Getting into what I do believe in I think right now I would have to say Secular Humanism. I won't claim to have identical beliefs to another Humanist because I didn't look at Humanism and think "Hey! That's for me!" but, rather I read the details on it somewhat recently and found that I agreed, at least on a basic level with most things described as a part of Secular Humanism.
The term Secular humanism itself came around to seperate from Religious humanism, theists who focused mainly on living a good live and helping everyone to do the same. The main different being that Secular Humanism rejects the supernatural.
I could go over the core bits of Secular Humanism as per my research online but, that would defeat the point. Instead I will try to cover things from my own point of view.
In short, I live to experience. I recognise that this life may be the only one I will ever experience, indeed all evidence suggests that even if I am incorrect and I will return that I will not remember a thing. Due to this I try to live my life for today and tomorrow, without getting caught up in the past.
To avoid a wall of text I will try to cover individual points seperately. The first thing I will go over is my desire for knowledge. Most of this was said in my thread 'Why militant?' (http://atheistforums.org/thread-1307.html) but, I'll say a little anyways.
Basically, because I have such a love for learning and new experiences I have found that almost always the story I am told is wrong. Not intentionally mind you but, when people tell me about an experience their perspective is biased, when passing on a message they use their own words instead of quoting the source. Everything needs to be examined, if only for a moment using logic and critical thinking to determine how likely it is to be true. If not very likely then some research might be in order.
I am a particularly social person so, it stands to reason that I have cause to not piss off the entire population. One of the things I have found is that despite multiple human traits that should be helping us work together (empathy, morality or even the desire to familial ties) people seem to see the worst of each other. This is especially true on the internet where names are merely an alias, we comunicate via text which fails to convey emotion or any real understanding in the hands of the masses and everyone puts on yet another mask for the veil of anonymity. I have concluded that in almost every situation it is best to assume the best intentions from our fellow human beings. If done both ways it will avoid a lot of hurt feelings and ignorant misunderstandings.
I feel the need to try to improve things where I can, for instance the only jobs I consider worth working are jobs like teaching, science work, studies or research or trades. The kind of jobs that cause our society to progress instead of turn water in the monotony of capitalisim. Through this I doubt every rule or law and ask myself 'should this be?'
I could go on lomnger but, I think that is enough material and frankly I have yet to eat breakfast so, to sum it up:
Doubt reality and seek to understand how things really work. You can benefit and bring benefit from understanding.
So your best to work alongside others and to understand them. We're all in this world together and it's about time we got over these dividing concepts like tribes, faith groups and countries so, we can work together.
Work to improve society, it will never be perfect, it couldn't be we're human but, if life was even slightly better for our children. If we could make life even just a little bit better, how could it not be worth it?
The term Secular humanism itself came around to seperate from Religious humanism, theists who focused mainly on living a good live and helping everyone to do the same. The main different being that Secular Humanism rejects the supernatural.
I could go over the core bits of Secular Humanism as per my research online but, that would defeat the point. Instead I will try to cover things from my own point of view.
In short, I live to experience. I recognise that this life may be the only one I will ever experience, indeed all evidence suggests that even if I am incorrect and I will return that I will not remember a thing. Due to this I try to live my life for today and tomorrow, without getting caught up in the past.
To avoid a wall of text I will try to cover individual points seperately. The first thing I will go over is my desire for knowledge. Most of this was said in my thread 'Why militant?' (http://atheistforums.org/thread-1307.html) but, I'll say a little anyways.
Basically, because I have such a love for learning and new experiences I have found that almost always the story I am told is wrong. Not intentionally mind you but, when people tell me about an experience their perspective is biased, when passing on a message they use their own words instead of quoting the source. Everything needs to be examined, if only for a moment using logic and critical thinking to determine how likely it is to be true. If not very likely then some research might be in order.
I am a particularly social person so, it stands to reason that I have cause to not piss off the entire population. One of the things I have found is that despite multiple human traits that should be helping us work together (empathy, morality or even the desire to familial ties) people seem to see the worst of each other. This is especially true on the internet where names are merely an alias, we comunicate via text which fails to convey emotion or any real understanding in the hands of the masses and everyone puts on yet another mask for the veil of anonymity. I have concluded that in almost every situation it is best to assume the best intentions from our fellow human beings. If done both ways it will avoid a lot of hurt feelings and ignorant misunderstandings.
I feel the need to try to improve things where I can, for instance the only jobs I consider worth working are jobs like teaching, science work, studies or research or trades. The kind of jobs that cause our society to progress instead of turn water in the monotony of capitalisim. Through this I doubt every rule or law and ask myself 'should this be?'
I could go on lomnger but, I think that is enough material and frankly I have yet to eat breakfast so, to sum it up:
Doubt reality and seek to understand how things really work. You can benefit and bring benefit from understanding.
So your best to work alongside others and to understand them. We're all in this world together and it's about time we got over these dividing concepts like tribes, faith groups and countries so, we can work together.
Work to improve society, it will never be perfect, it couldn't be we're human but, if life was even slightly better for our children. If we could make life even just a little bit better, how could it not be worth it?
