Why I choose humanism over faith | Leo Igwe

As a humanist, Leo Igwe doesn't believe in divine intervention -- but he does believe in the power of human beings to alleviate suffering, cure disease, preserve the planet and turn situations of poverty into prosperity. In this bold talk, Igwe shares how humanism can free Africans from damaging superstitions and give them the power to rebuild the continent.

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[Whimswirl]

This meant so much to me as a fellow humanist of African descent. For so long I have felt alone in my beliefs and so nice to finally see others like me out there and know that I am in fact not alone.

[lonewolfgamingplus]

Throughout my life, I was a Christian and was huge church goer... But as time goes on I stopped going and feel discomfort with other Christians who curse others who believe in other religions, looking down on people who are different and feel more comfortable of just not being a Christian, I started to become a free thinker, more empathetic towards others.. I started to look at the people around me with clear mind. I started to support freedom of religion, freedom of gay marriage etc.. now I think about it, I've been a humanist half of my life from a teenager to now an adult.

I feel good of living in my own skin and by seeing the good in people and helping others.

[tapatiovidzz]

I will now share this with all of my friends in philosophy and religion. Humanism is the way to go, humans should help other humans to have the good life.

[Abbas-bxwi]

I'm a Muslim and I share a lot of the viewpoints made in this Ted Talk, prayer with no action will just lead to nothing you have to be pro active in chasing your goals. I do believe humanism and faith can go hand in hand, a lot of the cultural superstitions and blind belief on prayer really hold some communities back. Great talk.

[Hoellewood_Solutions]

If you a man or woman of ANY faith are reading this, sit down with me for a minute. Many of you will argue, (think of this a separate argument for now) that life has inherent meaning and we are lawless creatures without given purpose. Most of the time, an atheist, humanist, nihilist, will approach this in a way that doesn’t translate too well. Hear me. My faith fell over two years ago and I was adamant about finding my “meaning” in this world. At first I was nihilist. Thinking that belief was ridiculous so I simply don’t need to believe anything, but as time went on, I adapted. Through the pain of my transition I figured, why waste time? I can simply learn all I can about the FACTUALLY TESTABLE AND CONSISTENT universe, then I’ll begin to draw my conclusions. Two weeks ago, I began my journey back into philosophy and theist and atheist debates. Aside from a book I read, containing the excerpts from various letters written by Einstein himself, I barely if ever studied anything on philosophy or religion. I was interested to see what this new transition would present, and I tell you, I found a pretty profound argument for a pattern, and in my opinion almost a natural coincidence. Before I dive into this, let me first go over some quick discrepancies.

First I’d like to make it clear, this IS mostly an Anecdotal argument. One could say that these ideal are definitely coherent with that of many men and women, Hitchens, Dawkins, this TED presenter, but keep in mind my argument in a Personal Testimony. I am setting out to help you understand something that I feel is almost an imitation of nature, one that argues for Nature Moralism without spirituality, divinity, or metaphysics. Second, I am not an expert in these fields, for Christianity, I grew up in the faith and for a period was unshakingly devoted to Christ. As for the science, though I payed attention in school, took personal fascination in science and I have spent years observing the progress, read research here and there, ran undocumented simple experiments, and countless hours watching and reading scientific articles and videos. This does NOT make my views and interpretations 100% valid. I may “know my stuff”, but I actively advocate that you seek out these ideas and studies on your own. Third, my whole point on this argument is that it might influence you to seek these things with an open mind and viscous hunger for knowledge. Finally, I love humanity, if you will take my word for it, i do not mean to attack anyone for their “beliefs” I simply ask you to look outside of your box and explore the unknown.

Now, to the subject at hand. Let me first thank you for taking the time to read through this, or at least skim through to get to the point, my discrepancies may not be for everyone, but are important to relay some thoughts I’d hope you would view as honest. My statement here is important, to me and hopefully the world one day. (This is a Point that i will get to soon) I do not take this words lightly as they have become very passionate in my mind.

After years of being raised in the faith, the idea of being given meaning was everything, it’s hard to let go of and it’s painful to lose. I’ll save the death of my faith for another writing in order to save your leisure. When I lost that faith, the whole idea of “life has no purpose we are here by accident” was terrifying to me. The more I studied science, the more I realized how small we really are. This isn’t to be understated when I think back to those words said by Carl Sagan and many great men after him, “this Pale Blue Dot”. I won’t waste time spouting refutation towards religious validity. This has to do with realizing that we are small and that we really Do Not Matter, because when our time is up, nothing will be left in the grand scale to remember us and we will remain a “Pale Blue Dot” faded into a lost past. That hurts, that is one of he most painful ideas I’ve ever experienced. As i grew and continued to explore myself and the science of reality, much came in the way of suggesting Humanism. I often talked with my very close friend who had always been Atheist. He taught me much in the way of science. Many times he and I discussed where I was at in my thoughts. At the time I identified with Nihilism, I figured my distaste for the word, “Belief” fit nicely with it. Though, he still continued through the whole process to call me a Humanist. I didn’t know the word, but by general context, I guess I assumed it made sense. Not once till today did I explore the term Humanism. It seemed fitting, but I didn’t care to embrace it. Today, i have a bit of a revelation that i really care to share with you, my former brother under God. These past to weeks of once again engaging in philosophical, atheist, and today humanist ideology, has shown me a beautiful pattern. All that I acquired in my own partially isolated ideology was congruent with these people and this amazing TED presenter. I am in no way claiming that I am special or that I’ve am amazing for coming to this conclusion on my own. No, this is profoundly comforting to me. This is the most important imitation of a miracle to me. I always thought that if given a scientific understanding, one would eventually land in a highly relative moralism. Call it a hypothetical thought experiment, but the words spoken by the people I’ve lately listened to have brought me to tears. Clearly, I must have confirmed my suspicions. If there IS an INHERENT, GIVEN, PURPOSE OR MEANING TO LIFE, THEN THIS IS IT. Humanism isn’t a label religion, it doesn’t pretend to be anything special, it’s just a good title for what I Believe to be coherent in the true Human Desire. We really do want to live in a world of peace, when we cast aside Fear Of God, we can truly look at eachother as Equal. When you see the Pale Blue Dot, you will be able to see the Love, Pain, Struggle, Triumph, Exploration, Yearnings, and Integrity of humanity. I quote Charles Chaplin, “We all want to help one another, human beings are like that.
We want to live by each other's happiness.
Not by each other's misery.
We don't want to hate and despise one another.
And this world has room for everyone, and the good Earth is rich can provide for everyone.”

