Just Finished Reading: Humanism – A Very Short Introduction by Stephen Law

My name is Cyberkitten and I’m a Humanist. Of course I’ve thought of myself as a humanist for as long as I’ve known the meaning of the word – actually before I even knew there was a word to describe my thoughts and feelings on life, the universe and everything. I wasn’t at all surprised that I call tick all of the boxes the author used to define humanism – a belief in science and reason as invaluable tools in all areas, none of which are or should be off-limits (tick), being an atheist or at least agnostic (tick), believing that this is the only life we have and that there is no afterlife of any kind (tick), a commitment to the existence and importance of moral value (tick), an emphasis on moral autonomy (tick), a belief that life can have meaning without reference to God (tick), being a secularist (tick). Yes, that’s me in a nutshell.

Inevitably (of course I should have known this) I found the rest of the book, if not exactly dull, a little ‘so what’. After all the author didn’t need to convince me of anything – I was already there. I was aware of the record of humanism (presented in highlights in the history section) and kind of rolled my eyes at the two chapters on arguments for and against God (actually they were very good providing snappy answers to the standard arguments Christians come up with for Gods existence). Following this the author discussed how we can still be moral beings without reference to God, a discussion of Secularism, moral education and, the biggie, the ‘Meaning of Life’ question and how Humanists answer it.

All in all this was a pretty good defence of the Humanist perspective in just under 150 pages – so easily digestible. If you’re interested in Humanism or haven’t really heard of it before this will be a very good introduction to the subject. If you’re already familiar with the idea it won’t add much to what you already know but might add a few things to the mix. Recommended.