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Home , Religious humanism, Secular humanism

Becoming More Fully : Religious as a Way of Life Sermon by the Rev. Dr. William R. Murry

A few years ago 75 percent of Unitarian Universalists identified as Religious Humanists. Today just under 50 percent do. Why the decline? I think there are a number of but one of the reasons is that many people have a lot of wrong ideas about Humanism. I have been devoting my retirement years to writing and speaking about UU Humanism for the purpose of clarifying what Humanism is and what it is not, what it means and what it does not mean. That’s what I want to talk about today.

You may remember that a few years ago the late Jerry Falwell and other evangelicals accused what they called “” of being responsible for everything they believed was wrong with America. From their perspective Humanism was evil because Humanists did not believe in , favored women’s reproductive rights, advocated separation of and state, opposed in the public schools, favored gay rights, and so on.

What I will talk about today is . Religious and secular Humanism agree on the basic beliefs of Humanism. The major difference is not so much in what they believe but in the way they practice Humanism. Religious Humanists emphasize the importance of belonging to a community, a community where their beliefs and values are supported and encouraged, where they find friends who have similar views, where they can work together with other Humanists for social justice, and where they can celebrate life’s passages with others -- birth, marriage, and . At a time when most of our contacts with others are impersonal many people hunger for deeper and more meaningful

1 relationships which they find in being part of a genuine community of the kind embodied in Unitarian Universalist congregations.

Religious Humanists tend to be more open than secular Humanists to feeling awe and wonder at the natural world, and they find spiritual or religious meaning in nature. And, religious Humanists place a great deal of value on the emotions and on personal experience whereas secular Humanism tends to be more rationalistic and cold. I like to say that religious Humanism is Humanism with a heart -- whereas secular Humanism is pretty much limited to the head.

In my latest book I wrote, “I am a religious humanist because I believe life is lived best in a covenanted community with others who share similar values, purposes, and goals. . . I am a religious humanist because I believe we need one another to help to diminish our sorrows and to increase our joys, and I find it meaningful to celebrate life’s passages with people who share my values.”

Religious Humanism emphasizes and critical thinking, but it also has a central place for love and compassion, for and tolerance. It is a Humanism of the heart as well as the mind. And it is committed to social justice.

Some of you have probably read one or more of the books by the so-called “new atheists” attacking in God and questioning the value of , books by , Richard Dawkins, , and the late Christopher Hitchens. There is much to commend these works. They have managed quite well to tear down the edifice of traditional religious belief, but they have failed to offer anything to take its place. They have lumped all religious perspectives together and denounced them all as intellectually invalid and morally reprehensible.

2 My work begins where the books just cited end by offering a positive and affirming view of life without a supernatural God. I believe it is not enough to be critical of traditional religion and religious belief unless you can offer something to replace them. This is the difference between mere , which is negative, and Humanism, which is positive and affirming. Humanism is much more than atheism. Atheism means denying the existence of a supernatural , but we human beings seek meaning and purpose, and we want to know how to live happy and fulfilling lives. Humanism offers those things, so I talk and write about what Humanism affirms, not what it denies, about Humanism as a morally responsible and joyous way of living.

Religious Humanism is not primarily about the supernatural beliefs we reject; it is about the values we stand FOR, and we stand for human well-being, human flourishing. We stand for social justice and equity for all people, for these affect the quality of life of everyone. Human-ism is about the worth and dignity of every human being. It is about respecting persons and caring about each person’s well-being, yet economic inequality in this country is harmful to human flourishing.”

When it comes to religion, most people, I believe, assume we have only two alternatives: either accept traditional religion or reject it. But there is a third alternative -- religious humanism, which includes the best values and principles of traditional religion without requiring us to believe in the and irrational beliefs and of traditional , but not leaving us adrift without meaningful convictions and a reason to live that is the danger of atheism and . For those of us for whom the stories and myths of traditional religion have lost their power as well as their believability, this third way can make a lot of sense.

