We live in a dysfunctional self-centered world, allowing many to struggle due to humanity’s indifference.

Though most man-made challenges may be ended today, we choose not to.

Rather humanity prefers to accept the status quo.

Inequity, prejudice, war, hunger, are but a few of the hundreds of problems and harmful actions we ignore, believing there is little we may do to stop these injustices.

We may end these needless hardships though.

To do so, humanity must wake from its slumber, realizing only together, recognizing the equal importance of every life, will our planet and all life on it thrive, and humanity’s many self-inflicted problems be mitigated.

Pacifism argues that violence should be rejected as far as possible.

Political realism argues that power cannot be ignored because states and other actors will continue to compete for security and influence.

Liberal humanism places individual dignity, rights and freedom at the center.

Civic republicanism adds another concern: freedom survives only when citizens and institutions are capable of defending it from domination.

Militarist Humanism attempts to stand at the intersection of these ideas.

It accepts the humanist goal, but questions whether humanism can survive without material strength.

It accepts the realist observation that power exists, but rejects the idea that power itself determines what is right.

It respects the pacifist preference for peace, but asks whether refusing to develop defensive capability can sometimes leave peaceful societies dependent on those who are less peaceful.

And unlike authoritarian militarism, it argues that discipline and strength must remain subordinate to law, human rights, critical thought and human dignity.

So here is the question:

If pacifism risks weakness, realism risks cynicism, and militarism risks tyranny, can a doctrine genuinely combine humanism with disciplined power without eventually becoming one of the things it was created to oppose?

And if so, what institutional or philosophical limits would make that possible?

Our children are needlessly dying, their light extinguished before their appointed time.

Innocent, they die from indiscriminate violence, drugs, starvation, their slight bodies lifeless in an uncaring world, too self-centered to care or notice.

A world allowing the genocide of children is untenable.

To end this carnage, we must rise up, challenge the self-absorbed beliefs allowing this to happen, then embrace all our children, regardless of their appearance, beliefs, or circumstances in life, with unconditional love and genuine concern for their well-being, rather than to continue to feign ignorance and indifference to the injustices they may suffer in the world.

Militarist Humanism is a philosophy built around a simple idea: strength should exist to protect human dignity, not dominate it.

It values discipline, preparedness, resilience, responsibility, education, science, and the ability to act decisively when circumstances demand it. But those qualities must remain constrained by ethics, law, accountability, compassion, and respect for human life.

The philosophy rejects cruelty, tyranny, racial supremacy, political violence, dehumanization, cults of personality, and the idea that force itself creates moral legitimacy.

Its core principle can be summarized as:

Discipline without cruelty.
Strength without tyranny.
Humanity without weakness.

This community exists to discuss, question, refine, and critically examine these ideas.

What should responsible strength look like in a modern society?

Here's the summary of my own notes from Ottawa's World Humanist Congress.

The theme was "HUMANISM AS RESISTANCE."

I'm a little late getting these up, and they're a bit long. So I'll post the Saturday summary here first. Look for the Sunday summary upcoming.

Saturday, August 8 Session:

(A) Saturday’s session began with a keynote by sociological researcher Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme on “Challenging Misinformation & Narratives of Polarization as Forms of Nonreligious Resistance.”

Her premise, documented with a variety of surveys & statistical data, was that humans in general have been for several decades undergoing a “secular transition,” one that appears to be unabated & happening in all the continents on earth. The process appears to occur when the younger generation does not learn about religion as children.

She noted also that surveys indicate that polarization is not so pronounced as news reports have suggested.

(B) Next was a panel discussion of “What Are We Resisting?”

Represented were delegates from Canada, Ghana, Peru, & USA.

Each noted some of the issues that were unique to their own countries.

Most striking among them was Ghana’s increasingly draconian ant-LGBTQ laws, returns to female genital mutilation, and polygamy (which disempowers women).

