Blimey! I'm a humanist!
In case you're wondering what on earth this image has to do with anything, it's Jack Crawford, a hero from Sunderland who famously nailed his ships colours to the mast in the middle of the battle of Camperdown (1797), in which we routed the dastardly Dutch.
I'm not big on organisations, really. I'm not referring to organisations such as Mountain Rescue or Greenpeace, but the other kind. You know – the one's that tell people how to think and how to behave.
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I'm atheist, and what started out as a kind of respectful agnosticism as a younger man has been hardened and honed into full-blown atheism.
Militant atheism. Atheist fundamentalism.
Episodes such as 9/11 and Charlie Hebdo tempered and hardened the metal, while the oily hypocrisy and duplicitous double-standards of the Christians provided a constant score in the background of the increasingly noisy smithy as tolerance, reason, open debate and the scientific method came under constant hammer blows.
Ludicrous conspiracy theories have exploded and found their way into many people's world-views and even global scientific consensus on matters such as climate change are variously undermined, misrepresented and flat out denied. The world is flat and Neil Armstrong never even left Earth. Thanks to Trump and his more eloquent lacky Conway, we now have 'alternative' facts. Put simply - we don't like your facts, so we've come up with our own.
I hate it. I hate it because it frightens me. The absence of reason is, for me, a terrifying concept because it removes our humanity. We are reduced to conflict and survival. Ultimately, it lays waste to any sense of what I would regard as an open, tolerant and civilised society. The vicious, snarling forces of intolerance and bigotry are gaining strength and frightening many into silence.
When a beacon of reason and tolerance such as J.K.Rowling – a lady who has surely paid her dues and who knows what the shit end of the stick looks like – is turned upon with real vehemence and malice for expressing a perfectly reasonable and honestly held opinion, you know we're in trouble. Joanne is by no means the only one and many people are watching what they say, what they write and what they create with one constant eye on this new and virulent puritanism.
Stephen Fry. It's all his fault.
Some years ago, I read a little of humanism and following Stephen Fry's statement that he felt it 'essential to nail one's colours to the mast as a humanist', I was prompted to investigate this humanism lark a little further. On their site at the time was a quiz asking 'how humanist are you'. “Many people are humanists without even knowing it. If you are non-religious and look to science, reason, empathy and compassion in order to live a meaningful and ethical life, please consider joining us.”
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I was impressed by this. So I took said quiz and discovered I was 92% humanist.
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I'm not sure about the other 8% - perhaps that's the anger. The chilli in pasta Grant. This was a little diverting fun, but it did lead me to read much more on the site and I found myself in full agreement with almost everything I read. Here were a group of people with whom I shared so many opinions and conclusions; so many issues about which I was concerned and even passionate were aired, and discussed – it was all there. As was a list of names which contained many people I respected as freethinking individuals.
It led me to a realisation. Blimey! I'm a humanist. I was tempted to join, but thought my brand of hard athiesm was probably not in keeping with such reasonable and tolerant people. However when I saw that Ricky Gervias, Richard Dawkins, Tim Minchin and Salman Rushdie were among the patrons, I thought I'd be in good company.
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So I joined Humanists UK. It used to be called the British Humanist Association which I much prefer, but that's neither here nor there. The point is that I nailed my colours to the mast and joined an organisation.
Even though I'm not big on organisations, really.
"Many people are watching what they say, what they write and what they create with one constant eye on this new and virulent puritanism."
Visit the HumanistsUK site and do
the quiz. You never know...