Irreverence is a hallmark of humanism

Irreverence is a hallmark of humanism. No writ is too holy, no image too divine to escape merciless critique, doubt, and even ridicule. It shouldn't be surprising, then, that even the most cohesive and organized humanist groups lack a defining cadre of sacred objects and ideas.

Yet sacredness is essential to spirituality for theists and non-theists alike. What we hold sacred forms the foundation for archtypes, traditions, mythology, rituals, and celebrations. It sets a context for the ethical and moral codes we use to guide our own behavior and to judge the behavior of others. It distinguishes doctrine from opinion and creates a living community out of a primordial soup of zealous individuality.

Humanists shy away from identifying anything as sacred because sacredness shapes behavior in a way that transcends rationality. If we refrain from murder, not because it is reasonable and evolutionarily adaptive to support a murder-free society but because life is sacred, does that defeat an essential humanist principle? Only if your goal is to have a religion of all bishops and no parishioners. And if humans are rational creatures, they are also social ones. Shared beliefs and traditions must be palatable by many, not only an elite few. If we deny our social selves by isolating ourselves into pockets of rationality, we deny our human natures and fall into the pits of hypocrisy. The compromise, then, is to use reason as the measure of sacredness rather than divinity.

There is precedent to guide us. In her novel The Fifth Sacred Thing, Starhawk (a neo-Pagan writer) envisions a future society whose inhabitants are religiously diverse but spiritually cohesive. The prologue to this book is the Declaration of the Four Sacred Things, which names earth, air, fire, and water as sacred. "Whether we see them as the breath, energy, blood, and body of the Mother, or as the blessed gifts of the Creator, or as symbols of the interconnected systems that sustain life, we know that nothing can live without them." Starhawk also names a fifth sacred thing -- spirit -- that requires freedom, justice, and equality to thrive.

Starhawk's Declaration wraps everything up in a neat little package, and I am not certain that I can improve on what she wrote. It is, of course, a western view of the spiritual elements. Wood and metal are not distinguished from earth, for example. It is also simplistic; carbon is given no more importance than nickel or einsteinium. But it provides a template for us to write the stories and traditions and mores of humanism.

In future posts, I intend to use the Five Sacred Things as a basis for recommending holidays, rituals, and codes of conduct for spiritual humanists.

Introductions

Welcome to our Blog on Spirituality and Humanism. Carmen and I come from very different backgrounds (see below), but we both have a passion for ethical, moral behavior and for Humanism. We are also both parents (her of 3 and me of 4) and so have worked to bring Humanism into both our families and our communities. Religion and spirituality serve an essential function for both the individual and society. We believe that it is possible to have a humanist ideology that fills the role of religion morally and epistemologically. This blog and our site http://spiritualhumanist.info are our ways of communicating about humanist spirituality. Our diverse background will help by providing different approaches to this concept.

Sean Curley

Believe it or not, I grew up a fairly involved Catholic. Many people thought I would become a priest, but I always wanted a family and so refused to go that route. I did, however, go to Catholic Leadership training programs during high school and could frequently be seen as an alter boy or leading the rosary at church (mostly for the elderly) during my lunch hour.

But, my father taught me to think and reason even above believing and faith and during college I studied world religions and realized that all of them seemed to have good things to say and many bad things as well (read the Bible or Koran and see how harsh they really are). Then as my dive into science and philosophy continued, I began to see how wrong it was for us to be relying on a possible afterlife or a disconnected God to define our lives. And so began my ascent into Humanism.

For most of my life then I lived a Humanistic life without taking it outside the home. The belief here was we should each lead our own life the best way we see fit and not push our beliefs on others. I taught my kids about Humanism, but also about other world religions, but most importantly, I taught them about living a moral, honorable life irrespective of religion.

Then the 9/11 attacks came and I realized that unchecked religion is still a threat in the world and I looked around and saw how religious organizations are trying to control the political agenda in America. Both of these really frightened me and so I (along with many others) decided the time was right to get more active. So I have started to write more on-line, joined the Board of the Boulder International Humanist Institute (see http://www.bihi.info), developed the Spiritual Humanist web site (see http://spiritualhumanist.info), joined the Church of Spiritual Humanism and have applied to be a Humanist Society Humanist Celebrant. This blog is the latest addition to my attempt to get more active in this movement.

As for the topics I plan to write about, mostly they will be spirituality and humanism, but occasionally I'll write about parenting in a Humanist/Atheist home. There already exists a lot of information on the Internet about this topic, so I'll probably keep it to a minimum. Other related topics may come in if they seem relevant. Please feel free to comment on any topic you like as that is the best way for all of us to learn. If you don't want to comment in public, feel free to send me email at sean.curley@spiritualhumanist.info or you can visit the web site and use the contact form.

Carmen Mosley-Sims

I grew up Primitive Baptist in the cradle of fundamentalism: rural south Arkansas. For those of you who are not familiar with Primitive Baptist doctrine, please do not confuse it with Christian Coalition-Southern Baptist evangelicalism. No, the Primitive Baptists are the "foot-washing" Baptists. I was baptized at the age of 10 in a freezing cold catfish pond, because heated indoor baptisteries aren't mentioned in the Bible. Primitive Baptists are nothing if not sincere.

A mere two years after my baptism, I set my first steps on the path away from the religion of my childhood. I remember this as a heart wrenching decision, because I loved my church community, the lessons it had taught me, and the rituals that marked so many significant moments in my life. As compelling as the reasons were to remain in the church, however, I knew even as an adolescent that I had to find my own way. For one thing, the church doctrine was inexorably opposed to homosexuality, to the point of excluding gays and lesbians from the church. I could not continue following a religion that rejected my close friends and family members, including my own sister. Moreover, my mother had gone back to college around this time and was bringing home ideas and writings representing so many other ways of knowing. The scientific method struck a chord with me, as did eastern philosophy, existentialism, Jewish orthodoxy, and many other foundations of knowledge.

Since then, I have explored many different religions with the goal of finding the "Truth" in all of them. As an undergraduate, I majored in anthropology and became committed to the idea of cultural relativism. At the same time, however, I felt that certain lines should be drawn to moderate human behavior, that appreciation for diversity did not have to mean blind tolerance of anything and everything. I read Krishnamurti and Gandhi and Mary Baker Eddy and Daniel Quinn, and the more I learned of their practical approaches to spirituality, the more I came to equate world religions with the blind men describing the elephant. Each one offers a different and even contradictory description of the Truth, but if we could only step back and see the bigger picture, we would know that all of them are correct.

I'm no longer Primitive Baptist. I'm not even Christian; or Jewish or Hindu or Muslim or Pagan. But I am not an atheist, either. I cannot be atheist because I have directly and personally experienced God. Asking me to deny those experiences is like asking the blind man at the elephant's foot to deny that there are such things as toenails. But the most important questions to me, as a human being, do not concern the nature of God or the afterlife. The most important questions relate to the best way to live this life, and how to maintain constructive relationships with my fellow human beings. We can answer those questions through spiritual humanism.

I intend to focus most of my writings on the moral standards we can set through humanist ideals, and strategies on how to build humanist communities on the local and global level. I am also interested in humanist rites and rituals, stories, holidays and traditions, and other daily nuts and bolts of living as a spiritual humanist. I have personally experienced the challenges of conveying a sense of spirituality to my children while avoiding dogma and maintaining a humanist home. I hope that this blog will help me and others find the balance between critical thinking, and humility before forces that are bigger than we are. Please contact me at carmen@spiritualhumanist.info if you would like to communicate with me directly.