We as human beings must all fall into the same category when we each understand how small and insignificant we are. However, when you see that perspective, it is Inherently impossible to ignore the Absolute Magnitude of our Importance and Ability as a whole. Humanity Is Capable of incredibly great Accomplishment, Mental Ascension, Love, Empathy, and Progress. We have the power to save this Planet, to keep children from starving, to stop war, to hopefully reach the Stars, explore and expand. We have the power to become almost as gods ourselves, but we can ONLY achieve this in cooperation. So tell me, WHY would you not want to be a part of this? Why would you let religion Belittle the Progress of mankind? Because a book, voice from above, tealeaf reader, or preacher at the pulpit told you that we are worthless, submit your eternity to my service? I can no longer accept that. I vastly Love humanity and seek a deeper relationship with our evolution. I can’t image the satisfaction that I would have if for some reason I could be alive and have contributed to the next major advancement for humanity. Meaninglessness isn’t so bad when you get to prescribe it yourself, especially when it happens to fit many others based entirely and only on compassion.

Forgive me if I’ve taken more time than you wished, maybe you wished not at all. I absolutely encourage you to ask me anything, but more so to seek the knowledge yourself. Know that I, a now “found” Humanist, have tried to relay the idea that I love you, I love my neighbors, I love my enemies, I love the life that walks this Earth. Not because I’m told to, but because it makes sense and it’ll be the only thing that works on this Pale Blue Dot. I’d like to end this with something that I as of late hold dear to my heart. Once you no longer fear god and want a meaning, think of this; a few simple words from Anti-Theist and Youtuber, @Aron Ra, “If you want your life to mean something, try to make someone else’s life meaningful.” I cannot argue with that Logic, empathy is a great tool and it is evolved in us dispute the repression of belief systems. I hope that my words have meant something to you. Take them as you will and have a wonderful day.

-Aaron S Hoelle

[SkittlesDeNocturne]

Ive spent 15 years struggling with religion, bouncing from atheism, to satanism, to christianity, etc. I think ive finally found something I can fully believe in.

[rickywinthrop]

Athiest since birth. I have recently been exposed to secular humanism and find that it aligns pretty closely with my personally developed worldview to the point where I am starting to describe myself more in secular humanist terms. Great speech about an interesting slice of this subject

[brauliodiaz]

I hope this man achieves great things for his country

[karentiede]

One pair of working hands does more than a thousand hands clasped.

[mchlbk]

If only more people were like this guy...

[DigitalWraith]

*2 Hands* toiling WILL Accomplish more than *1, 000* hands clasped in prayer.

[alif]

Having just discovered Humanism, I am quite inspired by it to be honest, and it explains quite a lot of how I've felt during my early years. I might well look further into it. It's certainly a lot more trustworthy and solid than a lot of religion.

[NoOne-zlmq]

I LOVE THIS GUY ! His speech was beautiful, and I hope he has great success in his life. He has successfully shifted my misanthropic view on this world into something more positive and embracing. Whereas religion seeks to control and dictate over other people's lives. Leo has re-ignited my hope for a better future, that I have abandoned. And before you blame me of being overly pessimistic. Take into consideration the fact I was looking to religious people for “the big questions of life”. And all I got was, “this world is full of sin, you just need to pray, pray more, pray more, strengthen your faith, god will handle it”. And while I do share a major disdain for this world like Christians and other religions do (disdain for anything that does not co-adhere to their way of thinking). I get almost physically revolted by pious people who are glad to proclaim someone else's damnation. And at the same time ensuring their own salvation, as if they were hand-picked by god himself. Despite all that, his message is great, and I hope the whole world will come to embrace it one day. I don't expect the world to be perfect, but we can do so much more than what we have now. And if there is a god out there, I don't think he would want this piss water we call religion in the form it is in currently.

[SunDown.]

Bravo! Even Africa is waking up. The world is really changing!

[doresnalwanga]

You made my soul cry! You are the one and please how can we send this message to our countries in Africa. Every African should be for a better Africa tomorrow. We have our past but we can't let it define us. Things have to change one way or another for our children and grand children.

[JNeil]

This is wonderful! I went from religion to humanism.

[shamsulislam]

Thanks for your real life experiences and put it in a right way to support HUMANIST movement.

[OziMan]

Wonderful words. I’m a humanist though first and foremost humanitarian, which leaves a space of appreciation open for religious faith. I believe that we are the products of our circumstances and understand things according to these graces or challenges. Curiosity is the cure and the pathway to lasting and sustainable kindness.

[avice]

He is spot on in his words! Actions count more than words!

[Just.S]

The fact that humans still live disharmonious is proof that we’ve been following the wrong rules.