r/humanism

I’ve been thinking about whether Humanism should primarily focus on minimizing harm and protecting individual rights, or whether it should also emphasize cultivating wisdom, creativity, curiosity, and meaningful lives.
Do you think Humanism has a positive vision of what human flourishing looks like, or should it avoid prescribing ideals beyond promoting freedom and well-being? I’d be interested to hear how others define the ultimate aim of Humanism.

>it might sound weird but i have been thinking about it for a while now and based on my observations there are 3 type of fear:-
1: the fear of going to hell or what will happen in afterlife.

2: the fear of society.

3: the law we created.

if we wake up next day these 3 points completely vanished from our brain then more or less 40% population will go wild like animals.
30% will try to save a few people(family and friends),
30% will observe and change (most likely 20% of them will join the 40%)
and after a few years we will end up in a worse position than the stone age.

I have always been more a historical, political philosopher rather than an artistic inclined person but humanism and science fiction have always inspired.

However, I have been playing around with slowly writing a scifi book for a long time. (If two people from my high school senior class already have written books, it could be worthwhile.) It would be about a movement for world political unification during the climate crisis of the future called "Faction OneWorld." Their political statement/manifesto would be:

"We are all cousins. One People, with One Planet, and One Future in Unity, Peace, Freedom, Prosperity. We will all prosper together, or we will all suffer together. One People, One Planet, One Future – Faction OneWorld."

I have developed some ideas about two potential chapters already: the founding of the Federation of Democratic Nations and the closing scene the election of the first president of Earth and their swearing in, in the world capital of Nanjing.

Just sharing a creative inspiration.

so yeah I have finally been inspired to write a love opus to the future

Honestly, I never thought I’ll be writing this actively on social media about society. I am very much interested in metaphysical and philosophical stuff. But recently I am unable to ignore the cracked patches in our society. I am unable to look away at transcendental stuff when the reality keeps poking me.
And recently I am so confused about our roles and responsibilities as citizens. Majority of us do vote, pay taxes, contribute in nation’s economy in one way or another. It is a huge contribution of our population in this rapid GDP growth. So many hands to work and to earn and even to spend, which keeps the economy in flow.
But, are our responsibilities confined to economical benefits only? And every other flaw in this nation is truly just government’s fault?
Like, when we talk about health facilities, which is the most important service provided for any citizen. But we all know that most of the government hospitals fail to deliver a basic service. It’s a disaster that these health facilities are not hygienic. Who to blame? The government-Who fails to provide adequate finances? Employees who fail at maintaining it? Or the one who clutter it in the first place? Us?
Doctors and nurses look frustrated most of the time, may be because of over crowd, but isn’t it their duty to deal with people patiently who are already a patient? Even the guards in such hospitals are so rude. And when to talk about the crowd going there, they are so impatient, do not want to wait at all. Always ready to argue. We already lack a basic structure in these important services, but this moral lack of people is making it worse.
This was all about a service. I think basic awareness for self security is more important. If we talk about road safety, government have made helmets a mandate, but how many of us really follow? Even if the traffic inspector stops us to generate a penalty and to scold us, most of the people run away in an instance, otherwise rather than accepting our fault and giving the penalty, we choose to give bribe, and the officer is more concerned about the extra money rather than the protocol. And I don’t know why people take so much pride in drinking and driving, I have heard endless stories, being told in funny or proud way, that I was so drunk that I crashed my car, or when stopped by a police officer, I bribed them with a bottle that I had and they released me. Like what exactly people are proud about? Being drunk or being released by giving bribe?
Few things are really basic, I don’t understand how few people’s mind work, that they don’t do stuff that should be as easy as breathing. For example, endless times it has happened to me that while travelling in the e-rickshaw, the driver or the person sitting beside him starts smoking, and all the smoke comes at the back, very obvious? Like that is really annoying, that I have to tell them to not smoke like this, as people sitting behind are getting suffocated by the smoke you are releasing. I have seen people throwing empty packets under the seats of metro, or spitting on the tracks. And as a girl if I start talking about harassment, this essay will turn into a book.
I just feel so sad that people in my nation, the country which have such diverse cultures, religions, so much history. Endless glory of gods and kings, constructions beyond imaginations. People from this kind of nation are seen as burglars and bullies all over the world

I am an atheist, or something in between. I wish to believe in the old gods we have forgotten, and God; they all have a place for me. No matter what, I will respect and cherish those who follow their religion to a T. Yet, I am appalled by the hypocritical Christians, Jews, and so on whom I have witnessed. I may be a heretic—a living sin as a bastard child—but tell me this: can a living sin be more just than a lying, deceitful, and hypocritical follower of their respective religion?

