Goals and Concerns

1. To promote the philosophy of Humanism, as elaborated below, to the problems of Florida's developing society.
2. To encourage attitudes of kindness, compassion, tolerance, and a loving generosity in human relationships, and in our treatment of all life. These attitudes help us to see ourselves in the lives of others, and encourage appreciation for the remarkable diversity of human culture and experience.
3. To develop and popularize the skills of creative and critical thinking that empower people to challenge prejudice, superstition, and irrationality in every area of life and enable the individual to reach the highest levels of achievement.
4. To survey those artistic and imaginative expressions of life which have been the source of the greatest pleasure and enlightenment, and which reflect compelling human truths.
5. To explore the grounds of ethics and morality within the unfolding complexities of our evolving culture. Such knowledge will enable us to become effective protagonists for the happiness of the individual person.

Approaches

In practical terms, our Humanist goals are realized through continuous education, extensive debate, and testing of ideas. Acting in the belief that the true wealth of mankind is found in the sharing of knowledge and experience, we learn from each other and from the vast number of people with whom we share this common perspective.

Humanists are committed to improving prospects for our species in many ways. We are leaders in our communities, and participate in alliances with others on vital matters of common concern.

Humanism...an incomplete definition

Humanism is a movement with roots deep in the history of human civilization. In ancient times, and through to the present, courageous Humanists have challenged the power of entrenched autocracies and the debilitating myths of established institutions. From the times of the early Creek philosophers, Zeno and Democritus, whose thoughts outlined the beginning of the scientific method, to the heroic martyrs of the renaissance who questioned the rule of theocracy, Humanists have traced the true source of happiness and prosperity to human imagination, intelligence, and creativity. Human life, like all life, is a consequence of over four billion years of natural evolution by a universe which is as indifferent to our fate as it was to the dinosaurs. Our success as a species will be determined by our capacity to overcome the temptations of magical thinking, and to create meaning and purpose that truly satisfies the ever expanding world of human competence. Humanism is an instrument for the conscious control of human destiny by the only intelligence known to exist in the universe: our own.

Join with those who believe that:

• The methods of reason and science provide the soundest means of understanding ourselves and the universe.
• Creative ability, happiness, personal responsibility, and fulfillment are best realized in political cultures that nourish freedom and genuine democracy.
• Human beings and their societies are the product of naturalistic, evolutionary processes that form our universe.
• The values, ideas, myths, and social systems of every human culture arise from experience, and are modified by present and future knowledge.