We need to do better

I got an email from someone over the weekend who had heard me on Skepticality.  Which is great. They were very excited to find out that they weren’t the only people who hold the Humanist philosophy and were even more excited to learn that there are Humanist groups all over the country, including where they live.

I bring this up because we Humanists need to do better.  If active members of the skeptic movement who consider themselves to be Humanists aren’t aware of the existence of the Humanist movement then we Humanists simply aren’t doing a good enough job of spreading the word.  We shouldn’t be assuming that our fellow Humanists, skeptics, freethinkers, Brights and Atheists know we exist or that we have, you know, groups and stuff. Because they don’t and won’t unless we tell them.

We also shouldn’t assume that people in these movements know whether or not they are Humanists. Again, if no one bothers to talk about the philosophy, we can’t expect people to know about it.  We need to do better. 

Rant over.

A Delicate Balance

I have been helping a friend of mine from Bahrain edit an essay about Humanism. I am loving the essay. It continues to astonish me how people from all over the world manage to reach the same conclusions about life. Anyway, he said I could share some of it with you and the bit I want to share has to do with balancing the competing aspects of the Humanist philosophy. As I agree whole-heartedly I am sharing it here.

He quotes Barry Seidman who is a writer, producer and Humanist who wrote in an essay titled Imagine All the People the following statement.

If we cling to atheism as the basis for our behavior in society, then we may become what I call, "atheist avengers," putting our energies in debunking God while leaving social justice issues behind. If we only focus on science and skepticism we risk the twin evils of elitism and arrogance, finding more strength in attacking religionists or debunking the masses, than in making the world a better place to live. And if we focus only on social justice issues and ignore the problems of supernaturalism and the tool of science, we can find ourselves trapped in the labyrinth of postmodernism, and wind up building our societies on the fallacy that humans have free will. - Barry Seidman

My friend, A.R.M. of Bahrain, sums up the various aspects of Humanism thusly “So humanistic thoughts mostly concentrate on living a peaceful life, doing good, research, critical thinking, social justice, making the world better place to live, free will, and democracy.” Now that’s what I call balance.