Some people suck, as do some of the things that are going on in the world. However it's worth remembering that the world is actually in a better place now than it has been at most points of our history.

In some respects we are mentally more vulnerable than previous generations, since we have had it so good for so long that we have become soft. As such, even relatively minor things can mentally effect us to a degree far greater than what such a thing objectify warrants.

The double whammy is that we are hyper-connected by technology now, so we are exposed to these minor things all the time, which makes everything seem worse than it is.

My advice for regaining one's faith in humanity is:

1: Turn off the news and avoid websites, YouTube channels etc. that are political or cover current events. Bad news sells more copies than good news, so the media will concentrate on these, which can create a pessimistically distorted view of the world.

2: Avoid negative people and anyone who is a bad influence. They will sap your energy and may embroil you in their BS and the fallout from their bad decisions.

3: Surround yourself with positive people who are good influences and do good deeds, then get involved in these good deeds yourself.

4: Make a commitment to be healthier in body and mind yourself, i.e. quit drinking, smoking, unhealthy food, bad lifestyle habits etc. and seek out the company of others who have done likewise.

You should start to feel better in a while. It may take time but keep with it. There have been several times I have lost all faith in humanity over the years, and this four-step program has helped me regain it every time.
Best of luck! ?

My "faith in humanity" is based on the education of children. Stick with me. I am trying to make a point.

A few years ago, a Chinese delegate was interviewed in our town-hall style question-and-answer TV show - funnily enough called, Q&A. I can't remember the exact question that one of the audience members asked him. But it had something to do with the advantages of living under the Chinese-styled, semi-corporate, Communist government - or lack of advantages.

He replied, and I'm paraphrasing here, with: "Even with our Communist government, we managed to lift up millions of our citizens from poverty into becoming millionaires."

It dawned on me that even under questionable conditions, there are still people who work very hard to help others live better lives. These are the teachers, social workers, trades people like plumbers, carpenters, etc - and, of course, the low-level bureacrats who ensure that the school lives of children are acceptable and that their educations progress forward - regardless of which idealogy they follow.

Of course, there are also the inventors. For example, the inventor of this gravity light:

Or the developers of the Barsha Pump which can pump water over a mile without the need for electricity.

Then there are the philantrophists. Although, Bill, Malinda and Buffet cop quite a bit of flak for various reasons that could be justified, I am still hopeful for their programs. Here is John Green, author and a member of VlogBrothers, who run the SciShow educational channels on YouTube, talking about some of the Gates' and Buffet's experiences with their philantrophy.

My point is anyone at the age of 21 or over is fucked! Hahaha! The best thing we can do is to ensure that those younger are able to live better lives.

My faith in future humanity is maintained when I see or learn about those that work towards that future.

EDIT: Some grammar. There may be other grammatical errors that I missed.

it's a great first post by the way

Try researching Spiral Dynamics. It's a sociological study based on Maslow's Heirarchy of needs. It describes the progression or evolution of both individuals and societies.It clearly shows that humanity is on a long upward spiral toward our ultimate highest level of understanding and functionality. Not everyone will arrive at the same time though. As a whole though, things are improving. The tough part is that turmoil usually fuels our ascension up the spiral. Your current feelings are typical of a transition to your next level.

humans are mostly a self-serving virus

Put the bad news in perspective. It's news because it's different. With billions of people on the earth, bad things will happen to a few of them each day. However, that also means for the billions of the rest of us, its going to be an ordinary day and maybe for a few more of us, its going to be an extraordinary day. Focus yourself locally, what will your day be like? How will you make life work for you today? What will you do for others who might need your help and or attention? You see where this is going? You can control your own direction. Once, you can feel the strength that comes from this control, you can look outward to others. Together, you can become the humanity that you seek to believe in.

I lost faith in humanity a long time ago....wait, is 14 years a long time? No? Ok then, a long time ago.

The sad thing is, I am able to get it back to a degree, but something always happens that rips it away again. By and large, I really don't like humans. I am severely allergic to stupidity, so even leaving my apartment can set off an allergic reaction.

In order to restore it in myself, I try to live and act in a way that maybe restores it in others. Holding doors for people, offering to help if I see someone struggling, basically treating people the way I would want to be treated.

It takes no money, and very little time to be a decent person.

Faith in Humanity? What is Humanity/ One big glob of beings? I don't think so. There are differences in the haves and have nots. The 1% that control everything in the rest of our lives are the pieces of shit we should have no faith or consideration for. The rest of us are not simply one monolithic bloc of "souls", but it is us, the 99% against the 1% who exercise a rule by force if necessary. Religion, patriotism, phony democracy, all part of trying to keep us in lockstep with the party line. i personally do have faith in the downtrodden of the world to some day take over and bring about what John Lennon sings about In "Imagine". Imagine all the people sharing all the world, what's wrong with being a dreamer?

Bad news makes noise, saving a dog and loving one another is quiet. If you listen to too much noise, the quiet things go unnoticed.

The members on this site will help to restore your faith in humanity. Kinda ironic that those with no faith have more than those who do.

@Firebug916 ... Faith in humanity. Faith is something inside of you. The levers of control over how you feel are accessible to only you. No one else can move them. No event in the world can move them without your cooperation. Find them. Use them. Practice.

I've felt this way, to some degree, ever since Trump won the election. Pretty sure I'm still grieving for the Obama presidency. We went from the best to the worst, in my opinion. I just want to hide in a corner until it's over!! I'd suggest doing things that make you happy as a distraction, but I know it's hard to do that. Great topic!

