Humanism

A Resource Pack for RE Teachers

by David Warden

Humanist Association Dorset

New 2006 edition

Contents

Page

  1. About the author...... 2
  2. Introduction...... 3
  3. Some useful word groups...... 4
  4. What is Humanism?...... 5
  5. The Religious Roots of Humanism ...... 7
  6. The Philosophical Roots of Humanism...... 10
  7. Humanism in the Social Sciences...... 17
  8. Websites...... 18
  9. Books...... 19
  10. Humanism Around the World...... 20
  11. Celebrations and ceremonies...... 21
  12. Dorset Humanist Association ...... 22
  13. Questions and Answers...... 23

About the author

David Warden is a member of Dorset Humanist Association and the British Humanist Association and is a co-opted member of the Bournemouth SACRE. He has lectured on Humanism in Bournemouth, Dorchester, London and India.

David went to Portchester School and Bournemouth School. He has a Bachelor’s degree in theology from the University of Kent at Canterbury and a Master’s degree in human resource management from Bournemouth University. David works for Dorset County Council in employee learning and development.

 David can be contacted on

Introduction

T

his booklet is addressed to RE teachers and is intended to provide an introduction to aspects of Humanism and to serve as a gateway to the wealth of additional resources in print and on the internet. The British Humanist Association website is probably the best source of practical materials to support classroom teaching about Humanism (see website section).

Dorset Humanist Association, now in its tenth year, is keen to ensure that pupils in the Bournemouth, Poole and Dorset area have an opportunity to learn about Humanism in Religious Education. We are represented on the three main local SACREs.

We would like to ensure that children grow up with a positive image of Humanists and non-believers. Many of the words associated with Humanism and non-belief have negative connotations. ‘Heretic’, ‘atheist’, ‘apostate’, ‘infidel’, are words that have been used to vilify and even to incite violence against people who do not hold conventional religious beliefs. Prejudice or discrimination against Humanists and non-believers is no less unacceptable than prejudice and discrimination against believers.

The British Humanist Association’s definition of Humanism is “the belief that people can lead good lives without religious beliefs”. This should hardly need saying but there are still people today who equate lack of belief in God with lack of morality. Humanists do not pretend that there are any ‘objective’ grounds for morality other than the objective human need to create and sustain rules and conventions which allow every individual to flourish in society. Creating and sustaining an ethical framework is hard work and Humanists believe that this work is part of the task and responsibility of being human.

According to research conducted by the DfES in 2003, 65% of 12-19 year olds are not religious. [1] If this is the case, then it does call into question the current balance of RE teaching. However, we are broadly supportive of the National Framework which provides for the inclusion of Humanist and secular worldviews. We are aware of the difficulties RE teachers face in covering everything adequately but we do hope that opportunities to present Humanist or secular views will be grasped. This booklet is our modest attempt to help local teachers do just that.

Humanists may be available to visit your school but we have a small local team who are very stretched! Please call Jane on 01202 428506 for more information.

Some useful word groups

theos / the Greek word for God
theology / the study of religious doctrine
theist / a person who believes in God
atheist / a person who doesn’t believe in God
non-theist / a person who lives their life without God
atheophobia / irrational fear or hatred of non-believers
gnosis / a Greek word meaning ‘knowledge’
Gnostic / an early Christian movement based on ‘secret knowledge’
agnostic / someone who believes there is no way of knowing whether God exists or not
humanus / a Latin word meaning ‘the earth’. This is where we get our word ‘human’ – meaning ‘earth-being’.
humanist / ancient meaning: a scholar of the humanities
modern meaning: someone who tries to understand the world from a purely human perspective
humanitarian / a person who does a lot of charitable work
seculum / a Latin word meaning ‘the world’
secular / concerned with the world
secularist / someone who thinks that religion should be removed from public affairs
sceptikos / a Greek word meaning inquiry or doubt
sceptical / a questioning approach
dogmatos / a Greek word meaning ‘opinion’
dogma / a fixed belief
dogmatic / unwilling to consider other points of view
heresy / a Greek word meaning ‘choice’
heretic / a person who believes something different to the majority
autonomy / govern yourself
theonomy / governed by God

What is Humanism?