The Peruvian delegate indicated that critical thinking was “opening doors to anti humanistic ideas. (Time & his accent prevented me from fully understanding that issue.)

(C) Then Prof. Francesca Klug gave a presentation on “Human Rights as Resistance.”

Her core premise was that resistance was always at the core of increasing human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights inspired people to resist when their governments oppress their own citizens. Paramount now is that human rights need to be defended against the idea that majority rule can subsume universal human rights.

(D) Next we heard from a variety of Humanist legislators from Norway, UK, Iceland, & Canada.

In general, each had reasons for optimism in their own countries, as well as areas where struggles remain.

(E) Finally we heard from a pair of Humanist Chaplains, Greg Epstein from Harvard & MIT, and James Croft from the University of Sussex, UK. They spoke primarily about the one-on-one relationships they built with students and the communities they help build on campus constructed around helping underserved communities (locally & internationally).

~ Living in an Insane World ~

We live in a world in which we accept the senseless death of innocents from war, starvation, random violence, drugs, as a normal part of life. This world is self-centered; its inhabitants are insane, only concerned about themselves.

Humanity has the ability today to end war, hunger, climate change; to mitigate inequity, greed, prejudice. These and all other of humanity’s self-inflicted problems and negative emotions result from living in an indifferent world that cares little about its harmful actions toward others.

We may only begin to alleviate our insanity by embracing another path through life, realizing we are alive to selflessly help, not harm each other, and that regardless of our differences, every life is equally important. We must no longer pretend we do not see. Only then may we not only begin to mitigate humanity’s insanity but discover the path to its spiritual evolution as well.

What if there were a grading system for humans, where doing good earns points and redeeming those points is necessary to enjoy rights and government benefits? So, those who do good would earn more rights, and vice versa.

Can I be a Humanist, if I believe we all continue consciousness after mortal death, and there is a source of creation? I'm following the Baha'i Faith.

I spend a lot of time thinking about systemic failures, problems that grow far beyond any one person and eventually affect all of us. One thought that keeps coming back to me is **human potential**.

There are countless people who never get the opportunity to discover what they're capable of. Not necessarily because they're unintelligent or unmotivated, but because of the circumstance they're born into, the systems they're placed in, and the things they have to spend their lives worrying about.

I've wondered what humanity could accomplish if we built a society where people had a genuine opportunity to discover their interests, develop their abilities, and pursue meaningful things without having their lives consumed by basic survival. People shouldn't have to spend their lives merely surviving when they could be learning, creating, exploring, building relationships, and discovering what they're capable of.

And because these things are systemic, they're connected by a giant web of other problems. Change one thing and you can affect a dozen others. I don't have all the answers. There's a lot I don't know. But I do feel like I've made some headway in thinking about a few key areas that seem fundamental to me, particularly shelter, food, and education.

Those questions are much bigger than the scope of this post, though. What I'm really interested in is having these kinds of conversations with other people.

I'd like to hear about **anything** you think humanity is failing to solve, big or small.
Why is it a problem?
Why does it exist in the first place?
Why have we failed to solve it?
What would it take to move away from the way things are toward something better?

You don't have to be an expert. You don't need to have a complete solution. I'm interested in the questions you're asking, the things you've noticed, and the ideas you've been turning over in your head.

It could be something involving nature, cosmology, human rights, economics, education, technology, psychology, politics, or something I've never even thought about.

What is something you've looked at and thought, "*Why are we still doing this?*"

Tell me about it.

It’s very often that Humanity are viewed as terrifying, destructive, war machines. That we are species of war and such, but I want to ask something else. I want to ask wants beautiful about Humanity, what is so beautiful about the way we live, breath, and think?

What is Something beautiful about the human race? or are we really as bad as we see ourselves?

Murder? To steal.

Thievery? To steal.

Rob? To steal.

Burglary? To steal.

Steal what? Money.

Kidnapping? Money.

Bribery? Money.

