Re: Humanism in 2006


Roger Johansson wrote:
> Humanism is working for a better future, which we create by ourselves,
> free from limiting old religious traditions which lock us into a
> certain way to live, a certain way to think, a certain way to be,
> certain social power structures.

I think humanists' efforts to combat the prejudices and limitations of
traditional religions are generally good efforts and I share a lot
there with people who call themselves humanists. On the other hand I
find that people who call themselves humanists tend to accept that
science's mode of knowing and proof preclude the existence and validity
of other forms of gaining knowledge. This leads humanists to limit
what they themselves take as real in their own experience, but further
to judge, mock, criticize and socialize out of other people's
experiences that do not fit in the narrow range of what is verifiable
in double blind tests as set up by scientists. I also notice that
humanists tend to be behind in their knowledge of Science accepting a
Newtonian/Descartes machine like world in which scepticism is the no
starting point - despite the fact that no one has ever done a study of
whether scepticism is healther or more accurate or 'better' in any of a
number of possible definitions.

I see myself and others who do not accept tradtional religions - or at
least the big monotheisms - as seen as evil by one group and irrational
by the other. Soemtimes the open hatred of the former is preferable to
the condescension and smugness of the latter. It feels more honest. a
lot of the time, of course, I prefer the complicated and interesting
discussions I can have with humanists and their tendency to not justify
local violence with reference to books.

.

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