Why ask why? You had your eyes opened by a series of events, no doubt. Now you've seen so many mean, selfish, flabby hearts you can't pretend that the story you cherished is not true. There are wonderful people on this earth, but they are few and far between. Use your new eyes to find and cherish them. As for the rest, expect them to be who they are and interact accordingly. You don't have to point out to them that you see who they are. I'm afraid you are not going to be able to restore faith in humanity. Why you would want to?

Justice, morality, and democracy do not simply occur. They are hard won! We must fight for them constantly, or we will lose them. If you give up, you are enabling those who would prevent those standards from being maintained.

This site will help.

Have faith - man has walked the earth for millions of years, and we arent going away any time soon. We come from brutal and savage past, conditions on earth keep getting better.

I feel that humanity is going through some growing pains. Once we move on from narcissitic inclinations we will learn that helping one another is far more advantagious than only helping ourselves. Work for the betterment of humankind an despense with the urges to dominate, only then will faith in humanity be sewn within us.

Welcome to a caring community. Have you joined any Humanist groups in your area? Good place to start.

Be the best human you can be and you'll attract other good humans.

Try to seek out the good, the positive ones, the ones you can laugh with, the supportive ones, the ones you wish to champion, the ones that cause you to feel good in their presence, and do your best to greatly limit - or even eliminate altogether those others !

When I hang around with my daughter, her husband, and sometimes their friends (they're generally all in their mid to late 30's), I get a big morale boost. They seem optimistic about the future, they're all very bright, and ambitious, in a good way. There is some cynicism, but it seems like healthy cynicism to me; like not having a great deal of faith in our current government and how the political system operates. But they are politically active. Many of them, including my daughter and son-in-law think very much in line with the opinions and attitudes I read on this forum. That gives me hope.

First off, welcome to the asylum. Enjoy your stay. We're a pretty good bunch here.
Regarding your post, I often lose faith in humanity. An awful lot of the time, we seem
pretty freakin' hopeless. Then, I'll see someone doing something good for others. Or I'll
hear a news story about a group of people working to tackle an issue that affects many.
For me, you take your "faith" where you can find it. I think, overall, there are still lots of
good people in the world. Unfortunately, they tend to be overshadowed by the assholes, who also seem to have most of the money and power.
Take heart, hang around here for a while. Engage with other members of the community.
There are some truly intelligent, truly caring, and truly funny people who contribute here.
Hopefully, your faith in humanity will be somewhat restored.
Try not to focus on the negative. There is still much to be found that is positive and good.
Again, welcome!

I fully understand how you feel, as I too went through a period of darkness and doubt about our future as a species. But I also agree with most of the positive posts below, and can add little more than a Here! Here! As others have said, it’s probably time to stop watching the news, whether cable or local, and instead watch a few TED Talks. Read books that enable us to see the bigger picture by authors like Steven Pinker or Hans Rosling. And finally, consider that the attitude of ‘faith’ itself implies unjustifiable belief, which is best discarded in favor of evidence-based confidence. I now have confidence in humanity when I look at my kids and their generation, who are more talented, empathetic and capable than I was at their age.

Hey. I like questions like this because they make me look at myself. I don’t answer it directly at all, but hopefully there’s something in there of value ☺

Nothing out there is real. What we interact with are waves and particles of pure energy, and sub-nuclear and sub-atomic particles at frequencies and wavelengths we have evolved to utilise, despite being completely unconscious of. We are biology engaging with its environment. The ‘reality’ we perceive is inside our heads, it’s not ‘out there’, and most of us don’t know how a human being works. This is a shame because, to some extent, each of us is in charge of one.

The world we live in, society, is the material consequence of actions, ever-present within the time frame we call ‘reality’. We don’t live in it, we navigate it. We do a surprising amount of this on autopilot. But it’s happening in our heads. Information goes in, we process it and the output is what the world engages with. Think of unteracting withthe wordl in reverse. Upwards of seven billion humans are doing this right now.

In order for reality to be experienced, it must be captured and processed within the mind of an observer, which is a subjective phenomenon. Reality can’t be shared, only agreed upon, because, if you like, the energy of the subjective experience is unique. Understanding this involves embracing scientific principles and doesn't rule in, nor out, a creator.

Everyone’s reality is unique to them, we each see the world differently. The reality we engage with is the aggregate of billions of bits of information we each bring to the story. We interact within a relatively fixed time frame, which allows us to appear to navigate the infinite ocean of time and space. But it is all happening inside our heads.

Imagine the potential, were we able to get through to people that everything about the outside world is actually happening inside our own heads. But it’s such a stretch, such a deviation, that it’s often difficult to present the facts in a way that’s easily grasped. We can’t force anyone to do anything they don’t want to, for various reasons, not least because we can’t predict the future and we don’t like it when people force us to do things we don’t want to do. Let Naysayers be. This isn’t a religion and donations are not required. We just chill out. Let each other be. Give help when asked, if that’s your thing, or don’t. Mind your business, we are proud creatures and we behave like animals because we are animals. We’re dangerous. But if handled properly, educated in a radical, child-centric way, educated to proclivity, we can produce good adults. It would only take a generation and humans would have no need to kill each other along the way, not once they realise that for once and for all, we’re acknowledging the beast within.

Robert Lanza says that if we think about it, we’re on top of infinity. All the earthly histories and universal events led to this moment, with us on top of it all. It could well be just another weird coincidence that can’t be explained. In an infinite, many worlds scenario it’s everything you can imagine it could be within the laws of physics. It’s just a numbers game.
As they bring biology and physics closer together, scientists are figuring out more about the importance of the observer. Could it be that they are on the cusp of beginning to scratch the surface of the nature of consciousness too? Maybe we’re on top of infinity. Maybe we always are.

Faith in humanity to what end?