October 28, 2007

Humanism

Steve Maslen

Today I want to talk about humanism . I am not trying to convert anyone , but I do want to tell you what we believe and why . To begin with, humanist and humanitarian are not synonyms . I suspect that everyone in this room can legitimately claim to be a humanitarian but at least half of you are assuredly not humanists. Although the two central beliefs of humanists are agreed upon, there remains a lot of variation among us , just as there is among those of you who consider yourselves theists . So I will focus mostly on what has come to be called religious humanism and which is what I personally believe.

Although humanist ideas can be traced back to the ancient Greeks , modern Humanism arose in the nineteenth century mostly in America as a rejection of the idea of God and the supernatural found in the traditional Christian tradition. It became so widely held that there was a time more than fifty years ago when Unitarian and Universalist thought were both dominated by humanism and the theists felt pushed aside and ignored . That is no longer the case .

So what makes me a Humanist ?

It all begins with the idea of God . On the one hand, there is the Judeo-Christian idea of a god active in the world but not of this world, one to whom we pray and hope for a response Most organized religions fall into this camp . Then there is the idea of the god within us or within all of nature or the god of process theology . At the other end of the spectrum are the humanists who don’t believe in a god in any sense of the word. All these beliefs -and more - are represented in our Unitarian Universalist world.

Humanists believe that all we can really know about this world and our place in it is based on reasoning about what we observe in the world about us . I see a world which can be incredibly beautiful , some times glimpsed through the windows of this room. But I also see a world which is indifferent to our presence and sometimes downright hostile . We have diseases, hurricanes, earthquakes, and droughts among other natural events . That says to me that there surely is no all-powerful God of the Judeo-Christian type who cares about us . Beyond that , I see no evidence pointing to the existence of any sort of god or afterlife or anything else supernatural. If there is a god , I have no way to learn its form , nor have I any way to know its agenda if it has one . Some people conceive of God not as tic power of love, and therefore not of a God who imposes his will or intervenes in human history. Although I recognize that such a conception is attractive to many , this god makes no sense for me. The word God in the western religious tradition has referred to a separate, supernatural, personal deity, and if god is none of these, then that is not God. . At the very least the meaning of the word God has been diluted from its widely accepted meaning and seems to me to be an euphemism for nothing much.

I also accept the idea of Darwinian evolution and survival of the fittest . That assumes that the world was not made for us . It is the other way around. Like all other living things, humans have evolved in a way that allows us to survive in the world we find ourselves in.

All that makes me an agnostic . I see no evidence of anything supernatural but, by the same token, there is no evidence proving the absence of something supernatural . Hence , although I am not an atheist, I am left with no choice but to act in the world as though there is no god.

This stance is critical and is the primary way in which humanists differ from everyone else at TUUC. We reject the Judeo-Christian God, the God within us, the God in nature, the God of process theology. For us, there is no ”other” in any sense of the word. Just humanity.

But there is more . If there is no god, then there is another side to the coin . We have no alternative but to accept that the responsibility falls to us to try to make the world a better place. There is no one else to do it. I am a humanist because I believe that the only possibility we have for a world where love, justice, peace and freedom prevail is by us human beings creating such a world. As the UU principle states, we affirm the inherent value and dignity of every human being .That implies a duty toward everyone, be they poor ,discriminated against or otherwise mistreated. I doubt that any of you would disagree with that stance.

Now let me shift gears for a moment . The high point in humanism came in 1933 with the first Humanist Manifesto .Among other things, it attacks belief in any God and decries religion as something whose time has passed . It takes the position that whatever is now a mystery is something that science and reasoning will some day explain . It offers no space for emotion . It focuses on the individual and says nothing about the value of community . Finally, because it ignored the environment, it gave the impression of proposing to exploit nature for human use only. Many people found all this to much of a hard line and I am sure most of you would agree.

Subsequently, in 1973 and 2003, further Manifestos were issued .These softened many of the dogmatic statements of the 1933 version and recognized the importance of the role emotion plays in our lives as well as the value of being a part of a caring community . Although secular humanists continue to adhere to some of the 1933 document positions , the religious humanists within Unitarian Universalism have rejected many of them . Nevertheless we remain true to our basic commitment to humanity and rejection of the supernatural.

Many of you must be aware of the current spate of atheist writings by such people as Sam Harris and Richard Dalkins . They reject all religion, holding that far too much evil has been and continues to be visited on the world in the name of religion . Some secular humanists are more or less in this camp. Religious Humanists are not remotely that hostile. Although it is certainly true that a lot of evil has been visited on this world in the name of religion, I suspect the same statement can be made about the misuse of science.

While we continue to rely on reason and reject the supernatural, religious humanists recognize that some of the mysterious in life may never be understood . All of us are human - humanists included -and act emotionally and seek spiritual sustenance. Like everyone else in this sanctuary, we are not only thinking beings; we are also feeling beings, and our feelings and emotions play an important role in our values and how we got those values. One is a committed social activist because of feelings of outrage at injustice and oppression and the pain and suffering they bring upon people. Such strong feelings are, in part, why we are humanists.

Emotional expression, of joy and sorrow, and of love and caring are central . They are a part of who we are The same goes for mystical experience, the feeling of oneness with the universe that many of us have when we are in the woods or walking along an ocean beach or gazing at the stars on a clear night. For me , that is what spirituality means. Humanists are whole people, beings who feel and experience as well as think, and all aspects of our being have a role to play in our humanism.

Having said that, humanists assert that it is essential to accept a limitation on our emotional feelings . This is a critical point. We can experience emotions and even make choices motivated by them without giving up the primacy of reason. We do know many things about this world and our place in it based on our observations of that world. Our feelings should not lead us to behavior which flies in the face of what such reasoning tells us. We must not fall into the familiar trap of accepting only those facts we prefer and ignoring the rest.

We are not independent, isolated individuals, but need to be part of a caring community . Community does not destroy individuality; it makes it possible. One of the major differences between secular humanism and religious humanism is that religious humanism emphasizes the importance of the covenanted religious community. We feel a special responsibility toward one another and find support for our individual needs and views. That is why I am a member of TUUC.

This humanist commitment to humankind , and to the environment is now what I am sure all UUs would say “of course” . The traditional motivation for believers was to do God’s work, while humanists are motivated because there is no god to help . Actually, I imagine that most UUs simply feel that service is the right thing to do.

Let me sum up what I have said . I, along with many others at TUUC, am a religious humanist . All we know about this world and our place in it is based on reasoning about what we observe in it. I see a world about me which has both incredible beauty but, at the same time, a world which is dangerous and even hostile to humans. I see no evidence of a god , certainly not one who cares about us, and so am agnostic . Even if there is a god, I have no way to know its intentions or even whether it has any . In that case we have no choice but to proceed as though we humans are on our own. As there is no god to help us, it is up to humanity to do what it can to make this a better place- a better environment and a better place for all people. We celebrate the joys and mutual support of being here - of being a part of this holy community .Along with all of you, we embrace the seven UU principles which recognize the inherent worth and dignity of every person and call us to respect the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part and to take as our goal that of a world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.

In the final analysis religious humanism is about what it means to be truly and fully human. We can live rich and full lives without believing in the supernatural or in life beyond this one. We believe that such lives can be more satisfying because they come closer to truthfulness and do not rely on illusions and because they can be lived meaningfully through the challenging task of personal growth and of working to transform the world.

Thank you for listening to me.

Steve Maslen is currently on the Board of Trustees and the ARE Committee.

He is a long time TUUC humanist will talk about what humanism
is and is not, focusing on his personal version and that of most TUUC
humanists with a little history of how humanists’ beliefs have evolved.