American Humanist Association Television Advertisements

[Gaslov]

Have you all seen these ads?

http://www.considerhumanism.org/

Personally, I feel the direction Humanism needs to go is to focus on our own beliefs and philosophy rather than on what others believe. Instead of trying to convince others that their belief is wrong, let's convince them that ours is right. We are making it too easy to be seen as aggressors and will lose the political war in the fight for rationalism.

[Dave B]

Good stuff, simple and to the point.

I wonder whether there will be any comment from the ranters about them?

[Fia]

Bugger. My interweb connection doesn't do HD. Must be too tech for the Scottish highlands

Although last week I wouldn't have agreed with Gaslov, having spoken about Humanism to a group yesterday, I'm now more inclined to agree.

There is certainly much use in contrasting beliefs, and it's not that hard to make many religious beliefs sound silly. But turn it the other way... automatically you will not hear the message. There go those unenlightened religiots again. You'd be too cross thinking "how dare they!" Us Humanists chat and interact a lot through the interweb, and are comfortable in our life stance. It's fine and therapeutic for us to take the piss. But when we're trying to take that message out to the wider world there may well be some merit in making our beliefs clear without recourse to ridicule.

I'm looking forward to where this thread goes...

[Alan C.]

Fia
It's fine and therapeutic for us to take the piss. But when we're trying to take that message out to the wider world there may well be some merit in making our beliefs clear without recourse to ridicule.

The problem (I think) is, we (Humanists, Atheists, or whatever) don't have collective beliefs, which makes it somewhat difficult to make them clear.

Ridiculing faith heads is a bit of a hobby of mine and I've no intention of giving up any time soon.

[tubataxidriver]

This initiative should be in the "Negative Humanism" forum, not the "Positive" one.

[Nick]

Personally, I feel the direction Humanism needs to go is to focus on our own beliefs and philosophy rather than on what others believe. Instead of trying to convince others that their belief is wrong, let's convince them that ours is right. We are making it too easy to be seen as aggressors and will lose the political war in the fight for rationalism.

Hmmm... that's an interesting question.

Ultimately, different approaches are appropriate for different people at different times. It would be very strange if we had only one approach.

Here in the UK there is a lot of cultural christianity, but thankfully precious little solid and consistant christian belief. People do not in general know their bibles, nor even some of the central tenets of their apparent faith, and pick 'n' mix their opinions. Many more do not believe in the church, but do believe in some sort of god. Many more put CofE on their medical records and census returns, but don't actually believe in god at all.

Taking those groups in reverse, to the "atheist" christians, I'd offer them "humanism" as a more appropriate label for what they actually believe. Many more people discover they have been humanists for years without realising it, rather than convert to humanism. To the middle group, I'd challenge them to justify their position, which IMO is no more than fence sitting. To the first group, I'd challenge them directly, laughing at their beliefs , and argue against them strongly. This could become fierce argument if it interferes with things I consider important, eg birth control, stemcell research , the rejection of reason, maltreatment of women and their hoodwinking children.

In some ways, if it were not for religion, there would be no need to label ourselves as humanists. We would just be humans, thinking about the world about us, and how best we should conduct ourselves in the brief time we have. I don't think in terms of a humanist economist, or a humanist biologist.