Secular Humanism

Secular Humanism


Secular
from the Oxford English Dictionary

2. a) Belonging to the world and its affairs* as distinguished from the church and religion; civil, lay, temporal . . . non-ecclesiastical, non-religious, or non-sacred


Humanism
from the Oxford English Dictionary

4. Sympathetic concern with human needs, interests, and welfare; humaneness

5. a) Any system of thought or ideology which places humans, or humanity as a whole, at its centre, esp. one which is predominantly concerned with human interests and welfare, and stresses the inherent value and potential of human life*

b) A variety of ethical theory and practice characterized by a stress on human rationality and capacity for free thought and moral action,* and a rejection of theistic religion and the supernatural in favour of secular and naturalistic views of humanity and the universe.*

* emphasis added


Now, you may be wondering who I am. And, perhaps my only real claim to fame is, that I am a Secular Humanist in Utah! We are sort of few and far between. But, as you may have seen from the Billboard put up recently by the Utah Coalition of Reason – You Are Not Alone! Rather, we are not alone. There are doubting, questioning, free-thinking, skeptical Utahans ~ everywhere across the state. There have been “doubters” for all of human history! And, today I want to tell you a little bit about what many of history's doubters have come to claim as their own life-stance or philosophy.


Secular Humanism is the philosophy that we, as human beings, have what it takes. To make this world better. To provide care and love for each other and this Earth we're on. To be happy. Happy Humanists. Without the supernatural idea that we're all waiting to arrive someplace better, or hoping for someone better to save us, or yearning for something better in some distant future . . . Secular Humanism is the idea that we can make it better! That we do make life better. That we always have, and that we can continue to do so. It means questioning religious answers to the problems we face on this world, in this life, here and now – it means coming up with secular, or non-religious, solutions to our this-world problems. And, it means doing so together as one human race.


A couple of my “prophets” are Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau, authors of “Leaves of Grass” and “Walden.” My true “church” or “religion” can be found on a blustery autumn day when unsuspecting leaves, flaming red, yellow, and orange, are brought down to earth in piles by an early snowfall. Then, again, you can find me “at worship” hiking among the flies and bees up Millcreek Canyon in the spring, sloshing through mud and breathing in deeply the crisp mountain air.


To me, “humanism” is simply a profound awareness of my own humanity. Humanism is a deep compassion for the humanity of others. This is what brought me to lead the once-tiny Secular Student Alliance as an undergraduate at the University of Utah, and then to join forces with other humans to found SHIFT – Secular Humanism, Inquiry and Freethought. This awareness of my own humanity and compassion for others is what has led me now to lead the Utah Coalition of Reason – and to, again, join forces with other humans – this time across the State of Utah – to create a deeper, broader community of awareness, compassion, and support. To let other freethinkers know they are not alone. To educate the broader religious community about what it truly means to us to be ethical human beings.


And, this is why I finally became a Humanist Minister this year : to remind ourselves and to educate others about what life is really like as a Secular Humanist – that we, too, celebrate life and mourn death. That we, too, feel and think and wonder and seek! That we are all human, and that it is what is human among us that we choose to relate with, not what is religious. It is what is secular, and humanistic, that unites us all, Jew, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Atheist and all alike.