Humanist’s Hangout
Strange as it may sound, the Humanist’s Hangout Home Page shouldn’t even exist! My original intention was to open a simple message board - nothing more; a place for Humanist’s, Atheists, freethinkers and other interested bystanders to come discuss whatever was on their minds. This seemed like an easy, low maintenance Internet project - post a few topics, answer a few replies, delete a few rude comments - nothing to it! But as Robert Burns once warned us: "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men - Gang aft agley,"!
My first hint of trouble came when one of my earliest visitors expressed his disappointment at not being able to sign a guestbook. "Well..." I thought: "I suppose that would be a good way of seeing who stops by!" So with a little help from one of my friends, I added a guestbook. What more could I possibly need?
Over time, I ran across a number of other interesting websites. It seemed only reasonable to provide my visitors with links to these sites, so that they could explore these places for themselves. But how to do it? I began by inserting links directly into my posts. (Something I still do where appropriate.) But this soon proved to be a rather cumbersome and haphazard method. Gradually, it dawned on me that what I really needed was an actual ‘Links’ page! Reluctantly, I bowed to the inevitable and added one. Surely now I was done?
Then at last came the dreaded (And in hindsight, rather obvious!) question: "So what is Humanism anyway?" Ouch! I had no short, pithy way of explaining it, and it simply wouldn’t do to bury my answer in another post. And so, the idea for this Home Page was born...
Humanism
Part of the difficulty of presenting a Brief Overview of any philosophical system lies in defining the central theme or themes upon which it is based. Fortunately, in the case of Humanism, there is at least one central idea that ties all the divergent strands of Humanistic thought together. The name ‘Humanism’ is itself indicative of that theme. The American College Dictionary defines Humanism as:
hu man ism (hue’ ma niz um), n. 1. any system or
mode of mode of thought or action in which human interests
predominate. 2. devotion to or study of the humanities;
polite learning; literary culture. 3. (sometimes cap.) the
studies, principles, or culture of the Humanists
The American College Dictionary. New York. Random House, Inc. (1961).
Definition 1 is the operative one for the purposes of this outline. The philosophy of Humanism concerns itself with the needs and interests of humanity. It seeks neither supernatural guidance nor divine intervention as a means of solving mankind’s problems, but looks rather towards the thoughts and actions of men and women themselves. Humanism seeks to unlock the full potentiality of mankind through the constructive power of reason. Whatever else we may choose to say about Humanism, we can hardly go wrong by recognizing humanity as its focal point.
Underlying this central theme are several important propositions. Corliss Lamont recognized ten such propositions in his book entitled, "The Philosophy of Humanism" (Lamont, Corliss. The Philosophy of Humanism. New York, NY. The Continuum Publishing Co., (1993). Seventh Edition.). To quote Dr. Lamont:
Forgive the excessively long quotation, but it was difficult to imagine a better way of introducing the fundamental tenets of Humanistic philosophy than to cite the words of one of the premiere Humanists of our day. Various Humanistic groups may interpret or express these principles in differing ways, but most all will follow these ten precepts to a greater or lesser degree.
My Essays