Are my wishes for swift justice to be delivered to the weak and wronged nullified by my outcast nature and my beliefs? Or am I the middle—the center line—that wishes for humanity's unity above all? I know not why I write this, nor do I know if it will be read with grace or hatred, but heed these words: practice what you preach. I have seen too many hate-filled Christians who later preach love. This is no attack upon you nor your faith; I wish for it to stand for what it represents, and not fall to hypocrisy.

I respect that the old gods are aspects of humanity, to be feared and respected, while, in my view, God is seen as loved, cherished, and followed, not honored in fear. I lost my faith in God when I was young, sadly, but it never truly went away. As I learned the vast, fascinating history of the world and its people, I grew to understand that there is more. I still swing from believing in nothing—and that life is just that precious, wonderful, and to be lived—to believing that it was a gift given thoughtfully. I am a man of science and belief.

I learn how this wonderful and horrifying world works via science, history, and its differing fields of study. I seek a standard of compassion and honesty—what many may see as an unattainable reality of unity. I am rambling now, so I shall stop myself, but please give your honest answer to me, and read this with an open, understanding mind.

Today the world is determined to explain everything. Either proving something or disproving something. When it comes to individuals that hold to any one specific belief, my question is what is the benefit of proving or disproving of a diety or God when there is not yet a moral compass to replace it with?

For some reason everyone has their "own truth" which i get but at the same time please tell me someone else can see the translation in everyone's own truth?? Anyone ...???

If the great reset and the new normal are how things are going to be, instead of running as hard as we can straight into a brick wall, can we not figure out a way to set up that future generation become better more harmonious people's.

For some reason, people need like am incentive to be good to each other. Social groups and praise and even hopes of getting into heaven. In China they have a social points system, but the people function out of fear and it creates a submissive people. That's not what we need.

I dont know the answers but I see everyone is only worried about themselves anymore. But if we started active doing selfless acts or even good acts for the hopes of some mythical paradise in the clouds or for riches or whatever the necessary incentive would be, eventually it would become a habit. Eventually they would stop talking about the rewards. When we have children they see how we act to each other. They see how we shun the homeless how we disregard others. How we prioritize our own time and place value in things that are genuinely just pick me advertisements over people. But if they see people who are involved who care. Even if its a fake care, it would still become a habit.

And kids always grow up to be so much like their parents. Even the o es who vow to never be like them, they are more like them than they would want anyone to know.

Im curious if anyone has any ideas to how we might could help to grow a better life. A better world starts with a better individual.

I’m starting to become disillusioned by religion as a gay man, however now I get this awful feeling that I should just die. Not because life has no meaning but now because I dont know how much value a life has. I’m someone who deals with Pure ocd, specifically POCD and HOCD. I have this awful fear that deep down I’m a bad person who will hurt other, it ranges from mild things like im selfish to big things like perhaps ill murder a bunch of people one day or sa children of course I don’t desire any of theses things but I get the thought of it and it scares me. On top of that I was also an extremely abusive child. religion allowed me to believe that no matter how bad a person was they could become good and always deserved life but now I don’t know. And on top of that all the small flaws that might build up to being an overall net negative to existence, I feel like without God I have to prove that I deserve to live, to prove that it was a good thing I was born. I also miss rituals and having a person I could speak to, now I feel alone.

Every person on Earth has experienced at some point in their life, a person who does something terrible to them, then just goes on with life, like they didn't do anything wrong. I want to know from the people who do these shitty things, why ? Like does it not matter to you that your actions caused another person, to hurt emotionally or physically, or your actions caused great distress or devastation in a person's life, how do you live with your actions? Do you think about your actions as being terrible or awful? Explain yourselves please!

