In Grassroots News, the monthly newsletter of the Chapter Assembly of the AHA, September 15, 1992, there appeared an article from Quest And Controversy, the publication of The Humanists of Riverside County, CA. In this article, the editor mentioned that he had received a call from"...(a member who) had mentioned that she was a humanist in a group and a stranger asked, "What do they do?" ...(She) was prepared to define humanism but that wasn't the question. What occurred to her was the splinter organizations, the separate ways of the various freethought groups, the internal functions and meetings that had little meaning beyond the meeting itself...(She) didn't say how she responded but she obviously didn't like her reply---or non-response."

The author went on to ask: "What is it that we do---what is our purpose?"

I suggest that we stop and think before we get into a paroxysm of self-criticism just because we can't run off a list of activities. Did this questioner and the member know enough about humanism to ask and to answer? I don't know, but it seems to me that what is important is the fact that it bothers people and it is therefore pertinent to ask: Is humanism an activity to be defined as "something we do?"

I suggest we examine humanism, as an organization, and other organizations that we might compete with or be compared to. Now there are too many service clubs, fraternal orders and other such groups to list. But what do they all have in common? They have requirements for membership. One just can't say, for instance, "I'm a Rotarian." A humanist can say "I'm a humanist" without any external requirements.

Then there are all the many religions. They all have a defined organizational structure, membership requirements and theologies. How does humanism compare to those? Humanism is free of structure, requirements, or theology.

Humanism is like nothing else. Why expect it to behave like a stereotype? Humanism doesn't have a claim on anything of its own because humanism is that which the world accepts as knowledge.

Humanism begins each time someone uses the scientific method to find answers to questions on how the universe works and the other existential problems and accepts the answers which come.

I restate the question of "What do they (humanists) do?" to "How do humanists live?" which makes much more sense and quite possibly is what the questioner really wanted to know.

I suggest an answer which comes from an article in the Free Mind, the newsletter of the AHA. Maxine Negri, Chair of the Commission On The Defense Of Humanism, in her monthly column titled "Humanism in Action," wrote of a couple who, having been members of Atheists United in Los Angeles, are now members of the Humanist Association of Los Angeles. These two are volunteers at various social service agencies, she is full time and he does what he can after his work. The author states: "in...(their) orbit, words without action are insufficient. Although fully appreciative of the power of words to inspire action---whether for good or bad---for them, the deed is the reality."...

One member of the couple is quoted: "We haven't needed someone else's 'scripture' or even our own freethought philosophy to convince us that the work we do needs doing. What it all boils down to is the simple human logic of helping where we are able, living the best we know how in this one and only life we believe exists, and doing it for no other reason than it is 'right.'"

I have just completed the report of the lecture on Classical Philosophy and, suddenly, 2400 years disappear and right here, right now is the manifestation of that philosophy!

In the same issue of Grassroots News, Don Page, the new Editor of The Humanist, is quoted as stating that he wanted the magazine "to reflect the fact that humanism is an ontology and not just a philosophy." He wants to present humanism 'in practice' rather than simply 'in theory,' and this means "it must deal with everyday issues facing individual persons and families." The dictionary definition of "ontology" explains that it is from the Greek infinitive "to be"; "the discipline which treats of the fact and nature of being." In other words, in personal terms, humanism is a state of being. The two humanists from Los Angeles are this kind of humanist.

This kind of humanism is more than "something they do," it is "something they live." The fount of their doing is from what they are.

The President of the AHA, Suzanne Paul, has asked us to "rethink why we exist and for whom." It seems quite plain to me that we are the inheritors, as Dr. Appleby intimated, of the humanism of Classical Philosophy. Humanism as an organization exists to facilitate the act of becoming a humanist.

--Bob Green