Why Be Humanist?

by Robert Finch, President
Humanists of Houston

Why should we bother to be humanists? Why do we need to attend meetings and conferences, to write newsletters and yearbook articles? Why do we need to join organizations and pay dues and make donations? Why do we need to take stands on unpopular issues with friends, neighbors, and fellow workers? Why don't we let other people argue with the religious right? Why do we have to think about other people's problems? I submit that we need humanism to put meaning and destiny in our lives, as individuals, and as societies; to improve the world and to overcome obstacles to progress. Let us consider these in turn.

There is little doubt that life for the individual has been steadily improving over the centuries. We live longer, with less disease and better nutrition in cleaner, pleasanter housing. Pain and suffering can be alleviated. We should be able to learn from psychology and neuroscience so that we and our children and everyone else can experience loving and secure relationships with meaningful satisfactions. We have greater ability to travel and communicate. If we manage our lives well, there should be no need for anyone to be forced into drudgery to earn a living. But many people are not fully cognizant of how science and the arts, medicine, technology, and good management could improve their lives at the present time. The universities have put a great premium on specialization and have neglected the need for general knowledge. To get help with the integration of knowledge into a lifestance should be a major incentive to join the humanist movement.

There is every reason to believe that advances in science and technology will permit current trends to continue. We may reach a point in the future when everyone will be independently wealthy. We may be able to control genetic as well as communicable diseases. We can anticipate a time when the scourge of cancer will be banished and the processes of aging will be conquered. If the scientific quest can be protected from the forces of ignorance and superstition we may find answers to age old questions. We may learn the nature of consciousness. We may find life on other planets and travel to meet it. We may understand why there is something rather than nothing. We will be able to control our own future evolution. But the profound ethical challenges these developments will bring demand the discussion and debate that can only be provided my institutions. Universities and government research laboratories are vulnerable to political control by primitive religious influences and reactionary or ideological political parties. The humanist movement has to serve as the defender of rationalism and pragmatism. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

We need the humanist movement to overcome other obstacles to progress; nihilism and hopelessness; hatred, racism and sexism; arrogance, intolerance and greed; jealousy and resentment. We need to work together to overcome such social ills as poverty, child abuse, overpopulation, and unintended consequences of our actions such as pollution. The humanist movement should be a bastion for democracy and openness in all societies. The humanist movement should be in the forefront of the development of world government to guarantee basic human rights everywhere and peace between nations. But we also need the humanist movement in the positive cause for all humanity. The individual can only find fulfillment in service to others. We recognize this in the very word "humanity" which stands for the best of behavior by individuals but also signifies "mankind" in general. Humanism is the ongoing quest for humanity.