3 Many people erroneously think that since Humanists do not believe in a supernatural God we don’t believe in anything, and we are immoral. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have a lot of important moral beliefs. In my latest book I list 25 important convictions that most Humanists have, convictions that most of you have too whether you consider yourself to be a Humanist or not. These include affirming the value and dignity of every human being; that we should treat other people, not as means to our own ends, but as ends in themselves. In other words we should not exploit others or manipulate others for something we want. We believe in the importance of social justice and equal opportunity for all people. We believe that no one should be discriminated against because of race, skin color, beliefs, sexual orientation, nationality, or the language they speak. We believe in the importance of preserving our natural environment and in reducing the causes of global warming. We believe that people are born neither good nor evil but educable, and that the way they are brought up and socialized has a lot to do with the kind of person they become. We believe that love understood as caring for others and seeking their well-being is essential to individual happiness and to a good society. We believe in the importance of democracy -- the idea that every organization and institution should treat everyone equally and give every person a voice in that organization’s decisions. We believe in the importance of education, especially education that teaches you how to think critically. We believe in the importance of which has increased enormously our understanding of the world in which we live and of ourselves. We believe that the way to be happy and to find life meaningful is to make a positive contribution to the world in whatever ways we can. We believe that this life is probably the only one we have and that we ought to make the most of it.

Many of us believe a lot of other things but these are some of the most important beliefs of us so-called “unbelievers.” The following affirmation from the Council

4 for Secular Humanism is an excellent brief statement of what “unbelievers” believe, and it applies to religious Humanists as well as secular Humanists:

We believe in optimism rather than pessimism, hope rather than despair, learning in the place of , truth instead of ignorance, joy rather than guilt or sin, tolerance in the place of fear, love instead of hatred, compassion over selfishness, beauty instead of ugliness, and reason rather than blind or irrationality.

Obviously when I use the word religious I do not mean belief in God -- which is what most people think religion means. The word religion derives from a word meaning “to bind together” or to “re-connect.” Humanism is religious because it binds people together and helps people re-connect with the things that are most important in life -- human beings and human values.

The important thing, however, is not whether we use the word religious or not, but whether Humanism gives meaning and purpose and direction to our lives. Many of us have found that it does. I like what a friend, a retired engineer, has written. He said:

“It's taken me the better part of a quarter of a century to sort out what I think Humanism is all about. The short answer is, in finding Humanism, I've also found my own humanity. My Humanism informs me that I am genuinely and fully human. My Humanism informs me that I am a worthy individual and a worthy member of whatever community I find myself in. By my Humanism, I know myself to be ethical, religious, and civic-minded. My Humanism helps me avoid falling into despair; it helps me find a healthy sense of certainty in the face of meaninglessness, competence in the face of futility, and self-confidence in the face of alienation or condemnation.”

5 It is simply not true that Humanists are not moral. Most Humanists not only lead personal moral lives, many are also leaders in efforts to make the world a better place for everyone. They are committed to freedom, to equal rights for women, for people of all races, all religions, all nations and all sexual orientations. I could give you many examples of Humanists who have done great things, but let me just give you one --Tina Strobos. Tina Strobos ,who died recently at the age of 91, saved over 100 Jews from the Nazis in Amsterdam during the second World War. She saved them by hiding them in her home and helping them escape to England or Sweden at extreme risk of her own life. Why did she, in her early 20’s take such risks? Here is what she said: “I never believed in God, but I believed in the sacredness of life.” Humanism.

Many people think that ethical principles come from God, but that is not true. Studies have shown that ethical principles and values arose first, and only later were they attached to religion. Primitive religion had no ethical content. It was about persuading higher powers to provide rain or stop raining so crops would do well. Ethical principles come from human experience and from using our minds, our reason, to determine the best action in any given situation.

The fundamental ethical principle for Humanists, in my view, is reverence for life. In the realm of personal relationships reverence for life means love and compassion for others. Love in the sense of caring for another person enough to seek that person’s well-being. Acts of love include everything from driving a neighbor to the doctor or visiting someone in the hospital to paying the heating bill for someone you know who could not pay the bill.

In the larger social realm reverence for life means social justice, and it includes working for racial justice, for better health care in America, advocating for a living

6 wage for all workers, and working for better educational opportunities for everyone.

Trusteeship is reverence for life applied to the natural world -- treating the natural world with reverence and serving as trustees to see that its resources and beauty are here for our grandchildren. It involves working for measures that would slow down global warming and reduce pollution of our air and water.

