Tell us about your faith…
‘Humanism’ is the belief that we can live good lives without religious or superstitious beliefs. Humanists make sense of the world using reason, experience and shared human values. We seek to make the best of the one life we have by creating meaning and purpose for ourselves. We take responsibility for our own actions and work with others for the common good.
Are there many Humanists in the UK?
We have 6,500 members and another 1,000 ‘supporters’ but usually find that people who join say they made that decision after attending a Humanist ceremony or when they’ve been assisted by the BHA with a campaign or dispute.
Having said that, most opinion polls indicate that around 40% of the population would describe themselves as non-religious and a recent Ipsos MORI Poll (24/11/06) has shown that 36% of people – equivalent to around 17,000,000 adults – are in fact humanists in their basic outlook.
Have you always been a Humanist?
I sometimes describe myself as a ‘Born Again Atheist’. When I was born I had no belief in any god or gods; that was only instilled in me by adults who believed those things; (enthusiastically supported by an Education system that insists on RE classes and collective worship assemblies). I experienced a strong Methodist upbringing, attending Bible Study classes assiduously until, at the age of 16 / 17, I made my own mind up about religion and reverted to the free-thinking individual I was when I was born.
Why did you change your faith?
Because my intellect told me that the things I was being taught as truths were unsustainable; they had no basis in fact and no evidence to support them. I came to realise that it was perfectly possible to be a good and moral human being without believing in, what I came to regard as, superstitious rhetoric.
What do your family and friends think?
I come from a large(ish) family...I have two brothers & two sisters. My eldest sister would describe herself as a ‘Born Again Christian’ and vehemently refuses to accept my outlook; my other sister and two brothers would tick a box as ‘CofE’ if they were filling out an official form.
They happily sing the hymns and join in prayers at weddings, christenings and funerals but don’t appear to give any more thought to it than that. Some of my friends are very religious others are ‘committed atheists’.
They all know me to be an outspoken atheist. They appear to respect my opinions although I do come in for some good natured ‘ribbing’ by the religious ones when Christmas, & Easter come around.
What's the biggest lie you have ever heard told about your faith?
That we are anti-religious and want to destroy the beliefs of others; also, that because we’re atheists we ‘must’ therefore be evil!
Who is the most inspirational person you've met through your faith?
This will sound trite I know but I meet the most inspirational people all the time. I meet people who have lost babies & children, brothers & sisters, husbands & wives; parents, grandparents & friends; people who are themselves dying of terminal illness, and yet refuse to be emotionally blackmailed into changing their views on religion and life. They have arrived at those views through their intellect and experience and are entirely comfortable with them.
Who is the most famous person that follows your faith?
There's too many to list but if I ‘had’ to I suppose I’d choose one of my personal heroes from Albert Einstien; Robyn Williams; John Lennon; Steve Irwin; or Richard Dawkins.
What's the longest distance you've travelled to follow your faith?
I travel to London four times a year for meetings then I attend conferences (usually in the midlands); I’ve conducted a wedding in London and on the Isle of Man and in 2008 I am travelling to the South of France to conduct a wedding there.
Is there a part of your faith that you could manage without?
My ‘Faith’ is Humanism which is more an outlook on life; consequently it impinges on how I live my life so it would be difficult to separate one part … having said that, I suppose I could happily live without the frequent conflicts I have when I assert my right to ‘not believe’ because some people of faith conclude that I am (somehow) attacks their beliefs?
Have you had any difficulties in being a Humanist?
Yes, we wanted our daughter to attend a ‘community school rather than the nearer ‘CofE school’. We eventually secured a place for her but the local authority refused to provide her with a bus pass; even though they were happy to provide passes for children to travel too a faith School they would not provide a pass for children to avoid one.
We were engaged in a five-year of arguing that non-religious families have the same rights as religious ones. That campaign took us to London where we gave evidence before a Parliamentary Select Committee. We won the case and the rules are now changed: too late for our daughter but hopefully others will benefit.
Humanists and other non-religious families also suffer from being un-represented or not considered in many walks of life. For example, even though around 70% of all teenage schoolchildren would describe themselves as ‘not religious’ there are no Humanist representative on the Education Committee (called a SACRE) that decides what religious education these students should receive.
Most Crematoriums (which are in fact ‘public buildings’) have Christian symbols that cannot be removed or covered. War memorials to those killed in conflicts often contain crosses (when it is patently obvious that they would not all have be Christians) … and so on.
I always said that if ever I won the lottery I would open a completely Secular School. The idea of having ‘Faith Schools’ is, to my mind, an outrageous concept. It seems to me that segregating children at the age of four; on broadly racial grounds (because religion is culturally inherited [most children assume the faith of their parents] … and people of different faiths are often distinguished racially); then teaching them in isolation for the next thirteen years before releasing them into the world to mix with everybody else is not the obvious plan for a racially harmonious society.
So....if ever you hear that a Secular School has opened in Blackpool the chances are I’ve won the lottery.
Tell us the difference between a humanist ceremony and a religious service...
Humanist funerals differ from those people are more used to in two ways:
Firstly, we have no religious content in our ceremonies, no hymns or prayers. Because most people who have been educated in England are brought up to experience prayers and hymns at most formal gatherings some find this difficult to imagine but when they hear the alternative poetry and readings we use instead they find it just as moving.
We encourage families to choose music that is relevant to the life of the person we are talking about so if they liked classical music that’s fine … if they liked heavy metal, or punk or any other music, that’s fine too.
Secondly, and more importantly, at our funerals we don’t want to spend the time talking about the fact that someone has died; we want to talk about the fact that they have lived. It is truly a celebration of their life.
Humanist Weddings and Naming ceremonies are very different to Church weddings and Christenings.
These ceremonies are very important because it’s good to publicly declare your promises, or your hopes and aspirations in a more formal setting so we work very closely with the couple [or parent(s) if it’s a naming ceremony] to find out what ‘they’ are hoping for, and between us we write a ceremony that expresses ‘their’ aspirations and promises in a place that means something to ‘them’ and using the words ‘they’ want to use.
You don't believe in the after life - wouldn't you find comfort in believing in it?
Does it not make death harder to bear? No; not at all, quite the opposite in fact. I believe that death brings the end of a person’s life. In many ways that brings me comfort. After all, I’ve been dead before! Death is merely the absence of life.
I was dead for billions & billions of years before I was born; I’ll be dead for billions & billions of years once my life has ended.
The part before I was born hasn’t given me any problems, why should the part after I die be any different?
And just because somebody dies doesn’t mean that their influence in the world has stopped, many people have children who carry with them aspects of their relationship to that parent.
But we all impact on other peoples lives in ways we can’t possibly imagine. I often refer to this as ‘ripples’ and those ripples continue to spread and touch on the lives of untold numbers of people, long after we’re gone.
We’ve all had conversations when somebody says to us: “I’ll never forget the time you did (this)” or “I’ll always remember when you said (that)".
We have no recollection of these events; they meant little to us, but it has stayed with that person and will probably influence, in some small way, how he or she will deal with all the people they will meet throughout their lives; and so the ripples continue to spread.