As we move into an era where intelligence is no longer uniquely human, biology becomes editable, and cognition can be extended or augmented, I’m wondering how humanism should evolve.
Should future humanism remain grounded in the dignity of the biological human as traditionally understood, or should it expand to include enhanced, hybrid, and non-biological forms of intelligence as full moral participants?
In other words: what does it mean to center “human values” when the category of the human itself is becoming fluid?

As a ‘millennial’ I find that i am stuck between old school values and morals, but also love that I live in a time where women like me can be independent, work, make different choices for themselves etc. (I for 1 am glad for women’s working rights, purely because I would not have obtained a husband in the 50’smof we were relying on my house keeping or baking abilities😂 ) but I really struggle with the lack of, connection…? In the modern day. I do understand the world is ever changing and evolving and will do so long after I am gone. I am not ignorant to the fact every generation struggles with this.

But the world is changing faster then it ever has before. Everything is dispose-able. A new and improved version will be available tomorrow. And we place such high value in having the latest and greatest.

I propose for those of us that are finding it hard to watch the world become so impersonal, we put our heads and our wallets together and create our own community. What would this look like for you?

My ideal is
- a semi/partially self sufficient community. Every bit of land is divided equally, no one benefits more or less purely because they were or weren’t born to a family with money.

-We all grow or care or tender to something that is contributed to the community as a whole. I grow tomatoes, you look after the chooks, and we share everything.

- it wouldn’t be so much about serving a community, but maybe ensuring your own needs are met first, to minimise how much support we have to give others. Which of corse wouldn’t be a problem, but is only intended to be short term whilst recovering, getting back on your feet etc.

- but all having the frame of mind that we only: *take what we need, not in access.
*We all contribute in whatever way we can for the betterment of the community as a hole.
*simplistic, no need for the flashier things in life as physical possessions aren’t of value
* transparency
* safe

Well, i guess that’s as far as I have thought so far.
I guess I can see how this would sound cult like 😂 and hay it’s just an imagination for me. But let me know what your perfect future world/community looks like in your mind. Or raise your hands if you think my ideal might be okay. :)

Think about this for a second. Your grandfather probably knew which direction the wind meant rain was coming. Your grandmother could tell the season just by looking at the sky. They slept when it got dark and woke up with the sun. They ate food that came from actual soil soil they could touch, smell, and feel between their fingers. There was a time when human beings were genuinely, deeply connected to this Earth. Not in a poetic way. In a real, breathing, everyday way. The river wasn't just a river it was where you drank, where you bathed, where your children played. The tree outside wasn't just a tree it was shade, it was fruit, it was the place your family sat together in the evenings. The soil wasn't just dirt it was life itself, and you knew it because your hands were in it every single day.

Now look at us. We wake up to phone alarms, eat food wrapped in five layers of plastic, breathe recycled air in offices with windows that don't even open, and haven't felt actual mud under our feet in God knows how long. We've built ourselves such a perfect little bubble and somehow convinced ourselves this is called progress. But is it really progress? Or have we simply drifted away from the trees, the rivers, the earth, and honestly, from ourselves?

Here's something that hit me hard when I thought about it. Every single creature on this planet the tiny ant carrying something ten times its weight, the elephant that walks miles just to find water, the bird that somehow knows exactly where to fly in winter every one of them belongs here. They eat, sleep, breathe, and die as part of a web that has worked beautifully for billions of years. And then there's us. We built cities so massive that you can't see the stars at night anymore. We built roads through forests without asking the animals who lived there first. We turned rivers into sewers and called it industrial growth. And the worst part is that we don't even feel bad about it anymore. We've been doing it so long it just feels normal. A deer standing confused in the middle of what used to be its forest now a parking lot — isn't just a sad image. It's a mirror. It's showing us exactly what we've become. We didn't just move into nature's house. We demolished it and put up a shopping mall.

