Atheism Plus and Humanism

Given that this blog was conceived of as an "atheism plus" site (Atheism plus morality) broadly defined seven years ago (not six, as I had said last week), I find myself compelled to look at the arguments concerning its newer and much more popular iteration.

One of the issues in that debate centers around the proposition, "We already have a group concerned with moral issues: Humanism. Instead of promoting this new splinter group, join us in promoting Humanism."

In response, consider this analogy. A group of citizens in Sometown, Colorado get together to argue for a stop light at the corner of Elm and Fifth Street. Children routinely cross the street on their way to school, and there has been some serious accidents there. But somebody protests, "Don't create this separate group. Join the International Society of Traffic Management instead."

The problem us, the International Society of Traffic Management is far removed from their concerns.

This does not imply that the Internaional Society of Traffic Management is a poor organization or that it is defective in some way. Saying that a knife is a poor tool to use if one wants to pound in a nail is not to say that it is a bad knife. It only means that it makes a poor hammer.

Similarly, Humanism is designed as an umbrella organization that aims to include a number of secular organizations and philosophies. As such, it is a poorly designed tool to use when somebody has a specific concern that one wants to address.

In this case, the online atheist community is a community. Its founders, Atheism Plus are some if its leading citizens. Their concern - or one of their concerns - is with the betterment of their community. They want the town they live in to be one that is friendlier, more accepting, and less frightening and threatening, to themselves and others. In order to clean up their community they have created a community organization that will focus on those concerns. The community is "atheism". The concerns are "social justice".

The truth is that Atheism Plus is concerned with social justice outside of its community as well. In objecting to the mistreatment of particular types of people within the community, they are not saying that this behavior is permissible so long as it happens "someplace else". This type of behavior is to be condemned in all communities. However, the first and principle target is misbehavior within the atheist community.

Humanist organizations should be looking at this local effort and saying, "Here is yet another local organization interested in what we are seeking to promote. We should seek out its leaders and ask what kind of support we can give." An International Society of Traffic Management, if such a group existed, would offer itself as a resource to local groups wishing to petition for changes in local traffic management. They would not see the Sometown School Traffic Safety Committee as a hostile splinter group. They would see it as a subgroup potentially worthy of membership with a legitimate concern - and its first step should be to offer help in realizing that concern.

In the seven years that I have been writing this blog, I have looked at Humanism a number of times to determine if there is something there about which I can base a few posts. Do I agree with what it has to say? Or can I offer some criticisms?

What I found each time I looked at it is that it does not actually say very much. I find a lot of use of vague terms such as "rights" and "human flourishing" or "human values" that could mean just about anything to anybody. In fact, it is clear that this vagueness is a defining feature of Humanism. If it were ever to try to get specific on any of these issues, the immediate effect will be to alienate a subgroup that does not share those opinions or concerns.

Instead of writing about Humanism, I end up writing about one or more of the views under its umbrella that makes actual, specific, and substantive claims about right and wrong.

It is . . . odd . . . to hear Humanists complain about divisiveness when Humanism itself is divisive by definition. It's list of "included" people and organizations is everybody with a secular moral or political philosophy, while everybody with a sectarian moral or political philosophy is excluded. It takes one group of people and says, "You are fit for membership," and tells another group, "You are not." Yet, some of its members write as if dividing the world up into those it finds acceptable and those it does not is a crime against nature and humanity.

Furthermore, every other group that Humanism has brought under its umbrella is divisive in some sense or another. Every group is defined by who it lets in and who it keeps out. While there is reason to debate who deserves to be included and who to be excluded, the objection that excluding or including is wrong in itself seems to lack any kind of coherence.

For example, both Ayn Rand Objectivism and Marxism can call themselves "Humanist." They both are entirely secular moral and political ideologies - and that is all one needs to be Humanist. They both speak of respecting human rights, of promoting a flourishing human society in which people can find meaning and purpose. If Humanism had any substance to it, it could not accommodate both of these philosophies. It accommodates both of them by making no substantive claims itself.

That lack of substance makes it an excellent tool for collecting all secular moral and political philosophies under one roof.

However, it makes Humanism a very poor tool to use by any local group that has a specific interest or goal. Telling the founders of Atheism Plus that they should abandon their organization and advance their goals under the Humanism banner is like telling somebody to use a bread knife to pound in nails. It may be the best bread knife in the world, but it does a poor job of pounding in nails. To do that, you need a hammer.