Tag: atheist

How to deal with your fears about others

Hate how you feel about others?

You aren’t alone. How reminding yourself that others are human too can help you overcome your hatred/disgust/annoyance regarding others.

Stop looking for the flaws in others and focus on yourself

I like to joke that I’m a Humanist, which means I like people in the abstract, real people tend to annoy me.  But I’ve found that the more I’ve actively tried to practice humanism in my everyday life – like when I’m at the supermarket or in a crowd of people, the less annoyed or frustrated I am with people.

It is very easy to assume you know what motivates another person. But until you talk to them, you don’t really know. And even then, you still don’t.   

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The 4 Cs of Humanism – Defining Humanism

The 4 C’s of Humanism

Critical Thinking, Compassion, Courage, Commitment

Th 4 Cs' of Humanism

Defining Humanism is such a difficult thing to do. There is no easy way to say – this is what Humanism is and have that be the end of it. It is a life philosophy. It is vibrant and full of nuance, and that’s why it works so well. 

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Results of Humanistic Parenting Survey

familyoffour.jpgHumanistic Parenting Survey Results

I posted this survey to get a better idea of what Humanist and Humanistic oriented parents are interested in. This was not a scientific survey, it was just a way to get more information that might be of use to those of us who are Humanist parents or who are interested in helping Humanist and Humanistic parents, as I am, raise their kids.

There were 70 respondents. 95% of which are parents. There were a couple of grandparents who responded and two who were not yet parents.   75% of the parents are raising kids younger than 5 yrs of age.  12% have kids 6 – 9 and another 13% have kids 10 to adult, which leads me to think that the parents who are looking for help are the parents with the youngest kids. Again, not a scientific poll, so it’s just a guess.

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Doubt is a virtue

Doubts
about Militias

4/4/10

Religious militias are once again a problem. This time a small
tight knit group came up with the stupendously stupid idea to kill a police
officer as a way to get lots of other officers together at a funeral so they
could kill lots of police at one go. What is stunning isn’t that some insane
person came up with such a boneheaded idea. What is stunning is that none of
his friends said – hey – maybe that isn’t such a good idea. Doubt and skepticism
are Humanist virtues for a reason. They keep us out of trouble.

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3 Laws

Three laws still need to be situational3 Laws

4/11/09

I am of course referring to the 3 laws of robotics made famous by Humanist Isaac Asimov.   I wanted to write about this because of critiques against Humanism being a situational ethics system – as opposed to an absolute system. All ethic systems have a set of values or rules.  Humanist ethics are pretty simple.  If it helps, it is good.  If it hurts, it is bad.  If it does both, try to do the most good and the least harm.  Humanists are anti-dogma.  We believe that all ethic systems should be held situational-ly because even with the best intentions, absolute ethics cause harm. Granted, holding your value system absolutely does save you the nasty problem of having to think for yourself and you can consider yourselve absolved of guilt if things go poorly if you consider your values absolute which is probably why some people cling to the idea of absolute ethics.

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