Humanism for Children - preview

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Nada Topić Peratović

HUMANISM FOR CHILDREN

Center for Civil Courage Zagreb, 2014.

INTRODUCTION About the publisher ...........................................................................................

About the book ..................................................................................................

Foreword .............................................................................................................

Thanks ................................................................................................................

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PART ONE – HUMANISM IS FOR EVERYONE! Who are humanists? ........................................................................................... 17

Nature

Knowledge ............................................................................................... 18 Critical consciousness ............................................................................. 18 Humanist thought .................................................................................... 18

Cognition of the world .............................................................................

Scientific method .....................................................................................

Creation myths ........................................................................................

Origin of species ......................................................................................

Evolution .................................................................................................

Scientific and natural laws ........................................................................

Society

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Democracy ...............................................................................................

Antifascism ..............................................................................................

Human rights ...........................................................................................

Theism .....................................................................................................

Atheism ....................................................................................................

Humanism ...............................................................................................

Enlightment ............................................................................................

Secularism ................................................................................................

Free people ...............................................................................................

Brave women ...........................................................................................

Gender equality .......................................................................................

Feminism .................................................................................................

Proud people ...........................................................................................

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Humanist thoughts . ............................................................................................ 50

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PART TWO – HOW TO LIVE THE BEST POSSIBLE LIFE Humanity ................................................................................................

Morals .....................................................................................................

Humanistic moral rules ...........................................................................

Ten suggestions for a good life .................................................................

1. Take care of yourself! .................................................................

2. Be free! .....................................................................................

Think freely .......................................................................

Act freely ...........................................................................

3. Be happy! ................................................................................

Live life to the fullest .........................................................

Create ...............................................................................

4. Show solidarity! ........................................................................

Empathy ...........................................................................

Solidarity ...........................................................................

Friendship .........................................................................

Solace and confort ............................................................

5. Be caring! .................................................................................

6. Care about the world! ...............................................................

7. Be reasonable! ...........................................................................

Use your brain ..................................................................

Learn .................................................................................

Be suspicious .....................................................................

Soul ..................................................................................

8. Be just! .....................................................................................

Just ....................................................................................

Kind and unkind words .....................................................

Honesty .............................................................................

Bad secrets .........................................................................

9. Be responsible! ..........................................................................

Responsibility ....................................................................

Responsibility towards animals ..........................................

Civil disobedience ............................................................

Civil activism .....................................................................

10. Be brave! ...............................................................................

Dare to know .....................................................................

Civil courage .....................................................................

Resist ................................................................................

A life worth living ...................................................................................

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PART ONE - HUMANISM IS FOR EVERYONE!

Who are humanists?

How to live a good and just life?

People who believe the answer to this question lies in human knowledge and critical awareness, who are compassionate and feel they should be solidary with the needs and rights of others are called humanists.

What is human knowledge? How can we explain critical awareness?

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Knowledge Knowledge is a multitude of facts, information and skills that a person acquires through her or his own experience or education. Just like playing with fire is an experience that teaches us we can get hurt if we are not careful.

Critical consciousness Critical consciousness is our inner voice that reviews our thoughts and actions. By using our previously acquired knowledge about fire, our minds contemplate using matches without hurting ourselves or others.

Thinking about and reconsidering ourselves, the environment and the society we live in is called critical thinking. It can lead to changes in behaviour once people realise that their deeds or intentions were not good.

Humanist thought Humanist thought places human beings, their knowledge, experience and critical thought at the centre of attention. The word humanist comes from the Latin5 word ‘humanus’ which means humane. The root of the word ‘humanus’ is derived from the word ‘homo’ which in Latin means man.

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Even though Latin is an ancient language, it is considered important since it has influenced many other languages. Latin is still used in the creation of new words (e.g. taxonomy in biology) in many modern languages. The Modern Romance languages (French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Roma- nian and others) are continuations of Latin.

Evolution Scientists learned that the Earth is more than four and a half billion years old while the earliest life existed at least 3.5 billion years ago; all of its different types of animals and plants evolved from simpler forms.

These changes are called evolution. Evolution means that animals, plants and other living beings gradually and very slowly adapt and change from generation to generation.

Those species that couldn’t adapt to the ever changing conditions on Earth faced extinction. Apart from adaptation, evolution is caused by mutation and genetic drift. Those are the ways new species are formed.

The first forms of life were tiny organisms that lived in Earth’s early oceans. Over millions of years, those simple forms of life changed and adapted to their environments.

