done without the aid of supernaturalism (and that means without the aid of gods). There are lots of people who believe in supernatural things but chose to approach life secularly anyway. These people would be pragmatically a-theist, but not theistically a-theist.

However, Humanism, as a term, was coined to describe a specifically non-theistic, non-religious approach to living well and ethically. Our morality is unapologetically grounded in human compassion and we don't appeal to gods or supernaturalism at all in our moral reasoning.  Lots of people of faith agree with this approach to morality and problem solving and find that it blends well with their theism. For instance, people who have taken my Living Made SImpler course and read my books tell me that it provides additional grounding for the theistic morality they hold. But because the word Humanism is a specifically secular approach and because there is no other term to describe such an ethical approach, people of faith who share this value system describe themselves as being humanistic as opposed to humanist.  Meaning, they agree with humanism, but are still religious or theistic in some way. 

As a result there are groups for Humanistic Judaism, Humanistic Christianity, Humanistic Islam and humanistic whatever.  A Humanist is someone who is secular and therefore not religious.  Someone who is humanistic - approaches whatever their theistic beliefs are in a humanistic way.  

To learn more about Humanism consider getting my book: The Handy Humanism Handbook
or check out this online course: Living Made Simpler

Materialism vs. Spiritualism

I was interviewed on Vortex Sarasota a while back (embedded video below). It was a great conversation and I really like the host George Lewis. It was one of the funner interviews I’ve done. 

At one point George asks me about spiritualism. And, I don’t understand what he is asking me. I do my best to translate his question into something that makes sense for me and fail.  Even though we agree on a lot of things, there is a basic disconnect in our world views.  I am a natural materialist, he is a supernatural spiritualist. 

For me there is only the natural world that consists of matter and energy. If something happens, it is quantifiable in this world. I have the same feelings of awe and wonder as anyone else. I have feelings of intuition. But for me, these feelings are a result of biochemical processes occurring in my brain.  That doesn’t make them any less special or any less amazing.  It doesn’t make me feel any less connected to the universe. It is just that I don’t view these things as anything other than a material natural process.

I think what trips people up is the choice of words. People associate the natural materialist world view with capitalistic materialism which refers to the gratuitous consumption of material, which is, for good reason, associated with greed. So they don’t understand how a natural materialist worldview can help people lead such satisfying emotionally fulfilling lives.

Grounding your view of the world as a natural materialist as opposed to a supernatural spiritualist simply means  that you accept the world as it is as opposed to hoping that there is something more there. It is a liberating, amazing and inspiring way to view who you are in the universe.  On the one hand, you are nothing more than matter and energy combined. On the other, you are you!  Matter combined, against all odds and against its tendency towards entropy to create you!  If that doesn’t make you feel special, nothing will.

PS – I am a board member for the Spiritual Naturalist Society – check them out at: http://spiritualnaturalistsociety.org/

Foundation Beyond Belief is up and running

The wait is over, Dale McGowan’s Foundation Beyond Belief is officially operational. This is a foundation where Humanists and atheists can pool their resources to support important humanitarian work as Humanists.

The Foundation Beyond Belief is a new 501c3 charitable and educational foundation created (1) to focus, encourage and demonstrate humanistic generosity, and (2) to support a nationwide education and support program for nontheistic parents.

The first aspect of Foundation Beyond Belief’s work is to raise money for charity. They have 10 issue areas they focus on and every quarter choose 10 beneficiary organizations they members can donate to. At the end of every quarter, the money is passed on to the beneficiary and a new set is chosen. Members of Foundation Beyond Belief are encouraged to make monthly donations to support this effort.

The 10 issue areas Humanists can donate to are:

1. Health


2. Education


3. Poverty


4. Environment


5. Child Welfare


6. Human Rights


7. Animal Protection


8. Peace


9. The "Big Bang" Fund (small charity, big impact)


10. Foundation Beyond Belief

The second aspect of their work is to support humanist parents. To that end then intend to train 10 – 20 individuals to conduct Humanist-parenting seminars across the country.

To learn more about Foundation Beyond Belief visit their website at: http://www.foundationbeyondbelief.org/

And view this handy promotional video

Freedom of Belief has Consequences

Look – everyone has the right to believe whatever they want even if it is complete nonsense. We don’t, however, have a right to be shielded from the consequences of our beliefs. What we believe matters. If your beliefs are not reality based, you are going to have problems with reality.

I bring this up because there are a lot of people who, because of their religious beliefs, do not have a good relationship with reality. It is not surprising that these families try to insulate themselves from the real world and surround themselves only with other people who agree with them. This self-imposed insulation only makes matters worse because it re-enforces their rejection of reality.

If you want to teach your kids all sorts of misinformation about science such as evolution, go right ahead. But there are consequences to that decision. Mostly that unless they reject all the non-science you erroneously taught them your child will not be able to get a career in science if they continue to reject reality. It doesn’t matter how often you cry foul, the rules of science are not going to be rewritten to accommodate the reality challenged.