Throughout my childhood, I struggled with retaining my faith in any religion I came across. I was baptized as a Catholic, became an atheist when I was seven, became a non-denominational Christian at twelve, and became an agnostic when I turned eighteen. Now I'm just stuck in a state of limbo and confusion.
With more intense research and trips to different churches, chapels, and holy places with many different friends, I stumbled upon the definition of humanism.
Humanism:
A progressive philosophy of life that, without theism and other supernatural beliefs, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity.(American Humanist Association)
Now I wouldn't say that I'm a full blown humanist. I do believe that there is some intelligent supernatural force out there in the universe, but I'm just not too sure of what it is yet. That's just my personal opinion.
Overall, I do favor some of humanism's morals and beliefs. I believe that I should be able to help out another human for the sake of hating to see that individual suffer. I don't want to help people because of religious obligations similar to the propaganda of a variety of popular religions. I want to help people because they need the help and I can offer it wholeheartedly.
A man's ethical behavior should be based on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.
- Albert Einstein
For a while, I was really into the scene of Chrisitanity. All of the morals, ethics, and teachings I could for the most part agree with. Then, the hypocrisy of others in the religion left a vile taste in my mouth. The re-embarking on my quest for my peace in the realm of spirituality continued on soon after.
Coming across humanism has given me a fair share of skepticism. I am very aporetic to practically anything that I do not fully understand. Isn't every human like that? On the contrary, I'm never apprehensive to taking the time and effort to understand concepts that are foreign to me. So I decided to divulge some of my time into researching humanism.
Humanism forms all of its beliefs on science, rational philosophy through experiences and the belief in the intelligence of humanity. Through this philosophical movement, humans take charge of all of their actions and have control over their destiny, not an external deity. They believe that bad events are caused by bad deeds created by people not supernatural forces and the only way to fix those actions are to balance them out with good ones. Almost like the Chinese philosophy and religion of yin and yang.
On a side note, humanism refuses to accept any supernatural views to be the deciding factor in human decisions. Not all humanists are atheist as many believe. Some are agnostic, which is very different from atheism. Atheist refuse to believe or take part in any worship of a god or gods, but agnostic are open to the belief in a god or gods and are currently searching for a spirituality that they agree with.
What I love about Humanism is the acceptance of all other human beings as your fellow brethren. There is just a sense of unity without prior ties to complete strangers. This I absolutely adore. Something that I do not particularly fancy is the almost blatant disregard of other religions as rubbish. Now, all religions are equally guilty of this, so I don't hold much offense to them.
Overall, I love how humanists have a main belief that governs their lives, which is to love life and to love other humans living it.
"All the world's major religions, with their emphasis on love, compassion, patience, tolerance, and forgiveness can and do promote inner values. But the reality of the world today is that grounding ethics in religion is no longer adequate. This is why I am increasingly convinced that the time has come to find a way of thinking about spirituality and ethics beyond religion altogether."
- The Dalai Lama
