What does spirituality mean to a humanist?

Most Humanists I know - don’t care for the word at all. Precisely because it could mean anything.

However there are secular uses of the word and definitions from various groups that can help us understand what it means - outside of a religious context.

First - the Spiritual Naturalist Society - What is Spiritual Naturalism? says - “to have spirituality is to be concerned with the larger, deeper, and essential matters of life and to apply ourselves consciously toward them in a committed practice or ‘walk’. This includes, as Socrates put it, the ‘examined life’, and this is what we mean by spirituality.”

For me personally - “Spirituality, in a secular sense, is the spirit in which you approach life. In this sense, it’s critical you attend to your spiritual life because it is actually attending to your motivational needs. How you motivate yourself. Why you motivate yourself. This is the realm of philosophy. Some people attend to this need with religious philosophy. Others with secular philosophy. I attend to this need with the Humanist philosophy specifically.”

The point is - if and when a Humanist talks about spirituality - they are talking about Secular Spirituality. There is a really nice wikipedia article that explains it and the tradition of secular spirituality here - Secular spirituality - Wikipedia

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

Helping Japan - as Humanists

Obviously - everyone should be aware of the triple tragedy that hit Japan last weekend. Here are some ways that you can help as a Humanist.

SHARE: Secular Humanists Aid and Relief Effort is collecting money to give to Doctors without Borders. 100% of money donated will be passed through to Doctors without Borders which is a secular organization. Ton donate visit the campaign page at: https://secure3.convio.net/cfi/site/Donation2?df_id=2000&2000.donation=form1&JServSessionIdr004=qlz8k55cm7.app334b

Foundation Beyond Belief: Foundation Beyond Belief has already donated over $5,000 to relief efforts. Their money is being passed through to the Japanese Red Cross - to donate through Foundation Beyond Belief go to: http://foundationbeyondbelief.org/node/681 

Humanist Charities: This project by the American Humanist Association is collecting money for relief efforts in Japan, but is still working with their contacts in the country to decide how best to send direct aid. You can donate to their efforts here: http://www.humanistcharities.org/ Or if you prefer, they also suggest donating to Doctors without Borders and the American Red Cross which are both on the ground already in Japan. Links on their website.