Humanism matters for all sorts of reasons:

  • It is an evidence based source of values and meaning in life. Values and meaning do not come from an external source such as God. They come from building on our human potential. There is evidence of our potential for reason, love and compassion.  Humanism matters because it is the most evidence based approach to finding values and meaning in life.
  • Humanism is an immanent rather than a transcendent approach to life.  Immanent approaches see such things as love and compassion arising from within us as part of our potential. transcendent approaches see values being dependent on surrendering ourselves to an external source, such as God or the "laws" of reason.  They make the external source, rather than our human conscience, the main source of meaning. The problem with this approach is that it risks making the external source more important, and risks justifying the torture persecution and killing of our fellow human beings in deference to the more important source of meaning, whether God, Marx's laws, the need of the "people" or some other external source. Humanism matters because it is an alternative to transcendent apporcahes to finding menaing in life.
  • As religion continues its decline in the western world a replacement path to values is needed. Hyper nationalism, money worship, populism and all sorts of risky ideologies threaten to step into the vacuum of values. Humanism is a source of values that supports the dignity and search fro fulfillment of all human beings rather than pitting them against each other.