The faculty of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for.

First Event

At a recent LDX-Evergreen meeting, I heard Brigham Young University anthropologist explain how he kept his LDS faith in spite of the knowledge he has of science. I was amazed at the lengths he went to in justifying and rationalizing his position. He is a fifth generation Mormon (that means that his ancestry dates from the beginnings of the church and carries with it an injunction to maintain belief and not betray that heritage) with close relatives who are or have been in leadership positions (this too carries that obligation).

Attending the meeting were a number of people who had left the church or who had become inactive because they no longer believed in it. A dialogue between the two took place. What I remember most was the depth of feeling that these people felt as the discussion proceeded. I sensed deep anger and hurt, a sense that they had been betrayed, lied to, and then cut off and ostracized. More importantly, they were having great difficulty getting past that hurt and anger. But when he said that he had no problem with evolution because "that was the way God chose to create man," I concluded that he had more reasons to maintain belief than was apparent in his explanations, and I couldn't make sense of it.

As I left, I recalled another instance last year when I heard another well educated man talk of his journey of faith. After than meeting, as I walked home with Ed Wilson, I asked what he thought of it, and Ed replied, "It sounded more like a journey of adaptation than a search for truth." As usual, Ed got to the heart of the matter. For some, maybe there are some things more important than the search for truth.

Second Event

In the next week, Ed Wilson has as his guest for a day, the editor of the International Humanist, the journal of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), Don Page. Don was here to interview Ed for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the IHEU, in which Ed had an important part. There were a couple of free hours in the afternoon, and Don wanted to see what was important in Salt Lake City. We went to Temple Square, and I attempted to explain the history and theology of Mormonism. We also went to the top of the Administration building, and since it was a clear day we had a good view of the valley. Don Page is primarily a scientist, and as I explained, in general terms, what goes on in the temple, ending with baptism for the dead, I saw that he had a look of incredulity and astonishment. I have grown up with the whole thing, but at that moment I realized how ridiculous this could appear to an outsider. How to make sense out of it all? One can, if one looks at it as a whole, as an all-encompassing system which envelopes its members in an "all questions answered" theology, a "just obey and you will be saved" theocracy, constantly reinforced and justified by repetitive temple ritual.

We kept meeting several young lady missionaries who cheerfully offered to answer questions, give us a tour, or a Book of Mormon tape. They all looked the same: a well scrubbed look, dressed similarly, and wearing a dark blue overcoat. They seemed to be possessed of a self-assurance that comes from having complete confidence in the rightness of their cause. (I know, I was once a missionary myself.) As we walked away, we met a crowd of people coming out of a gate carrying small suitcases, having been in the Temple. They all had that same look. I then commented to Don, "Humanism can provide as complete and satisfying belief system as the LDS church, and it can make people just as happy as those people coming from the temple!"

I went on to explain that if LDS missionaries can find someone who believes in God and the Bible, they can build on that and make a convert. Doesn't the supposition naturally follow that humanism could be able to find common belief based on science, build on that and make converts?

Third Event

Later on that week, I read an article in the newsletter of the San Jose, California chapter of the AHA. We exchange newsletters. That chapter is one of the most successful of all AHA chapters, and associates with Stanford University. They hold many social events, weekly meetings and lectures, and have a large membership supporting the chapter. It could serve as a model for own chapter. This is the article:

The honest critic is a friend. William Whalen, a respected Catholic author, proves to be such a friend in his Faiths for the Few, a book which received the authoritative blessings of his church when it was published. Humanism, like Buddhism, is a non-theistic religion, a religion without a God, the supernatural, or sacred scriptures -- a comprehensive and integrated way of life which includes the shared quest of ideals, and the celebration of existence. Humanists are confident that theirs is the religion of the future. The laboratory will one day provide the answers which people have sought in revelation and sacred books. Service to others will replace service to God as the ethical ideal. humanists will learn to concentrate on living to the fullest in this life, easing its pain, contributing to its art and beauty. For the moment humanists must face the realities of life, and its financial demands. Despite the impressive roster of humanists in science and the arts, the roll call of the American Humanists Association is shorter than many Catholic parishes. Humanism is supposed to inspire people to overcome [social ills], but it seems to convert many into freelancers who care little about spreading humanism, or helping the person next door. The potential for organized secular humanism is enormous, but whether the existing humanist groups will be able to tap this potential is doubtful. [Edited to eliminate repetition and sexist language.]

The article further reads:

I accept everything my good Catholic colleague points out. Indeed, our chapter takes these critical words as a challenge: the growing list of names on this page, the activities in this newsletter, and the kind of honest self-criticism Suzanne Paul will share with us this month -- all augur well for the future of humanism. We've moved from free-lancing to community. Look out, Whalen, here we come!

This was partly an answer to my earlier questions. Humanism can provide a "comprehensive and integrated way of life."

Fourth Event

Last week Ed Wilson loaned me his copy of Towards a Better World, by Mikhael S. Gorbachev, which is one of his speeches from 1987. Ed had marked a passage which he thought should be used in the Journal:

Man rose above all other living creatures on earth on the wings of humanism. Today, five billion people living on this planet need humanism more than anything else. They need it for establishing good neighborly relations between individuals and states. The fostering of a new way of thinking is, in my opinion, instrumental in bringing about a radical turn in the life of the world community. Revolutions always begin in the mind. The way to save civilization and life itself does not lie in thinking up new technologies for ever more accurate and lethal weapon systems, but rather in liberating the mind from prejudices--political and social, national and racial--from arrogance, self-conceit and the cult of force and violence.

I believe that humanism will do what Gorbachev wants it to do. Can organized humanism have a part in bringing these changes to pass?

Conclusions

What do these serendipitous events mean to me? My conclusion is that the general theme concerned belief systems.

We all have a belief system. It begins at birth, and continues until we die. It contains basic information about our identity, and helps us make sense of the world around us, among many things. Religion can take up much of it, especially if it is as complete a system as the LDS theology. Because of that it is very difficult to leave, and when someone does there is a great void, and that can be the source of a lot of feelings, negative and positive.

For most of us here, humanism took the place of religion, and we incorporated that in a new belief system. My suggestion that humanism come up with a missionary plan is naive and foolish. Nothing will ever come of it because humanism can't be defined that way. A humanist's belief system is personal and individual, and can't be dictated. We can't say: "This is what you should believe," nor should we even try.

A study of history can lead to the conclusion that the very movement of civilization will lead to humanism. However, as a new convert, I still have to ask the question: "Isn't there some way we can help people build a humanistic belief system?"

--Bob Green