K: for your viewing pleasure and commentary afterwards…
Declaration of Modern Humanism
DATE / 2022
LOCATION RATIFIED / GLASGOW, UNITED KINGDOM
RATIFYING BODY / GENERAL ASSEMBLY
STATUS / CURRENT
BACK TO POLICIES
(also known as ‘The Amsterdam Declaration’), declared by the 2022 General Assembly of Humanists International, replacing The Amsterdam Declaration of 2002.
Humanist beliefs and values are as old as civilization and have a history in most societies around the world. Modern humanism is the culmination of these long traditions of reasoning about meaning and ethics, the source of inspiration for many of the world’s great thinkers, artists, and humanitarians, and is interwoven with the rise of modern science.
As a global humanist movement, we seek to make all people aware of these essentials of the humanist worldview:
- Humanists strive to be ethical
We accept that morality is inherent to the human condition, grounded in the ability of living things to suffer and flourish, motivated by the benefits of helping and not harming, enabled by reason and compassion, and needing no source outside of humanity.
We affirm the worth and dignity of the individual and the right of every human to the greatest possible freedom and fullest possible development compatible with the rights of others. To these ends we support peace, democracy, the rule of law, and universal legal human rights.
We reject all forms of racism and prejudice and the injustices that arise from them. We seek instead to promote the flourishing and fellowship of humanity in all its diversity and individuality.
We hold that personal liberty must be combined with a responsibility to society. A free person has duties to others, and we feel a duty of care to all of humanity, including future generations, and beyond this to all sentient beings.
We recognise that we are part of nature and accept our responsibility for the impact we have on the rest of the natural world.
- Humanists strive to be rational
We are convinced that the solutions to the world’s problems lie in human reason, and action. We advocate the application of science and free inquiry to these problems, remembering that while science provides the means, human values must define the ends. We seek to use science and technology to enhance human well-being, and never callously or destructively.
- Humanists strive for fulfillment in their lives
We value all sources of individual joy and fulfillment that harm no other, and we believe that personal development through the cultivation of creative and ethical living is a lifelong undertaking.
We therefore treasure artistic creativity and imagination and recognise the transforming power of literature, music, and the visual and performing arts. We cherish the beauty of the natural world and its potential to bring wonder, awe, and tranquility. We appreciate individual and communal exertion in physical activity, and the scope it offers for comradeship and achievement. We esteem the quest for knowledge, and the humility, wisdom, and insight it bestows.
- Humanism meets the widespread demand for a source of meaning and purpose to stand as an alternative to dogmatic religion, authoritarian nationalism, tribal sectarianism, and selfish nihilism
Though we believe that a commitment to human well-being is ageless, our particular opinions are not based on revelations fixed for all time. Humanists recognise that no one is infallible or omniscient, and that knowledge of the world and of humankind can be won only through a continuing process of observation, learning, and rethinking.
For these reasons, we seek neither to avoid scrutiny nor to impose our view on all humanity. On the contrary, we are committed to the unfettered expression and exchange of ideas, and seek to cooperate with people of different beliefs who share our values, all in the cause of building a better world.
We are confident that humanity has the potential to solve the problems that confront us, through free inquiry, science, sympathy, and imagination in the furtherance of peace and human flourishing.
We call upon all who share these convictions to join us in this inspiring endeavor.
K: in reading many around here, we get the viewpoint that life is not worth
living and that we humans are born with sin and guilt… I reject both
viewpoints…it is by our actions in adulthood, that we become guilty of
some specific, particular act… we are not guilty or full of sin by just being
human… and the other viewpoint, mostly a religious one is that the after life
has more value than our current existence is false… that we ‘‘shall’’ be rewarded in
the next life has no value because it is an assumption…that is made, not
a guarantee… but some may say, but god has guaranteed it… one assumption
guarantying another assumption…
both Buddhism and Catholicism have rejected this idea of that life
is worth living… for Buddhism, being reborn again and again is
a fate worth avoiding, better not to be born is the message in Buddhism…
and in Catholicism, it is clear that life isn’t worth it but death and
the possibility of spending eternity with god is worth it…
being born is to be born guilty and full of sin… and every human born
is born of guilt and sin… at least according to Catholicism… and a viewpoint
I reject…
there is much talk around here of giving up and of hate and bigotry…
these bigots hate other human beings… that much is clear…
there is nothing worth believing in reading these haters and bigots…
they have nothing to offer us…just hate and bigotry…
and hatred and bigotry cannot feed our soul for very long…
and the worst part is, they don’t even know it…
and you can how they hunger for something to live for, something to die for…
and you can’t find that in hate or bigotry or being prejudiced…
the despair in their posts is almost visible… and I ask them, if
we, everyone on planet Earth, hated and practiced bigotry as you do,
what sort of earth would we have? a terrible world indeed…
with nothing positive to live for… and that is the question these
haters avoid, what would happen if your hatred and bigotry were to
become worldwide? You never hear about the future in these haters
and bigots… for they know that bringing their hate and prejudice to
fruition in the world would be a terrible place to live in…
certainly not a world worth living in… it’s no wonder why most of them
are believers in god… it somehow makes their hatred of the world
almost livable… god will save the world that I so hate…
recall Heidegger words, ‘‘only a god can save us now’’
and that is the unsaid part of these haters and bigots…
that there is no hope for us… and once again, they are wrong…
there is always hope… even in the darkness of nights… there is
hope that the sun will rise and being light to the world…
not the darkness of these haters and bigots, but light and we
know that light is the bringer of life…
will they answer me? of course not… I will be ignored…
but let their silence condemn them… their silence is an
admission of being wrong and of being haters of life…
haters of hope and love… let their silence be a weight on
their souls… those soul sick human beings…
Kropotkin