T

here are many different and complementary definitions of Humanism. Some Humanist writers have argued that Humanism is a non-theistic religion. Others have argued that it is a philosophy. Yet others have described it as a way of life, an approach to life, a lifestance or a tradition of thought. Some Humanists use a capital ‘H’ and others use a small ‘h’. Humanism is very diverse, as are most religions. A good exercise might be to ask students to find some definitions on the many Humanist websites and then to come up with their own definition. That would be a very Humanist exercise!

Perhaps the most useful way to look at Humanism is to see it as belonging to the same category as religion – the category of ‘worldviews’. From this perspective, Humanism can be understood as alternative to religion and in some way analogous to religion.

If we accept that Humanism is a worldview, it’s a worldview that tries to understand the world from a purely human perspective. So whereas a religious person might think in binary terms eg, ‘natural and supernatural’, ‘sacred and secular’, ‘infinite and finite’, for the Humanist there is only one world, the human world. For the Humanist, this means that there can be no such thing as certainty, because we can’t get a supernatural view on things.

The French philosopher Michel Montaigne expressed this well when he declared: ‘All that is certain is that nothing is certain’. The English philosopher Bertrand Russell was expressing a similar point when he said: ‘Remember your humanity, and forget the rest’. Humanists believe that certainty, or the belief in certainty, causes a lot of violent conflict between opposing groups. We should all accept that, as humans, nothing is certain!

Humanists are therefore committed to dialogue, debate, diversity, democracy, and the search for consensus and compromise. We are opposed to all authoritarian or dogmatic ways of thinking. We don’t have any sacred books or revered gurus. We learn from each other and from many different philosophers.

Humanists are also committed to ‘responsible freedom’. We believe that human beings should be free, but they should also respect social norms such as honesty, integrity and compassion. For the humanist, these values do not require any divine sanction. They are fundamental values which enable us to live together.

The Three Elements of Humanism

Many religions express their main beliefs in numerical terms: the “Ten Commandments”, the “Eightfold Path”, the “Five Pillars” etc. Humanism does not have an official equivalent, but an important British Humanist, Harold Blackham, wrote that the three essential elements of Humanism are:

  1. Freedom of Enquiry
  2. Political Freedom
  3. Personal Independence

From this triad, it is possible to derive almost all of the various topics that Humanists are interested in, as in the table below.

Some people object to grounding the whole of Humanism in the concept of freedom, but this diagram shows that freedom is not an absolute value. For the Humanist, freedom and moral responsibility are locked together.

Of course, traditional religions are also interested in freedom, human rights, democracy etc. Humanism does not have a monopoly on these ideas. But traditional religions often preach theonomy (rule by God) whereas the Humanist’s starting point is autonomy (self-government). This is not because Humanists have ‘rebelled’ against God; it is because they believe that personal independence is a fundamental pre-requisite of being human.

The Religious Roots of Humanism

H

umanism has both religious and philosophical roots. This section summarises the religious roots of organisational Humanism. We would not expect RE teachers to try and teach this history in its entirety because it is quite complex. It is provided as important background information to enable teachers to understand where modern Humanism has come from.

The nineteenth century: ‘religion of humanity’ and the Ethical Movement

Although the word ‘humanist’ can be traced back to 15th century Renaissance scholars, the cognate word ‘humanism’ is surprisingly recent in origin. It first appeared in 1808 in German educational thought and referred to an education in the humanities. It gradually became associated with various attempts to create a ‘religion of humanity’. The impetus to create such a religion came from growing scepticism about religion and the belief that a moral void would be created if religious belief collapsed. The most famous, and most elaborate ‘religion of humanity’ was created by the French philosopher Auguste Comte. A more sensible version was created by the American philosopher Felix Adler. Adler had intended to become a rabbi in Reform Judaism but he came to believe that the true foundation for religion was ethics. He founded the New York Society for Ethical Culture in 1876 which still exists to this day and is part of the American Ethical Union (see websites section). Adler’s Ethical Culture movement spread to Europe and in 1896 the British Ethical Union was formed. By 1906 there were 42 Ethical Societies in Britain and at one stage the movement had 20,000 members. The Ethical Movement gradually became part of the Humanist movement which sprang to life in the early twentieth century.