And it wasn't enough that we changed the planet around us. Now we want to change ourselves. Scientists are working on editing human DNA  literally going into the code of life and rewriting it. Soon, parents might be able to choose traits for their children the way you customize a phone. Pick the eye color, boost the intelligence, remove the weakness, extend the life. And then there's the brain-computer connection yes, that's real. Companies are working on plugging chips into human brains so we can connect to the internet just by thinking. People are already getting robotic limbs that feel and move like real ones. Tiny nanobots may one day swim through your blood, fixing things before you even feel sick. On one level, that's incredible, and of course it is. Human creativity is genuinely breathtaking. But sit with it for a moment. When half of you is machine and half of you is flesh, when you can't feel hunger because an app manages your nutrition, when you can't feel lonely because an AI is always talking to you, when your memories can be stored on a hard drive and your emotions can be adjusted with a software update — what exactly are you at that point? Are you still a child of this Earth? Are you still connected to the same soil your ancestors walked on? Or are you something else entirely — something that has no real home here anymore, something that even the birds and the trees and the rivers would look at and not recognize?

Here's the thing about nature that people keep forgetting. It doesn't send warning letters. It doesn't file complaints or hold press conferences or post angry messages. It doesn't negotiate or beg or plead. It just acts. Quietly at first, slowly and patiently, and then suddenly all at once. Think about the biggest flood your city ever experienced. Think about the summer that felt like standing inside a burning oven. Think about the wildfire that swallowed an entire forest in just a few days, the way it moved like it had somewhere to be, like it was done waiting. Think about COVID how one invisible, microscopic virus in one small corner of the world shut down every airport, every school, every office, every street, every dream, every plan on the entire planet. Billions of people, all that technology, all those weapons and satellites and supercomputers, and we were stopped completely by something you couldn't even see with the naked eye. Nature did that. With one virus. Just one. And it didn't even try that hard.

The glaciers melting aren't just a news headline we scroll past on our phones. They are nature quietly dismantling a system that took millions of years to build because we kept pushing, kept taking, kept assuming there would always be more. The bees disappearing, the seasons arriving late, the rivers running dry, the forests shrinking, the oceans warming  these aren't separate problems belonging to separate departments of government. They are the same message being delivered over and over again in different languages, through different disasters, in different corners of the world. The message is simple and it doesn't require a scientist to translate it. It says  I have been patient with you. I have absorbed your smoke and swallowed your poison and carried your garbage. But I am running out of patience, and when I finally run out, I will not be asking for your permission.

And here is the most gut-wrenching truth of all of this. If we disappeared tomorrow if every single human being simply vanished from the face of the Earth nature would be fine. More than fine. It would heal. It would breathe. It would stretch itself out and fill every space we ever occupied. Within decades, vines would crawl over our skyscrapers. Rivers would run clear and cold again. Fish would return to waters they abandoned generations ago. Birds would come back to forests that went quiet when we arrived. Wolves and elephants and tigers would roam through places that now have highways running through them. The sky at night would be absolutely full of stars again, the way it was before we drowned everything in artificial light. The Earth does not need us. It never did. We need it. We have always needed it. Every breath you take right now is possible only because somewhere, a tree is doing its quiet work. Every sip of water you drink passed through clouds and mountains and soil before it reached you. Every meal on your table started as sunlight falling on a leaf. We are not separate from nature. We are made of it, sustained by it, and we will return to it when we are done here. And somewhere along the way, in all our rushing and building and conquering, we forgot that completely.

We forgot it so thoroughly that we started treating the planet like a warehouse something to take from, endlessly, without ever giving back. We got lost in screens and speed and convenience. We got lost chasing things that sparkle and forgot about things that breathe. We built a world so loud, so relentlessly noisy, that we can no longer hear the sound of rain on leaves, or wind moving through grass, or the particular silence of a forest at dawn that makes something deep inside you feel, for just a moment, like everything is going to be okay. That silence still exists. But we have to be very quiet to find it, and we have forgotten how to be quiet.

This is not a story about humanity being evil. People are not evil. People are lost. People got handed a world of extraordinary technology and ran with it, the way any excited child would run with a new toy, without stopping to think about what they were running through in the process. The tragedy isn't that we are cruel. The tragedy is that we are disconnected. We have become so insulated from the natural world that when a river dies, we feel nothing, because we never met that river. When a species goes extinct, we feel nothing, because we never shared a forest with it. When the soil turns to dust, we feel nothing, because our food comes in a box and we never touched the soil to begin with. You cannot grieve something you were never introduced to. And that disconnection, that numbness, that is the most dangerous thing of all.

