Are you a humanist?  That was the question we tried to answer at my atheist discussion group last night.  After listening to an informative presentation about the history and rudiments of humanism, we discussed some of its essential concepts.  Ironically, given that this is a atheist discussion group, we spend the most time parsing the humanist notion that there is no supernatural and that therefore humanity does not require anything from the supernatural to better the world.
     I of course questioned the legitimacy of this contention.  What concerned me was the corresponding assumption that people of faith care nothing about improving the lot of the human being, that so beholden are they to authority and dogma that they simply dismiss the problems of the world as challenges that only God can solve, and will do so, moreover, in his " own good" time.
     Yes, some people of faith blithely ignore the issues that trouble the world, asserting that one day God will make all things new and why should they therefore worry about them.  On the other hand, many more people of faith, committed to Genesis's statements that God pronounced the world "good" upon completing his creative work, labor tirelessly to ameliorate the ills of this fractured, by sin, planet.  Like a humanist, they believe firmly in the worth and dignity of every human being, and also like a humanist, they believe that people are responsible for humanity's destiny in this life.
     So, I wondered, what's the problem?  Belief in the supernatural is certainly a major dividing line, one that, absent a profound (and divinely impelled) change of heart on the part of an unbeliever, will never be crossed.  This notwithstanding, however, humanists must recognize that people of faith, though for quite different reasonsa (a trust in the presence and historically attested activity of God), care deeply about people and the creation.  They laud the wonder of the human being, they are awed by the marvels of the planet.
     As the meeting drew to a close, most of those in attendance did not dispute the worth of religion.  They rather have a different vantage point on it.  We can work together, we can join in common cause to tend and cultivate the beautiful world and beings whom God has made.
     And as we do so, I dare say, we will uphold human dignity while honoring the person of God--and more richly establish the necessity of his presence.