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My favorite short description of Humanism.

"Humanism is a rational philosophy informed by science inspired by art and motivated by compassion. Free of theism and other supernatural beliefs, Humanists reside in the natural world and thus derived the goals of life from human need and interest rather than from theological or ideological abstractions and asserts that humanity must take responsibility for it's own destiny." Definition inspired from Corliss Lamont.

rogueflyer 8 Jan 1
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I wrote down a definition of Humanism a few years ago and will share it, too. It is from Jim Al-Khalili, theoretical physicist and leadership member of the British Humanist Association: "Reason, decency, tolerance, empathy and hope are human traits that we should aspire to, not because we seek reward of eternal life or because we fear the punishment of a supernatural being, but because they define our humanity." I would add that we do have to think about our destiny as intertwined with the other life forms that reside on this planet. We reside in the natural world, yes, so that means we humans have a responsibility to clean up the messes we have made when they affect the health of the planet.

Yes, "humanity must take responsibility for it's own destiny."

@rogueflyer And that is what is troubling about many religious people who talk of leaving this in the 'hands of god'..let go, let god, etc. This, to me, is apathy. Concentrating on and caring more about the afterlife rather than actual life here on Earth.

@mojo5501 I've talked to Evangelicals that believe that climate change is good and that it might herald the end days. They look forward to their just reward.

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If that's short, I worry about what long would look like. Seems pretty comprehensive in the short version.

Corliss Lamont 10 Points of Humanism
[ihumanism.org]

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I find it odd to deny ideological abstractions when you are trying reduce a complex belief system down to a short paragraph. It in itself seems to be teetering on the edge of the ideological. I think in the same way that every Christians view of Christianity is different, it is the seem followers of Humanism, they will all have a different way of defining it. Not that you need to get rid of the descriptions all together, but you either need to define only your own understanding of the term, or if you want to create universal description, it needs to be a more vague.

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