Slowly adjusting, bacteria producing oxygen emerged which later enabled a plethora of different life forms, starting with marine organisms. The land was first colonized by plants, then by insects and animals. Pressure from the environment resulted in some fish slowly adapting through many generations to breathing on land, evolving into amphibians then reptiles and some into the notable dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are the ancestors of birds. After the extinction of many sorts of dinosaurs that ruled on land for millions of years, tiny mammals got their chance to evolve into the many species that we know today.

Millions of years later, apes appeared, and only in the last few million years – humans!

Humans are not descended from apes, humans are apes; chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans and gorillas are cousins, we all have a common ancestor that lived in the past – millions of years ago.

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Scientific or natural laws Owing to abundant scientific studies, people today can learn facts about the world, how it came to be and how it is changing. The world is also shaped and changed by man’s cultural development.

Scientists aim to objectively explain various phenomena in our environment. They attribute those events to nature and call them scientific or natural laws. Observing and studying the relationships between those events, scientists have concluded that some of the phenomena are interrelated as causes and consequences. An event can be a cause for another event to happen as a consequence.

Here is what that means: A seed of rice or corn will grow into a plant only if it gets water and sun. It is unnecessary to pray for the seed to grow to harvest a good crop.

Nature doesn’t require magic, nor does the Earth require a supervisor.

During evolutionary adaptation, plants, animals and other species have evolved and inherited a ‘program’ of growth and behaviour. This gives the impression that everything in the world happens on schedule and with a purpose. But life programs were not formed by a sentient being as a part of its plan; they were created as a result of many adjustments from generation to generation.

Because people are mostly devoid of innate behavioural programmes, they determine their lives’ meaning and purpose for themselves. But to be able to influence their environment successfully, they must be familiar with the causes and consequences of the events that they want to influence. Their actions can change the causes, thus changing the consequences.

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Enlightenment More than two hundred years ago, beginning in the late 17th-century in Europe, society was ripe to allow an atmosphere where a review of previous human knowledge and belief was possible – emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition. That historical era is called the Age of Enlightenment.

The sages of that time contemplated and questioned society through the lens of science, human reasoning and critical thinking. They realized that only science was based on serious research and observations that were reproducible and subject to verification by other scientists. In contrast, claims that had for centuries been imposed by religious organizations were based on unverified teachings, rules that were not supposed to be questioned and on personal religious experiences.

The term enlightenment is consists of the word “light” both in French and translated into English, suggesting that this is a movement where people in the “darkness” of ignorance in which they lived were offered a “light” of reason, hence also the name The Age of Reason.

Thinkers searching for the meaning of life are called philosophers. The word philosophy comes from the Ancient Greek φιλοσοφία (philosophia), which literally means “love of wisdom”. Philosophers seek to know the world and discover the reasons why the world is as it is. They also strive to answer the question of how the world should be.

Giordano Bruno was one of the first brave thinkers preceding the Era of Enlightenment. His conclusion that the Earth revolved around the Sun and that our Sun was one of the stars in the infinite universe was very bold for that time. Before his time, the prevalent thought was that the sun revolved around the Earth. Because of such beliefs, he was detained in prison for many years and frequently interrogated and tried. On one occasion he was told to repent in eight days or he would be executed. He did not repent. In fear of his free-thinking, along with his books he was burned at the stake by religious leaders.

Enlightenment emphasized the importance of reason in opposition to all existing religious, moral and political oppression. Its proponents believed that people should not obediently adhere to religious beliefs, customs and traditions, but needed to think and act rationally. Bruno claimed a principle of free thought and inquiry which implied an entirely new concept of authority.

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Humanist thoughts Humanists contemplate many things. These are some of their most important conclusions: To live the best possible life, people need knowledge, critical thinking, freedom and rights; together with a fair system of shared decision-making on issues affecting society as a whole.

Human knowledge is enriched by new understanding about the world on a daily basis. New data often excludes the validity of previous theories, so a daily update of knowledge is required. Although we still don’t understand or can’t explain many things, we understand more about ourselves and the way we reason and how we shape the world.

Everybody should be allowed to think and do what you feel is right as long as their actions do not harm the environment and the environment.

Since people are social beings, it is reasonable to help each other and work together to get the world to become a better place for all. Awareness of our own role in shaping the world makes us accountable for it.

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PART TWO HOW TO LIVE THE BEST POSSIBLE LIFE

Humanity One of the main principles of humanism is that people can do good – through critical thinking and their positive actions. Humanists use reason, knowledge and effort to think through, to conclude and to act on matters which concern humankind. They can also do things together like visit interesting events and gatherings, help deprived and disabled people, and participate in the social life of the community they live in.

How should we live and what should we do to make the world a better place for all its inhabitants?

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Ten proposals for a good life Have you heard of the Ten Commandments?

