Humanist Thought of the Week

Critical Thinking

The person I am most critical of is myself.

I hold myself to high standards.  

This is the main reason I try to think critically.

The better I can problem solve.

The better my moral judgements are.

The more reality based my understanding is, the more effective and moral I can be.

When I make mistakes, I try to fix them. And to do so I must be able to recognize the mistake to correct it.

All of this requires me to think critically about who I am, what I am trying to accomplish and how I am going about doing the things I do.

Being so critical all the time may seem ... negative.

But knowing that I truly am doing the best that I can do and that I’m not taking short cuts, makes me feel good about myself, even when I fail. 

Humanistic Self

Being a Humanist requires a certain amount of self-awareness.

If you aren’t willing to critically judge your own behavior, you have no way of improving.

Be aware that you aren’t perfect.

Reflect on how you might do and be better. 

Take constructive action to actually be better.

I find that having a sense of self-worth is made easier when I know that I matter because I regularly take action that matters to others. 

But the number 1 skill? Self-directed learning.

Without a willingness to learn how to be better, you won’t improve. 

Schools Out for Summer

I’m actually really excited that summer has finally started and that I can now hang out with my son.

Granted, he decided to go to opera camp this summer, so some of our free time is no longer free.

But still, I look forward to summer as much as he does.

We all need breaks. We all need time off from time to time.

We all need to spend quality time with the people we love.

And to me, that’s what summer is. Time to spend with my son. 

We haven’t been on a proper vacation for several years due to our financial constraints. 

But we still like to go exploring and seeing things we wouldn’t otherwise have the time to see, like obscure county parks and things like that.

Brains need breaks.  We need time off to recharge our brains.

So embrace summer. Embrace the break. And enjoy it while and if you can!

Earth Day

Most Humanists are environmentalists.

We understand that as a species, we are totally dependent on the earth for survival. 

Either it’s habitable to us, or it is not.

And, it could very easily be not.

And we understand science – so we understand that human activity is causing ecological problems that may not be solvable.

For a Humanist, environmental conservation is a moral imperative. 

So use this earth day to do something to help the earth and help yourself have a thriving habitat for us humans to live in at the same time.

Scientific Literacy and Health

Yesterday was World Health Day.

Yay – for being healthy.

But let’s talk a little bit about scientific literacy.

I was told the other day by someone considering vaccines, that there were so many studies pro and con and she just couldn’t figure out who was telling the truth.

I was astonished because figuring out which studies are real and which aren’t isn’t all that hard.

The skill required to make sense of competing claims is scientific literacy. 

Yes, this takes a little bit of effort to find out if a report is valid or has any science at all to back it up, but that little bit of effort is worth it.

Saying I can’t figure out competing claims is an admission you are too lazy to figure it out or that you don’t want to because you don’t want your biases challenged.

Regardless, if you want to be healthy – you need to be scientifically literate.

Look it up and learn how to do it.