Humanism vs Atheism (Philosophical Distinction)

An explanation of the difference between Humanism and Atheism, as well as some organizations that support these communities. Also included are brief explanations of Nihilism and Anti-Nihilism.

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Information for this video gathered from The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Collier-MacMillan Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the Dictionary of Continental Philosophy, and more! (#athiesm #humanism)

[MarkHyde]

Yeah, I am Humanist who is an Atheist - but also atheist because of humanism. There are forms of being as human that can be ethical in nature that allows you to care others and not outright harm others - no need for god(s) for that. Great video and love this clarification.

[Absolute]

Hey carneades, I just started watching you again. I just wanted to know what do you think is the best position on epistemology? Like for example coherentism, foundationalism, reliabiliam, etc. Or should I become a skeptic?

[MB-qrxv]

I want to relate a story that actually happened to me several years ago. It is a little long, but it is an incredible story. I am a Christian and would be interested in your opinion as an atheist as to how this happened.
It was a very hot summer day; nearly one hundred degrees. My daughter and I took My son to a park where he was playing a soccer double-header. Two back-to-back games in extreme heat. Shortly before the end of the first game, my son ran out of Gatorade. He was borrowing sips from his teammates. (This was obviously pre-covid) At the end of the 2nd game he was "dying of thirst." I said, "Son I'll drive to the 7-11 down the street and get you a Gatorade. As we were pulling on to the freeway onramp, he said, "Dad, I thought you were going to get me some Gatorade." "I'm sorry, I forgot. I'll get off at the next offramp and get you some." As we were passing that offramp, someone in the car said, "I thought you were going to get off and get some Gatorade?" We kept passing offramps and remembering AFTER passing each one but could not remember in time to get off. We did that for seventeen miles. Finally, we pulled into our neighborhood, and I said, "I'm sorry son, we'll get you something to drink at home."

As I turned down the first street, I noticed a car up ahead, backing out of a driveway. He was about to run over a "Big Wheel." I little kids toy bike. It had two little wheels in the back and a big wheel in the front. There was no kid on the Big Wheel, so I didn't think much of it, UNTIL I noticed a small child UNDER the car about to be run over. I simultaneously, slammed on the brakes, ripped the door open and screamed as LOUD as I possibly could, "STOP, STOP, STOP." The driver heard my frantic screaming and stopped the car. I ran over to help the little kid. He was face down. The car had LITERALLY stopped two inches from his little head. He was perfectly lined up for the car to run over his head, then his neck and then his spine...

If we had just arrived at that time, you could say, "WOW! What a coincidence!" But that does NOT explain how we absolutely could not REMEMBER to get off at seventeen miles of offramps UNTIL we passed each one of them.
I believe God had different plans other than a senseless death at that tender age for the little kid, and along the way He bolstered our faith in Him.

You might say, "What about other kids who did get run over, or what about kids born with this or that disease. Why didn't God spare them?" God is God. He is All-knowing and All-powerful He does His will. AND He is infinitely more intelligent than we are. In this life we very well may not understand why things happen as they do, but God knows, and we just have to realize He still sits on the Throne and one day will rectify all the problems we face here on this sinful earth.

[vitorguimaraes]

Feuerbach is a example of humanist that claims a humanism as anthropoteism: putting human being as a divine being.

[Zombieli]

As a Methodist who also would identify himself as an humanist I would say that you can be moral without a god. While a god would be an amazing guideline to help you be as moral as possible there are some things such as Not hurting others either physically or mentally as an example are inherently part of us as people (with the exception of a few types of people but that brings up the whole Nature vs Nurture debate) that you don’t need a god to tell you not to do. One argument to be made is that if there isn’t an ability to then no matter what god you believe in you’d have to show not one civilization that has ever existed that didn’t have at least one family or person that was a moral person. Or if you don’t believe in a god show me one civilization that has ever existed that (that believed is god) didn’t have at least one family or person that was a moral person. I’d also like to argue that most morality (that we talk about and see today) is cultural and isn’t based necessarily on religion or a lack there of.

[themaximus]

I'm agnostic with respect to the proposition of God's existence, and I don't generally think that God's existence is relevant to ethics, but I am also generally doubtful of whether or not people can be good or bad anyways. At least not good or bad in a universal sense. My intuitions lean a little towards the non-cognitivist side of things I guess.

