What Will Be Human in the Future?
What does it mean to be human? As it relates to artificial intelligence (AI), this important question has been explored in science fiction films and television beginning with 2001: A Space Odyssey and more recently... Read More
What’s in the Name? All of Us Celebrating a century of humanism
THE OLDEST RECORDED DESCRIPTION of the philosophy of life we call “humanism” was first articulated by the Greek philosopher Epicurus, who lived from 341 until 270 BCE. His philosophy, which subsequent philosophers have labeled “hedonism,”... Read More
Sex: Our Wonderful Gift
I GREW UP in a time before there was any sex education and when people only spoke of sex in hushed terms around children. They spoke of cancer the same way. At puberty, when certain... Read More
Let’s Celebrate! (AKA How We Can Be of Service to the Secular Community)
I NEVER WANTED TO BE A HUMANIST CELEBRANT until John Forwalter died. John was president of our local humanist chapter, and when he died in 1996, his fundamentalist preacher son conducted a full-blown evangelical funeral... Read More
Remaking Ourselves
HUMANISM HAS FAILED. This election has shown how our values were repudiated by many Americans in national, state, and local elections. There is still much to be learned, but for us it’s clear that a... Read More
Hope
A YOUNG WOMAN in a self-management and recovery training (SMART) meeting I coordinate asked me how anything could go right for her when she had so many debts, destroyed relationships, little hope for employment, little... Read More
Who Comes First, People or the Planet?
HUMANISM HAS BEEN labeled by some as anthropocentric and given to speciesism, the belief that human beings are set apart and should be valued above the rest of the biosphere. If all we’re interested in... Read More