If money will be gone, not only will most of the crimes decrease, but humans will have a purpose that was intended by God.

We will learn that the only thing God asks from us is to be kind. No poverty, no God's child begging to another child, everyone is now finally human.

Why is it that humanity energy is out to destroy each other...its always difficult to construct and simpler to destroy. Seems finding easy way out. UN has lost its relevance...the big 5 can do whatever they feel like...spread fear and the oligarchs earn the moolah.... We all know we have to live with our neighbours...no matter who our friends are... It's no longer humanity centric...its greed,ego,power. There is a requirement to step back and reset the click on other human issues.

Today, while with my daughter at our town's lake beach, a man walked by me as I exited the restroom and casually asked, "are you a Christian or an anti-zionist?" I was walking along in my own little world thinking of other things, and was honestly so taken by surprise that I answered, "a little of both" with a laugh and kept walking. It wasn't until I had walked a couple of more steps that I realized what I had just said, but when I turned back he was gone.

The question itself offered such a strange false dichotomy that it broke my brain a little, and I don't like discussing religion in public to begin with - I have no idea WHY I answered as I did. Completely baffled. I'm firmly NOT a Christian, and have a general dislike for Zionism AND anti-Zionism - religious control of politics and world events is antithetical to everything I believe in.

I'm an atheist humanist, and now there's some guy in my town who thinks I'm some sort of Christian anti-Semite, and it's kind of killing me. I just needed to talk about it somewhere, and...well... r/humanism was a place that made a tiny bit of sense. Thanks for reading.

EDIT: I have a tattoo on my forearm of an ouroboros twisted into an infinity sign - a very redundant symbol I got 25 years ago. Occasionally people take it as an "8" - this is the only possible reason I can think of as to why he would even ask the question.

Many form opinions, prejudices about others, observing their appearance, words, beliefs.

The true value of a life though lies not on the outside.

Rather, it may only be found within, where the genuine worth of another has always been.

I recently had a sudden violent death tragedy, and in trauma/grief/crisis, made a post asking for uplifting humanist songs. The post was deleted by mods. So I'm wondering, is this a discussion only forum, or is there room for supporting each other as humanists?

The discussion I'm seeking is philosophical, without any judgement. About action vs speech, and where the tween shall meet.

To get the ball rolling I'd like to quote Aristotle’s most famous beliefs which are deeply humanist I believe, and until now I assumed it to be self evident.

Actions Over Theory: Goodness is not an abstract idea. It is visible only through active, real-world behavior and choices.

Habit and Practice: A person becomes good by doing good things repeatedly until right action becomes natural habit.

He believed strongly that you be able to call yourself something, one had to habitually engage in that practice. Using this, encompassing humanism and this subreddit, I think this could be a wonderful thought excersise discussion.

Edit:

TLDR: this is a philosophical discussion. Not about anything else.

First Post from the World Humanist Congress in Ottawa:

Today, as Humanists from around the world convened in Ottawa, a hefty number of early arrivals joined in the fringe event organized by Humanist Canada.

Attendees had several different workshops to choose from in 4 break-out sessions. Personally I joined

(a) "Building Bridges Beyond Belief" (essentially compassionate street epistemology);

(b) "Leaving Religion" (a description of personal experiences, & no two of us were from the same country);

(c) "Religious Nationalism" (identifying, confronting, & recovering from primarily Christian Nationalism, although Muslim Nationalism & Hindu Nationalism are problematic in countries outside of Europe & North America); and

(d) a singing workshop (admittedly, this was a bit of self-indulgence on my part).

In addition, we had an hour sitting together for lunch, where we talked about Humanist organizations in each country (Norway has the largest in the world), and how national government policies can restrict, allow, or promote development of Humanism and Humanist chaplaincy (military, colleges, hospitals, & hospices) and rites of passage (confirmation, weddings, & memorials/funerals).

That's a thumbnail sketch of my day. Feel free to ask questions, but it may take me a bit of time to respond.