Can a non-cognitivist be a humanist? Or are all non-theistic non-cognitivists nihilists?

[Purwapada]

how would Pyrrhonean scepticism deal with the statement that "Pyrrhonean scepticism exists?"

[louisalexandre]

Fist, because english is not my native language I might have slipped some wrong wording or grammatical mistakes. 😶

Where is gone critical Carneades? Humanism also puts emphasis on the concept of "Human", particularly on who is deemed to be "Human" enough through some ingroup bias, mostly political, cultural and religious. Thus it led historically to dehumanization of the other, not "Human" enough to be considered worth of morality, conducted mass slavery, colonial & genocidal endeavor, eugenism & segregationism and even antisemitism in the name of Humanity's sake. Humanism main flaw resides in the concept of human itself, in order to protect the one/good/true moral "Human" against the disposable/bad/false immoral "Inhuman".

At the core, both atheistics and theistics Humanist will claim to be (mainly as a group) the most moral or some kind of universalized morality. But viewed from Sirius, humanism appears to be a deep rationalization framed by secularized societies, from "civilized" people mildly hidding a complex of superiority.

[Purwapada]

hi, how about Madhyamaka? i.e nothing is substantiated yet everything exists in dependence

[TheMargarita]

Human ethics come from the same source as our bipedal posture and our facility with spoken language: from human evolution.

[Nick-csyc]

One only requires the motive to be so-called good or bad!! Its a choice motivated by circumstances!!

[i.l.wilson]

Can you go more into detail about "Humanist Theist/Theistic Humanist"?

[JacquesduPlessis]

Where would an emotivist fit in your opinion? To my mind someone who doesn't think good exists beyond an emotive sense, doesn't necessarily have to be a nihilist. Or do you think moral nihilism is the only alternative?

[SailboatDiaries]

The word God carries way too much weight, God doesn’t want us to worry so much about labels.

[whysoreligious]

Shouldn’t the deist position be different than the theist? If you are a deist, you aren’t a theist. The concept of belief of a god existing is there, but divine intervention is the difference. It’s a rather huge one. I would think that a deist and theist should be in the same circle when over lapping others about morality.

[arthurwieczorek]

"...admit of multiple definitions..." So, what is the word? They are polysemous ?

[nienke]

I'm a gnostic atheist when it comes to christianity as it is generally presented (i.e. I know that the christian god as presented in the bible and by modern teachings is impossible) (there's a decent chance other religions, especially ones closely related to Christianity, such as Islam, Judaism, and Mormonism, would fall in the same category if I'd take the time to get to know them better)

I'm a pure agnostic in general (I do not know whether or not a god exists and I do not take a position as to whether one does or not)

I'm a humanist, in that I believe morality/ethics can exist and be followed regardless of whether a god exists. I even take it a step further and take issue with the notion that morality would come from a god, as that would mean that morality isn't a constant but rather something at the whim of some higher being, and I also take issue with the idea of a god or higher being able to be regarded as (perfectly) good or evil if they are the source of morality, as that goes into circular reasoning.

[InventiveHarvest]

God is not needed for driving a system of ethics. Ethics can be derived from facts about the world - facts like: people have unique sets of desires, in the short run resources are limited, one person's actions can affect other people, and so on.

When God is used for ethics, ethics becomes a decree rather than something that is derived from math and logic

[anteodedi]

As an atheist, I have to say that defining atheism as a lack of belief is plainly silly. Theism is not defined in terms of lacking belief, and neither should atheism. Does god exist? Either it does or it doesn't. Fence sitters are neither theists nor atheists.
Even etymologically speaking, it comes from the ancient Greek term “atheos” which means without god, not without belief in god. It literally means a view of reality that doesn't contain gods.
Atheist philosophers in academia don't use the “lack of belief” definition, as it makes no sense to define it that way.

[aisforapple]

I'm really confused because I believe that humans have a value, I seriously doubt the existence of gods, I believe that there can be a morality without gods, but historically, humanity has been atrocious to itself and will never change, so I consider myself a nihilist. 🤷