The twentieth century: the emergence of modern Humanism

The birth of the modern Humanist movement can be traced back to a number of developments in America in the early decades of the twentieth century:

  1. In 1899, the American writer Edward Howard Griggs published a book called The New Humanism. In a chapter entitled ‘The Religion of Humanity’ he called for a ‘gospel of positive culture, progress, self-realisation and social unity’.
  2. In 1909, Frank Carlton Doan published a book on religious psychology entitled Religion and the Modern Mind which promoted the word ‘humanism’.
  3. In 1918, Roy Wood Sellars, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan, published The Next Step in Religion which, according to the author, would be something called ‘religious humanism’.
  4. In the same year, Unitarian [2] ministers John Dietrich and Curtis Reese agreed on a new development within Unitarianism which they called ‘humanism’. Dietrich and Reese preached ‘humanist sermons’, collecting them into The Humanist Pulpit (Dietrich, 1925) and Humanist Sermons (Reese, 1927).
  5. In 1928, a journal called The New Humanist was launched by the Humanist Fellowship in the University of Chicago. The Humanist Fellowship disappeared without trace but The New Humanist became a printed journal in 1930 under the editorship of Edwin Wilson, a young Unitarian minister, and its successor, The Humanist, is still published today.
  6. In 1933, thirty-four Unitarians and intellectuals, including the philosopher John Dewey, publisheda Humanist Manifesto which promoted the idea of ‘religious humanism’. (This document can be found on the American Humanist Association website, along with more up-to-date manifestos.)
  7. In 1935, the Humanist Press Association assumed ownership of The New Humanist and the copyright of the Humanist Manifesto.
  8. In 1941, the Humanist Press Association became the American Humanist Association.

Humanism flourished in 1930s America, and after the Second World War Humanist organisations were set up in other countries including the Netherlands (the Dutch Humanist League, 1946), India (the Indian Radical Humanist Movement, 1948) and Belgium (the Belgian Humanist League, 1951). In 1967 the British Ethical Union changed its name to the British Humanist Association.

Other points of interest

 The International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) was set up in 1952 in Amsterdam by British scientist Julian Huxley and Harold Blackham. IHEU is now based in London and is the main umbrella organisation for Humanist and Ethical organisations across the world. There are other international Humanist bodies such as the International League of Humanists (set up in 1974) and the European Humanist Federation (set up in 1991).

 The National Secular Society has a separate history from the British Humanist Association. It was set up in 1866 by Charles Bradlaugh, a prominent MP.

 South Place Ethical Society in London is a fascinating time-capsule. It started life in 1793 as a Universalist [3], then a Unitarian congregation. It became an Ethical Society in 1888 and is today integrated into the British Humanist movement. It is based at Conway Hall in Red Lion Square, London. Conway Hall is a national and international meeting place for humanists.

 There are humanistic movements inside other religions such as Society for Humanistic Judaism and the Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society. There is also a Christian humanist network called ‘Sea of Faith’. Modern day Christian humanists have very radical ideas about God and Jesus. They tend to think of God as a useful symbol rather than a real being, and they think that Jesus was a human sage, not the Son of God.

The Happy Human symbol (left) was designed by Denis Barrington and adopted by the British Humanist Association in 1965. It has since become the international humanist symbol.