But here is what I believe with everything in me. It is not too late. The clock is real and it is running, but it has not stopped. The Earth is still here. The soil still remembers how to grow things. The rivers still know how to run clear if we let them. And somewhere inside every one of us, no matter how deep it's been buried under concrete and notifications and to-do lists, there is still a human being who came from this Earth and knows it on a level that no technology can replace. The child in you who once ran barefoot on grass, who caught fireflies in summer, who stood in the rain just to feel it that child was not being naive. That child knew something true. Something we need to find our way back to.

Real progress was never about moving faster and faster away from nature. Real progress is learning how to carry our knowledge and our technology with us as we walk back toward it. It is building cities that breathe. It is farming without poisoning the ground. It is using science not as a weapon against the natural world but as a gift we offer back to it. It starts with small things that don't feel small at all once you do them. Plant something and watch it grow. Sit outside without your phone and just let the world be what it is for a few minutes. Drink actual water and actually taste it. Look at the sky before you look at your screen in the morning. Notice the tree on your street. Learn its name. These things matter more than they seem because they are how we remember who we are.

We came from this Earth. Every atom in your body was once stardust, then rock, then soil, then water, then life. You are not visiting this planet. You are not separate from it, above it, or beyond it. You are part of it just temporarily confused, temporarily distracted, temporarily lost inside a world of our own making. The Earth has survived meteor strikes and ice ages and volcanic winters and mass extinctions that wiped out creatures far mightier than us. It will survive whatever comes next. The only real question is whether we will be here to see it whether we will choose, while we still can, to come back home.

Because we were never meant to be aliens here. This planet is not a resource. It is not a stepping stone to somewhere better. It is our home  the only one we have ever had, the only one we will ever truly have and somewhere in the quiet places, in the forests and the rivers and the early morning light falling through leaves, it is still waiting for us to remember that.

 

Hello I’d love to connect with fellow freethinkers over beers in alameda California. I recently read americas best idea : separation of church and state. Perhaps we could discuss this ? Open to ideas. Feel free to DM if that is more comfortable to you.

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Why do we hate each other because of religion, race, region, language, or culture? None of us chose where we were born, the color of our skin, or the beliefs we were raised with

When I was in school, I was bullied because of where I came from and the way i talk I don’t want to go into specific details about what happened there, but I carry the experience with me. It left a lasting impression on me

We only have one life and one world to share Instead of wasting it on hatred and division, let us choose love over hate, understanding over ignorance, and peace over conflict. We are all human first, and that should always be enough to treat each other with respect

I write this because I feel pain from what I experienced back in school Those memories stayed with me, and they shaped how I see people now

I still carry trauma from those experiences, and it is something I continue to deal with

My life is a constant battle against immorality when I know morality is all made up. I live trying to do what I believe is right, not what I believe is good for me. I tell people nice things because they’re what they want to hear, without any sincerity behind them (i.e. saying “I love you”). I feel attraction of course, but it seems to be only skin deep, I wouldn’t say I truly love anyone, least of all myself, I am in fact a deeply unhappy person.

I don’t believe in the sanctity of life or life having any value whatsoever. About a year ago some big shit went down, and since then I have wished almost every day that I had died back then; that it would have been better had my life ended, I feel like I’m living in overtime, beyond my expiry date.

I believe I am in a transition phase between blissful ignorance and blissful awareness, I have not, and don’t know how I ever will, transcend my shame and my very *human* emotions in order to become, I suppose you would say; enlightened. I know what I believe, but as it is counterintuitive to my existence and survival it is difficult to truly embrace… alas, I am a human, imperfect and bound, it seems, by my nature.

Although I believe the awareness I am pursuing is the truest understanding possible of *everything,* I wouldn’t wish this mentality on anyone, I am incapable of happiness, connection, intimacy. I do all that I do only for the people who love me the most, yes there have been some hiccups, because this facade is a tiring one to maintain 24/7, it’s draining.

People love me, I know they do, but I don’t know how or why. It seems I am destined to live a life full of desire but devoid of pleasure.

Thank you for reading.

What is one thing you think would make everyday life, better for us as a society?

The society we have created, and exist in, i feel is not what it was ever intended to be. People of the past were very ignorant to alot of things, very closed minded, belief systems based of religious doctrine, and little education. So what are some things that would help our society today?