I Am A Secular Humanist Might You Be?

Lon said:
Dame asked: "How would you feel about Humanists creating their own secular festivals and gatherings?"

I am going to attend a picnic today arranged by The Central Valley Humanists. Probably be about 200 folks.
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Lon, have an enjoyable day, it's going to be a warm one- stay in the shade.
 

Dame Warrigal said:
A worthy aspiration.

Just a couple of question?
What is the yardstick against which you measure your achievement of ethical personal fulfilment?
How do you deal with personal moral/ethical failures ?
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Would it be an appropriate yardstick to check your own activities, speech, whatever to see if it is to the benefit of the next guy as well as yourself? The 'golden rule' for example?

And wouldn't your method of dealing with moral or ethical failures be pretty much the same as yours? A recognition of that failing and a deep and earnest desire to do better next time. My recognition = your confession and desire for forgiveness.
 
Ameriscot said:
A fellow volunteer in Uganda was a humanist. She went to meetings and goes to them back home in England as well. I'm fine with what anyone believes. But for me, I'm unlabeled. I'm interested in different beliefs, mostly in Buddhism and Paganism which are very different. So I don't label myself anything. I'm open.
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I think 'unlabelled' is suitable for me too. I'm too open to the possibilities of ideas that I have heard of yet to want to tie myself to any one. There are aspects of all 'faiths' that benefit me and the world at large to say, and too many have kernels of truth in them to say 'it's only this' or 'only that'. I think it's also important to factor in the building blocks of this world/reality that scientists have begun to understand. Like particles and atoms and probability waves and gravity and all the rest of that stuff.
 

My creed is.. Do no harm. It's nice to do good works but it's not always possible or feasible... More important IMO is that one does not intentionally harm another living creature.. human or otherwise..
 
oldman said:
I may have the wrong idea, but from all of your posts that I have read, I do not see you as being a Pagan. Just saying.
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As the following is the definition of paganism from "Paganism International', http://www.paganfederation.org/what-is-paganism/

The Basics
Pagans may be trained in particular traditions or they may follow their own inspiration. Paganism is not dogmatic. Pagans pursue their own vision of the Divine as a direct and personal experience.....The many deities of Paganism are a recognition of the diversity of Nature. Some Pagans see the goddesses and gods as a community of individuals much like the diverse human community in this world. Others, such as followers of Isis and Osiris from ancient times onwards, and Wiccan-based Pagans in the modern world, see all the goddesses as one Great Goddess, and all the gods as one Great God, whose harmonious interaction is the secret of the universe. Yet others think there is a supreme divine principle, that “both wants and does not want to be called Zeus”, as Heraclitus wrote in the fifth century BCE, or which is the Great Goddess Mother of All Things, as Isis was to the first century CE novelist Apuleius and the Great Goddess is to many Western Pagans nowadays. Yet others, such as the Emperor Julian, the great restorer of Paganism in Christian antiquity, and many Hindu mystics nowadays, believe in an abstract Supreme Principle, the origin and source of all things. But even these last Pagans recognise that other spiritual beings, although perhaps one in essence with a greater being, are themselves divine, and are not false or partial divinities. Pagans who worship the One are described as henotheists, believers in a supreme divine principle, rather than monotheists, believers in one true deity beside which all other deities are false...."

Seems like the opening sentence would embrace people like Ameriscot or anyone else outside of the traditional church. Probably the one guiding principle that all versions of pagans would adhere to would be the concept that we are all connected and if you hurt the next guy, you hurt 'yourself'. Do you think that would be fair to say?

Interesting to see that there are adherents even in paganism to the 'one god/divine principle,being' understanding.
 
QuickSilver said:
My creed is.. Do no harm. It's nice to do good works but it's not always possible or feasible... More important IMO is that one does not intentionally harm another living creature.. human or otherwise..
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'Good works' are nice, but even the ACT of simply doing no harm....or speaking kindly or a loving hug is an action and you could call it 'a good work'. If you thought something and it led to the tiniest action (a loving hug or a cheery hello or ......), it's a good work. Just differing degrees of 'good works' I think.
 
Debby said:
Would it be an appropriate yardstick to check your own activities, speech, whatever to see if it is to the benefit of the next guy as well as yourself? The 'golden rule' for example?

And wouldn't your method of dealing with moral or ethical failures be pretty much the same as yours? A recognition of that failing and a deep and earnest desire to do better next time. My recognition = your confession and desire for forgiveness.
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I have found forgiving myself much harder than forgiving others. I have in the past carried my transgressions on my back as dead weights years after the event. Like zombies, they refused to die and stay dead. This was during my younger atheist days and confession was not an option. Nor was doing better next time because each event carried its own shame and regret that could not be wiped away by simply doing something good to balance the ledger. Not having had more than a Sunday School introduction of Christianity I had no experience of confession of sins or of absolution. I probably had an instinctive understanding of atonement but was usually too embarrassed to make such a gesture of remorse. I just bottled it all up inside me.

It wasn't till much later that I understood (and felt) the liberating power of grace. Only then was I able to forgive myself and move on.
 
"It wasn't till much later that I understood (and felt) the liberating power of grace. Only then was I able to forgive myself and move on."

Dame Warrigal -- this is exactly the experience I had. Quite a change from the fire and brimstone I heard about in Sunday School as a child.
 
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