The Philosophical Roots of Humanism

Modern organisational Humanism can, arguably, be dated from the Humanist Manifesto of 1933 (see previous section). It would be anachronistic, therefore, to say that ‘Humanism’ goes all the way back to ancient Greece or China, but Humanists can trace their intellectual ancestry back to ancient times, through the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods, and onwards to sceptical scientists and philosophers of the present day. The Renaissance humanists are so-called because they were scholars of the humanities, not because of any philosophical scepticism.

This section does not tell a ‘story’ – it merely attempts to present some of our principal philosophical ancestors and inspirers. The dates provided indicate the historical period or refer to key events or publications.

Confucius
500bce / Chinese philosopher and moral teacher who tried to replace religious observance with moral values. Emphasized benevolence, reciprocity, respect and personal effort. Confucianism was the state religion of China until recently.
Xenophanes
500bce / A “semi-sceptical” Greek philosopher, Xenophanes was critical of prevailing religious ideas.
Protagoras 450bce / Early agnostic and Sophist. Friend of Pericles. Declared that “Man is the measure of all things” which may strike some modern humanists as unduly arrogant. Wrote On the Gods. Charged with blasphemy and fled Athens.
Anaxagoras
450bce / The first philosopher to teach in Athens. A thoroughgoing unbeliever, he was indicted on charges of impiety.
Democritus
420bce / A thoroughgoing materialist who believed that everything, even the soul, is composed of atoms. He disbelieved in popular religion and considered there was no purpose in the universe. He also disapproved of sex.
Socrates
399 bce / Socrates subordinated all other concerns to a life spent inquiring after wisdom. Responsible for the decisive shift from cosmological speculation to ethics and analysis. Questioned conventional moral attitudes and assumptions. Believed in the supremacy of the individual conscience and the value of free
discussion. Convicted for “impiety” and “corrupting youth” at the age of 70 and was sentenced to die by drinking hemlock.
Epicurus 300bce / Epicurus taught that, although the gods existed, they were indifferent to mankind. For him, life was the supreme good.
Lucretius
75 bce / Lucretius’s poem On The Nature of Things preserved Epicureanism. He denounced religion with the fervour of a religious enthusiast. “Death is nothing to us…there is no murky pit of Hell awaiting anyone”.
Seneca
50ce / Roman Stoic philosopher wrote, “Religion is recognised by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful,” and said, “The time to live is now,” something believed by all modern day humanists.
Celsus
178ce / Roman philosopher. Published an anti-Christian polemic True Discourse which was opposed by Origen in his Contra Celsum.
Sextus Empiricus
200ce / Recorded many anti-theistic arguments in Concerning the Gods. Admired by Montaigne, Raleigh and Hume.
Desiderius Erasmus
1523 / Dutch Christian humanist. Strongly critical of the Catholic Church and opposed to the dogmatic theology of the Reformers. Attacked Luther in De Libero Arbitrio (1523).
Nicolas Copernicus
1543 / Polish founder of modern astronomy. Wrote De Revolutionibus (published 1543) which proved that the sun was the centre of the solar system.
Michael Servetus
1553 / Spanish theologian, burnt by Calvin for denying the doctrine of the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus.
Lelio Socinus
1574 / Italian Protestant Reformer. Developed an anti-Trinitarian doctrine that tried to reconcile Christianity and Humanism.
Giordano Bruno
1600 / Italian philosopher, scientist and pantheist. Travelled widely as a lecturer and teacher. Freethought martyr. A Dominican friar who entertained doubts as a young man. Criticized Christian ethics and promoted toleration. He was reported to the
Inquisition for championing Copernican astronomy and spent seven years in prison in Rome. He refused to recant and was burnt at the stake for heresy in the Campo di Fiori in Rome on 17 Feb 1600.
Michel de Montaigne
1603 / Father-figure of scepticism in France and modern Europe and author of Essays (1603). An Enlightenment figure before his time, he declared that “All that is certain is that nothing is certain.” Believed, along with Kant, that reason and faith were incompatible and should be kept in separate compartments. Observed that “it is setting a high value on one’s opinions to roast men on account of them”.