Humanist, All Too Humanist

We're branded. Worse than just labeled, we're branded. This is, people don't know who we are when we say we are atheist- they know what we think and what we'll say and where we've been. That's how branding works. They probably even know which Christopher Hitchens videos we have favorited on Youtube.

Unfortunately, as is often the case with unpopular beliefs, our branders are not ourselves. We have been branded by the majority, by theists and believers; we have been branded by those who have no idea how we wonder at the universe, let alone that we wonder at all. And so, we are considered empty. We are viewed as loveless and prideful. We are seen as selfish and without imagination.

I fear we are to blame.

We've made this too easy for them to do. After all, we are atheists. Our label itself infers a "non." A non belief in god. We're making a non claim.

So why not take it a step further?

We do not believe in god. This leaves one real option for us. We believe in people. Every breakthrough our species has made has been through the power of one. We know that.

We are humanists.

It is through the power, prescience, and propensity of the individual that our species has been able to commandeer and cull an entire planet. That there is, at least, one corner of all reality which is governed and sustained by an erect, bipedal mammal is a stunning fact. And it is a fact because of the power of the individual.

Not only is it important to accept the label of humanist because it's time, but also because of the difficulty the opposition will have in speaking down the term "humanist." And the moment of hesitation that it will take for them to mock the term "humanist," a term which exploits the integrity and autonomy in each of us, may be all that it takes to force them into questioning their own label as well.

Questioning beliefs is when answers start changing.

And changing our very label jolts the starting position of our interactions and conversations from, "why don't you do believe?" to "how could people have done all of this on their own?" That difference alone may provide the vantage point necessary to instill some doubt. And that's before the dialogue really begins.

The point is we need to force change for the world we live in, not simply create tolerance for our beliefs.

If we embrace the responsibility of a positive claim instead of running from it going forward, we can surely find some islands of common ground.

 From there we stress the importance of science and children who read voraciously. These values, when stated seriously, are extremely difficult to dispute. They are also values that the theist position has not treated as premier in the past.

But so long as the majority debits the prestige of our species to some meddling teller in the sky, we cannot agree on the value of this life.

The value of this life is incalculable.

This is what it means to be humanist.



Also, don't forget to get your shopping in for Hitchens-Jefferson Day.

ADRIAN FORT is a writer, blogger, and essayist from Kansas City, Missouri. Follow him on twitter @adriananyway. His work has appeared in Existere, decomP magazinE, The Bluest Aye, Bareback Magazine, Gadfly Online, Chrome Baby, The Eunoia Review, Linguistic Erosion, and Smashed Cat Magazine. His Master's Degree is from Lindenwood University.