When Humanists Agree

There are so many issues that humanists tend to agree on more than 90% of the time: marriage equality for LGBT people, safe access to reproductive services for women, end of life choices, and more. It seems we humanists agree even more than Catholics do when you consider that only 84% of Catholics think Jesus was the Messiah. But humanists, by nature, are freethinkers, and so there are several topics of which we may disagree, especially when a humanist argument could be made for both sides. While the American Humanist Association isn’t likely to issue formal positions on issues where we’re split 50/50, reminding ourselves of the diversity of humanism is a great way to get good discussions going.

In a past issue, we asked HNN readers, “Is Eating Meat Ethical for Humanists?” of which we had excellent articles written by Jason Torpy and Fred Edwords. This week, we’re getting into an even more, dare I say, touchy topic: the issue of pornography. I encourage you to voice your opinions in the comments section of each article, share it widely with your friends on Facebook and Twitter, and let’s get to talking. If there’s one thing 99.9% of humanists love to do, it’s debate.

Maggie Ardiente
Editor, HNN
hnn@americanhumanist.org