“I am a humanist, which means, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without rewards or punishment after I am dead.”
-Kurt Vonnegut (Author and 1994 AHA Humanist of the year)
I don’t know much about Kurt Vonnegut beyond the fact that he was an American author most famous for his 1969 novel “Slaughterhouse-Five” . He was an atheist and a humanist, but much of his writing had religious themes. His books intrigue me and I would like to read them at some point.
I was looking at secular humanist websites tonight as I am connecting with that line of thinking more and more as the days go by. I saw this quote by Kurt Vonnegut and I instantly thought, “Yes. That’s it. That’s me now.” He was known as a humanist, not necessarily a secular humanist. There’s little difference, but I’ll do my best to show why I align with the secular humanists of the world.
Secular Humanism is basically this:
“A philosophy or life stance that embraces human reason, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, and superstition as the basis of morality and decision making.” (Wikipedia)
That’s it. I no longer look to religion for my morality. I no longer look to religion to find my purpose. I no longer look to religion as a crutch when instead I have people who can help prop me up when I’m down or hurting. Christianity has a book based on oral and written tradition said to come from God that supposedly contains the truth about life and morality. There is no reason to trust a book that has no evidence that it came from God, is full of errors and contradictions and has a lot of disgusting practices and beliefs. Morality from the Bible? No thank you. Slavery, misogyny, homophobia and so many more wrong ideas are no longer my idea of being moral.
Kurt’s brief quote is the best way for me to express what I think and what my motives are.
Do what’s good and right simply because it is the right thing to do. Do what benefits the most people and be a decent person to others, just like you’d like people to be to you. Don’t do things out of fear of punishment or because you think you’ll be rewarded. Doing good is its own reward. That’s it. Adding anything to it just makes things needlessly complicated for no reason.
If you are still looking for purpose in your life, here is one more piece of wisdom from Kurt Vonnegut:
Life After Religion 
Lately I’ve really felt like that last meme. I too, like the humanist view. We are smart enough to choose for ourselves
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Smart enough to choose to fart around. 😁
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I have read quite a number of his works and I found them quite entertaining really.
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I plan on reading some in the very near future.
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When I was a kid the church taught me that if I disobeyed the rules of a vindictive, vengeful, capricious and angry god, I’d be punished after I was dead.
When I was a kid my father taught me that the people around us are important. Their feelings and the quality of their lives, effect our own lives, and that I should never do anything that might harm someone else because although I might not realize it at the time, the harm that I do will someday have adverse effects on my own life.
Guess which bit of advice has been the most important to me ?
I don’t know if I’m a humanist or what any more. I don’t try to define myself because, in the long run, trying to put myself in a category is meaningless. What I do find enormously offensive are those in the religious community who try to claim that because I don’t believe in their angry, vindictive god, I am somehow an immoral person. If the only thing that makes you behave is the threat of torture, there is something very, very wrong with you.
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Even though I was raised a Christian, my mother’s views were a little less than typically fundamental. When I was worried about hell or death or anything else, she would just tell me, “Don’t worry. God knows your heart and knows you’re a good person.” That was absolutely horrible theology, but halfway decent humanism. God isn’t involved with humanism but having a good heart and being a good person fit right in with that way of thinking.
I don’t label myself. I don’t call myself a humanist or an atheist or anything else. I’m just me. I do agree with the message of humanism and I am unconvinced of all gods, like an atheist, but labels are unimportant to me. Others can say what they want about me but I’m just trying to be the best Ben I can be. Hopefully that’s good enough.
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I remember coming across a quote years ago and thinking, yup, that’s me.
The Humanist rarely loses the feeling of at-homeness in the universe. The Humanist is conscious of being an earth-child. There is a mystic glow in this sense of belonging. Memories of one’s long ancestry still linger in muscle and nerve, in brain and germ cell. On moonlit nights, in the renewal of life in the springtime, before the glory of a sunset, in moments of swift insight, people feel the community of their own physical being with the body of mother earth. Rooted in millions of years of planetary history, the earthling has a secure feeling of being at home, and a consciousness of pride and dignity as a bearer of the heritage of the ages.
A. Eustace Haydon
Haydon – 1956 AHA Humanist of the Year.
I’m aware that this quote might leave a bit of room for a theistic bent possibly and he was a Unitarian Universalist. For me, I see the quote from a non-theistic point of view. Still, it fits.
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That’s a good quote and I can see how it could leave the door open for a believer of some sort to embrace it. But being part of the earth and connecting with others is a pretty cool idea.
All that is guaranteed and all we have evidence of is this one life, here on Earth. Doing our best here and now is all we can do. If there is more after we die, then there is. Our lives here now shouldn’t affect the one that would be to come. If there is one, then it should remain a surprise and that way it wouldn’t change how we do things. Bad people might still be bad, but won’t have that “get out of jail free card” of repentance on their death beds after a life of treating people the wrong way. Likewise, good people could just continue being good for no other reason than it is the right thing to do. Not expecting a reward or a promotion after they die, but doing right for the sake of doing right.
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Bingo! We could start a club … actually there is a Humanist society and their manifesto is worth reading (and adhering to).
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Like I was saying to grouchyfarmer, I don’t like labels, but as far as the messages and ideals are concerned, Humanism is the way to go. Labels tend to divide people. But, they shouldn’t be necessary anyway. For example, the atheist label shouldn’t even exist because we shouldn’t have to be labeled as something when there is no evidence of that which we are unconvinced of. I’m not an a-Bigfootist, or an a-Loch-Ness-Monsterist even though I am unconvinced of their existence. I’m just me.
That being said, I am a human and I do care about human issues and other humans. Maybe the Humanist label does fit after all. 😁
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I believe as you stated in your last paragraph — without the label. The fact that I happen NOT to believe in anything else doesn’t change anything. IMO, it’s how you treat others that truly describes who you are.
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