The ten most important rules in the Jewish and Christian religions are called The Ten Commandments. The first four commandments determine the worship of a particular god, the last six govern relations between people.

Non-religious people do not live according to god’s rules; they regulate their coexistence with other people by their own moral principles.

Instead of the immutable commandments, let’s offer ten proposals for a good life. Each proposal is given as advice and can be reconsidered and judged, and finally accepted or rejected.

Let us remember how we examine our moral rule: it is moral if it does others good, immoral if it does harm. We can change our policy as we learn more about what helps and what harms.

Let’s explore the ten suggestions together...

1. Take care of yourself!

2. Be free!

3. Be happy!

4. Show solidarity!

5. Be caring!

6. Care about the world!

7. Be reasonable!

8. Be just!

9. Be responsible!

10. Be brave!

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Solace and comfort Everybody experiences something sad from time to time. We are sad to lose something we love, or when we can’t have something we want. We are sad if we break our favourite toy and want to play with it again. We are sad to say goodbye to a friend who is moving house far away because we know it will be a long time before we meet again.

We are sad when we see photos of people suffering from hunger or disease, and we are the saddest when someone we love dies. It could be someone from our family or someone who was very dear to us; it could also be our pet. We will always miss those very dear to us who have passed away. After a while we start to remember the good times we spent together, and we start to feel less sad.

When we are feeling sad, talking to friends or someone we want to share our feelings with can help us a lot. At some part of our lives we all experience grief and loss. Feelings of sadness don’t depend on time and space. Grief hurts us but it also tells us something good. Sadness tells us we have loved. We love our friends and family and that is why we miss them terribly when they are gone. Sadness tells us that we should rejoice and enjoy life with our loved ones. Rejoicing is also common to all people. Memories of the good days help us lessen our sorrow. Remembering the happy days will help wipe our tears away.

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Be reasonable!

Use your brain One of the greatest thinkers of the Enlightenment was Immanuel Kant.

In 1784 in his paper An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment? Kant stated that “Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-incurred immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one’s own understanding without the guidance of another.”

What did the famous thinker mean?

Man, as mentioned by Kant, finally began to think independently during the Age of Enlightenment when he started considering his age-old habits and customs, no longer accepting them unquestioningly.

Before he began thinking and using his own common sense, according to Kant, man was dependent and immature.

This immaturity was, according to Kant, man’s own fault, because he had allowed others to think instead of thinking for himself - for lack of knowledge, fear or laziness.

For millennia people have left that responsibility up to powerful individuals, rulers and religious delegates – giving them the power to tell them what they should think or do. People have subjugated themselves to the decisions of others and without thinking critically or questioning have lived their lives under the rule of others.

Sometimes it’s pleasant to leave the thinking and responsibility to someone else, not to think about cares and duties and not to pursue new knowledge. Similarly, as pupils we rather play with friends than do our homework.

But being carefree comes with a price – living in ignorance or adjusting our attitudes to other people makes us puppets on a string lead by others. The one holding the strings will rule our lives and our behaviour.

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Resist During times of economic hardship and poverty peoples’ minds are overcome with dissatisfaction and desperation which can grow into intolerance and hatred for others.

Basic democratic principles become insignificant, human rights and humanity fade under pressure from new rules and constitutions made by the loudest and strongest individuals in society. People join violent movements because they truly believe the words of their leaders or want to take advantage of the moment that is being offered to them.

During times of evil it is easier to do what the majority is doing than to think differently and act courageously as an individual. It is easier to meld with the majority and be invisible amongst those who are doing evil than to act out against evil. Oftentimes in cowardice people turn their heads from the evil being done upon others, happy that they themselves are not being hurt. They hope that their silence will protect them from evil and simply close their eyes to violence. Led by fear, they simply do not want to think about their own responsibility and join the oppressors. But, are they justified in doing so simply because it is the easier option? What if everyone did the same? Not doing anything and staying silent makes us participants in evil.

The words of German pastor Martin Niemoeller warn all those who would rather stay silent in their cowardice: When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist.

When they came for the Jews, I remained silent; I wasn’t a Jew. When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.

Evil is never at peace, it eats at and destroys everything and in the end destroys society.

If we do not resist evil when it first begins we ourselves will be its victims. The Latin saying “principiis obsta” warns us that we must work against evil as soon as it is visible, no matter how insignificant it seems.

A heroine who resisted evil was Sophie Scholl. While her fellow citizens were cowardly silent before the Nazis this young student had the courage to recognise their evil intentions. She put her life at risk by challenging them with her words and actions and in the most difficult times remained courageous in the battle against inhumanity.

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www.civilcourage.hr you can purchase this book here: www.civilcourage.hr/shop center4civilcourage@gmail.com

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