Terms
Humanist
Despite the fact that the word Humanism is applied to many different movements such as Christian Humanism, Atheist Humanism, and Ethical Humanism – I still chose to describe myself as a Humanist because I can find no better word to express what I am.
I am not merely an Atheist because although I don’t believe in God or gods because that would be to define myself by what I don’t believe in instead of those positive things which I do believe in.
I am a materialist in the sense that I believe there is only a material world, not a dualistic world in which there are spirits waiting to pop into newborn babies and return to the other realm at the death of a human being, no heaven or hell, no reincarnation. Whenever I use the word “believe”, that means I can’t prove it to be the case, but like the scientific status quo, I find it acceptable for now – so I am atheist (don’t believe in gods) rather than agnostic (don’t know the answer about gods) but I accept that this is a matter of choice as to what I believe.
In the 19th century, many humanist groups were set up as an alternative to the religious. They might have been called Atheist, Humane or Ethical Societies and often they were as dedicated to “doing good work in the world” as any religious group. In humanism, what you do and how you live mater in exactly the same way as they do to people of religion, you have just arrived at motive differently, not because God told you to live in a particular way, but because it is obviously right to do so for and by, the good of humanity.
I believe (choose to believe) that human beings can be better rather than worse in the long run. I most certainly can’t prove or disprove this assertion and the Covid 19 crisis is a very good example of why not. On the one hand, there are right-wing politicians who are seeking to increase their power and its longevity under cover of the response to the crisis and on the other, millions of people have donated in excess of 30 million pounds to Captain Tom Moore’s charity fundraising event to support the National Health Service workers during the crisis. The former RAF pilot who served in WW2 and who turned 100 last week, crystallized the generosity of people who were already grateful to the NHS workers for their heroism and altruism in the face of personal danger from the virus. How could you possibly devise a way of weighing up the efforts of right-wing dictators against the efforts of Captain Tom and the NHS workers and those who have donated to them – you can’t and so my belief that people can be better rather worse, must remain an untestable belief – so once again, that is what I choose to believe.
Because the values of humanism are so great, so obviously right, that is why the term can be appropriated even by Christianity in it’s depiction of the values of Jesus as sent into the world by God, the son of God made human to bring God’s love to humanity – this does make the term humanism confusing given all the things I have already said about it…
If I don’t believe in a dualism of material and spiritual realms, then why Spiritual Humanist?
Spiritual
The word spirit is often conflated with the word soul and although they both come from an ancient word for breath, they are quite different. The soul is a word for the dualistic idea of an immutable essence that passes into the body at birth and returns to some spiritual realm at death. Breath is most certainly the first thing that enters the body at birth and the last thing to leave it at death bur the what are we to call the memories and personality of a person, which as a humanist, I believe must cease with death – what are we to call all that?
We often refer to a person’s spirit without meaning their soul in the religious sense as in “they have a kindly spirit” or we stay someone is “very spirited” – so I refer to that bundle of memories and personality, contained in the mind of a person, perhaps reflected in the appearance of their body as they develop, so easily damaged or destroyed by a blow to the head, and which makes the difference between a living person and a corpse, as their spirit. Just as the term humanism carries baggage and ambiguity, so too does the word spirit, but once again, I can’t find a better word – so here I am – choosing to call myself a Spiritual Humanist…
Spiritual Humanism – the Ripple effect
At this time of existential crisis, brought on by the Covid 19 pandemic, many people who have not previously thought about their own mortality, are doing so, in lockdown, without their normal support networks or the distractions of normal life. Very often, when say, a parent dies, the next generation find themselves contemplating their own mortality, and if their parents were in any way religious, they may find themselves in a church service for the burial or remembrance of their parent. Very often, I believe, this may strengthen either their own religious roots, however dormant they might have been, or else prompt a search for some other meaning, beyond the daily grind. my version of Spiritual Humanism is a way of seeing meaning in life and beyond the death of the individual which does not depend on a dualistic belief, and as such, this might be a good time to give it another push out into the world.
When a person dies, it is not as if they had never lived, not ever!
I remember there was a tramp, a homeless person who spent their life walking between my town and the next village – you would often pass him if you were going that way. Every time I saw him, he made me thankful for the home and the life I had, and I would wonder how he came to his point in life and what would become of him. If one day, as would inevitably happen, one way or another, he were not to be seen again by people driving that road, I suggest that the memory of him would linger on, they would wonder if he had died or been taken into some sort of care – either way, the memory of him would probably continue to make people glad for what they had in their own lives.
A child is stillborn and though they had no life beyond the womb, they have already filled their parent’s life with anticipation – good or even fearful – it is not as if they had never existed, their life, such as it was, has changed the world.
Everybody changes the world to a greater or lesser degree. Think of Florence Nightingale whose story got another boost by the temporary hospitals created in Britain to help fight the pandemic, they were called Nightingale Hospitals. Florence was white, Victorian and a woman. You might be black, born in Africa in the 21st century, and a male, but the first thing you will learn about if you choose to go into nursing might be the history of Florence Nightingale. So the work of Florence Nightingale, the energy, insight and impact of her spirit, not only affected her Victorian world, it continues to resonate to this day – like a ripple through the minds and institutions of humanity.
Not everybody is as famous as Florence Nightingale, but they can have as great an effect even without anybody being fully aware of it. Imagine village baker – he is a good kind man – everybody recognizes that but nobody knows the full extent of it. He gives a job to a man who has been in prison and helps him to turn his life around. He lends some money to a person when they have nowhere else to turn. He always slips, wordlessly, an extra bun into the single mother’s bag. He is very modest and none of these people ever share the story of how they were helped by the baker, not even after he dies, not because they are not grateful, but because they know he would have wanted it that way. Yet that baker changed the course of the whole village, the ex-con became a fine member of the community, the lender developed a business that employed many villagers and the children of the single mum grew up healthy and strong and one of them found a cure for one type of cancer.
The Ripple effect from that baker was strong!
If you believe in God or gods, then I will never try to dissuade you of your beliefs, but if in this time of crisis, you are seeking a way to reconcile yourself with your mortality and you can’t believe in a supernatural being, then think of your life in terms of the Ripple effect. How have you changed the world, have you left it a better place and who will remember you? Maybe you feel you have not contributed much, or even been a negative presence in the world. It is not too late, the story of the baker shows that you cannot tell which of your actions will have the greatest effect. Maybe you are mourning someone who has died, if so then you are demonstrating the Ripple effect, for you are carrying the memory and the particular energy of that person’s spirit with you already, now and for as long as you live. If you build whatever memorial is appropriate to that person’s life, you will pass their story on to others…
If contemplating life in the world as illuminated by these strange times leads to re-assessment and change for individuals or institutions, if it brings changes to their spirit, then that can only be for the good…
Please leave a comment so that I know you have been here, and stay safe…
