A Brief Statement of the Humanist Viewpoint
Briefly, humanism believes in the promotion of human values, through an ethics based on human perceptions examined in a rational spirit of free enquiry.
With some amplification, it could be said that humanism stands for the promotion of human values, that is, the building of a more humane society, through an ethics based on human perceptions, critically examined in the scientific spirit of reason, free enquiry and revision and without reliance on any supra-human entity considered unquestionable and infallible. It thus stands for free-thought in the service of compassion.
Apart from the additional elements in the paragraph above, the following may be considered as further corollaries to the humanist viewpoint:
Ethics needs no external sanction and has its springs in the innate sense of values, including the feeling of love and compassion for fellow beings, as an intrinsic part of human nature. It is not linked, per se, with the metaphysical question of existence or non-existence of God.
The desirable goal of promoting human values and a more humane society would include a number of elements, some of the more important being
: greater tolerance and compassion and greater feeling of oneness, not only within humankind but with the entire environment and the ecology of nature
: spirit of democracy, including respect for majority opinion as well as for pluralism and the reasonable rights of minority groups
: protection of human rights in keeping with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations.
Irrespective of whether it is better to describe humanism as a religion or not, on which humanists may differ, humanism supports the principle of secularism in the sense of separation of religion from state affairs and parity amongst people holding different religious views including non-believers.
Experience shows that dogmas of all kinds, particularly religious dogmas in our context, fail to rise to the humane requirements of many situations and thus ultimately tend to negate compassion.
The scientific spirit of free enquiry, in its true sense, would include
the acceptance of uncertainties (rather than of dogmas, rigidities or views
held with aggressive certainty) and would therefore serve to promote greater
humility, tolerance and compassion and thus promote human values and a more
humane society.
November 1994 Prakash Narain
The above note represents the personal formulation of Prakash Narain, the current Chairman of the Indian Humanist Union, and does not purport to be its official statement. The attempt, as stated by the author, is mainly to bring out the basic essentials of the humanist point of view on which there is a consensus, establish a semantic link between these and the word ?humanism?, suggest certain corollaries which cover some of the major issues which have been involved in humanist thinking in recent decades and to formulate the statement in three degrees of abbreviation to provide flexibility in its use.
Reprinted from humanist outlook Vol 7 No 6 Winter 1994-95. The Journal of the Indian Humanist Union.
Humanism in India. Prakash Narain, Chairman of the Indian Humanist Union June1995
