Why Humanism?

(credit: Atheist Cartoons)

    A common question that I am asked when I tell people about Texas Secular Humanists is why we include humanism in our name, rather than just secularism or atheism. Although there are more practical reasons for this, relating to recruiting and public relations, I would like to address the less pragmatic, more philosophical reasons for this.
    There is a tendency, when groups of people unite around secularism, atheism, or skepticism, to focus their efforts and discussions on pushing back against the religious. When this is done properly, it can be beneficial for  both parties. It is true that a large portion of the population holds false beliefs that sometimes cause them to make poor decisions that have an adverse affect on other people. It stands to reason that, if there is anything that we, as the secular community, can do to combat these beliefs and their harmful consequences without causing additional undue harm, we have some moral responsibility to do so. The trouble with this is that it does little to address our responsibilities, apart from keeping our worldviews and belief systems epistemically robust, and helping others to do so themselves.

Even when it is not aggressive or unfriendly, this type of behavior places an emphasis on what everyone else is doing wrong, or falsely believes, or misunderstands about the secular world. It does not address what we, as the clear thinking moral agents we claim to be, ought to do ourselves. It does not address what other moral responsibilities we may have that are not related to the intellectual mistakes or dogmatically held beliefs of others. The attitude often seems to be that most other people are wrong, and need help learning the truth so that they can stop voting for the wrong political candidates, teaching nonsense to their kids, and wasting their time praying for a cure to cancer.

I do not mean to suggest that these activities are something that secular organizations should not undertake, so long as they are well planned and executed in a way that properly accounts for the others’ points of view and reasons for believing what they believe. After all, it is unlikely that anyone else is going to do it. However, before we can begin hold others accountable for their beliefs and practices, we should take full responsibility and full account of our own. It is not sufficient to have a logically consistent set of beliefs that are in agreement with current scientific models. It is not enough to simply note that we are not partaking in the same harmful activities and habits of thought as the theistic masses to which we are trying to make an appeal. We need to first attend to our own moral obligations. We need to ask ourselves what the best use of resources is, for an organization such as ours. We need to ask ourselves what we ought to do, now that we claim to have freed ourselves from the shackles of bronze-age superstition.

This is why we call ourselves humanists. We stand for much more than rational worldviews, the rejection of religious dogma, and notifying others of the flaws in their ontological and ethical beliefs. We are members of the thoughtful, creative, empathetic, and planet-dominating species called humans. It is time to stop pointing our fingers at each other for being wrong, and start using our large brains and opposable thumbs to solve the real problems facing humanity.

-Rick K

“The grand victories of the future must be won by humanity, and by humanity alone”
-Robert Ingersoll