Today many people are seeking spirituality. Some Humanists have rejected the idea of spirituality because they associate it with supernaturalism. I love the little book by philosopher Robert Solomon entitled “Spirituality for Skeptics.” It really spoke to me. There is a Humanistic spirituality. Just as we can be good without God, so we can have spirituality without spirits. I suggest that spirituality refers to the longing for deeper and more meaningful relationships with others and with the natural world and to that dimension of our lives that deals with values, truth, meaning, love, integrity, joy, and happiness. It has to do with why and how we live. Thus, it is an umbrella term to signify all those things that make us more truly human. It is a way of being rather than a way of knowing. It refers to the quality of our lives in the here and now, It is a way of living an ordinary life in an extraordinary way.

When we ask basic questions of life such as why are we here, where did the universe come from and what happens when we die, we are engaging in a spiritual quest. When we struggle to make our lives meaningful or comprehend how we fit into the larger scheme of things; when we experience awe, wonder, reverence, love, beauty, or , we are living in the realm of the spiritual. The astonishment and amazement we feel when we contemplate the natural world in its majesty and complexity is surely a spiritual experience.

7 This excerpt from a 1920 essay by Unitarian minister and pioneer Humanist Curtis Reese sums up a Humanist understanding of spirituality:

Humanistic liberalism understands spirituality to be man (sic) at his best, sane in mind, healthy in body, dynamic in personality, honestly facing the hardest facts, conquering and not fleeing from his gravest troubles; committed to the most worthwhile causes, loyal to the best ideals, ever hoping, striving and achieving. To know one’s self as inherently worthful, actually to find fullest expression in the widest human service and consciously to become a co-worker with cosmic processes, is spiritual experience deep and abiding.

Many Humanists, myself included, are religious naturalists, meaning we find religious or spiritual value and meaning in the natural world. I am filled with awe and wonder when I look up at the night sky glittering with the lights of millions of stars most of them larger than our sun and at distances far beyond my ability to even imagine. I am amazed at the vastness of the universe, at the complexity of my own body, at the ability of the human brain, at the beauty of trees and flowers, at the abilities of birds to fly long distances and return to their homes, at the abilities and beauties of other non-human animals. In short, we live in an amazing world and to be filled with astonishment and wonder at it is a religious or spiritual experience. The late scientist and Humanist Carl Sagan put it beautifully: “When we recognize our place in an immensity of light years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual.”

Critics of Humanism say that Humanism does not give adequate answers to such basic questions as the and how to cope with suffering and death.

8 I disagree, and I wrote my first book, A Faith for All Seasons, to describe one Humanist’s views on those matters. For Humanists the meaning of life is not something given to us from a source outside us. it is something we do -- we are the meaning makers. We are the ones who make our own lives meaningful. We do this in a number of ways: by enjoying simple everyday things -- the beauty of the natural world, the pleasures of family life, the joys of friendship, and the companionship of those we love. We find meaning in creating things -- painting, music, writing poetry or prose, in creating delicious food, in making beautiful gardens, in caring for our pets. We find meaning in working to make the world a better place through charitable work and through social justice work to change the unjust structures of society that cause suffering.

We look upon suffering and death, not as God’s punishment for sin, but as a natural part of life. Much of the and suffering we human beings undergo is simply due to flaws in the way we have evolved. It is random and without purpose, yet such suffering can deepen us and make us better people. It can also make us more sensitive and caring toward others whose lives are full of pain.

And while we do not think there is life beyond death we believe that we live on in the memories of those we love and in the contributions we have made to making the world a better place. We live on in the positive influences we have had and in the good work we have done.

So I suggest to you that Humanism, especially religious Humanism, offers a third way, a way that includes the best of the critique of traditional religions of people like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, and the best of the traditional religions. It is a religious and philosophical lifestance that makes sense today in the 21st century, that speaks to our time in a meaningful and powerful way, a religious

9 lifestance grounded in the natural, not in the supernatural; a religious perspective that emphasizes the worth and dignity of human beings rather than the glory of God; and a religious perspective that understands living well and being socially responsible to be of far greater importance than personal piety.

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