The Little Book of Humanism: Universal lessons on finding purpose, meaning and joy

by Andrew Copson

fire-breathing dragon lives in my garage’ Suppose I seriously make such an assertion to you. Surely you’d want to check it out, see for yourself. There have been innumerable stories of dragons over the centuries, but no real evidence. What an opportunity! ‘Show me,’ you say. I lead you to my garage. You look inside and see a ladder, empty paint cans, an old tricycle – but no dragon. ‘Where’s the dragon?’ you ask. ‘Oh, she’s right here,’ I reply, waving vaguely. ‘I neglected to mention that she’s an invisible

fire breathing Dragon 1

dragon.’ You propose spreading flour on the floor of the garage to capture the dragon’s footprints. ‘Good idea,’ I say, ‘but this dragon floats in the air.’ Then you’ll use an infrared sensor to detect the invisible fire. ‘Good idea, but the invisible fire is also heatless.’ You’ll spray-paint the dragon and make her visible. ‘Good idea, but she’s an incorporeal dragon and the paint won’t stick.’ And so on. I counter every physical test you propose with a special explanation of why it won’t work. Now, what’s the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless fire and no dragon at all?

fire breathing Dragon 2

I can’t know whether the gods exist or not, nor what they are like if they do. Two things in particular prevent any certain knowledge – the topic is obscure and life is short. Protagoras It’s all a matter of ideas, and God is just one idea I don’t accept. It’s not important. I don’t even think about it. It’s just that I get so tired of Him getting credit for all the things the human race achieves through its own stubborn effort. Lorraine Hansberry

gods

People sometimes say to me, ‘Why don’t you admit that the hummingbird, the butterfly, the Bird of Paradise are proof of the wonderful things produced by Creation?’ And I always say, well, when you say that, you’ve also got to think of a little boy sitting on a river bank, like here, in West Africa, that’s got a little worm, a living organism, in his eye and boring through the eyeball and is slowly turning him blind. The Creator God that you believe in, presumably, also made that little worm. David Attenborough

worm

All around the world and at all times, it is freedom of thought and freedom of expression that have proved the most essential conditions for human flourishing . . . The best response to the expression of a view we disagree with is to reply to it. Violence and censorship are never legitimate responses. Oxford Declaration on Freedom of Thought and Expression, the

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