HUMANISM!!!

By Robyn E Blumner. Hello!

If you ask twenty humanists to define humanism, you’ll probably get twenty different definitions. There is no humanist Bible, no humanist catechism, not even a humanist’s rules of order (if only). But I don’t think it’s too much of a leap to say that a humanist is someone who works to make the world a better, freer, healthier place for all the humans living in it, which we accomplish through science, reason, secularism, and compassion.

We can’t wish for some mysterious outside force to do this for us; neither can we turn inward and expect the world to improve itself on its own with no effort on our part. We have to be willing to put in the work in the real world. A shining example of humanism in action comes from George Ongere, executive director of CFI Kenya. In some parts of Africa, children are victims of superstitions about witchcraft and sorcery, leaving many of them abandoned by their families. CFI Kenya established the Humanist Orphans Center to care for these vulnerable kids.

Getting vaccinated and following public health guidelines around COVID-19 are humanist actions, because they are about more than keeping yourself from getting sick. We get the shots, we put on the masks, and we keep our distance to protect everyone else. Now that vaccines have been approved for kids between twelve and fifteen, we want to make sure they can choose to protect themselves and their communities, even if their parents are anti-vaccine.

Vaccine opponents make a lot of noise about their freedoms being infringed upon, claiming the right to serve as a perpetual vector for infection. Folks in the anti-vaccine crowd have prioritized their own notions of inconvenience, fear based on misinformation, and conjured persecution over the health and safety of everyone else. There are those who prefer to wish the pandemic away by asking God to solve their problems for them. The religious Right was up in arms last week over President Biden’s insufficiently theistic National Day of Prayer proclamation, illustrating the impotency of relying on “thoughts and prayers.” Admirers of the Great Agnostic, Robert Green Ingersoll, have generously given to ensure that the legacy of this freethought pioneer will endure through the Robert Green Ingersoll Birthplace Museum. It is not a house of worship, but a humble home where we can evoke the memory of the great man who said, “The hands that help are better far than lips that pray.” Now that’s humanism. Robyn E. Blumner, CEO and President, Center for Inquiry Executive Director, Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science.