Secular humanism, often simply called humanism, is a philosophy, belief system or life stance that embraces human reason, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, and superstition as the basis of morality and decision making.
Paul Kurtz was an American scientific skeptic and secular humanist. He has been called "the father of secular humanism". He was Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo, having previously also taught at Vassar, Trinity, and Union colleges, and the New School for Social Research.
The American Humanist Association (AHA) is a non-profit organization in the United States that advances secular humanism, a philosophy of life that, without theism or other supernatural beliefs, affirms the ability and responsibility of human beings to lead personal lives of ethical fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity.
Humanist Manifesto is the title of three manifestos laying out a humanist worldview. They are the original Humanist Manifesto, the Humanist Manifesto II (1973), and Humanism and Its Aspirations. The Manifesto originally arose from religious humanism, though secular humanists also signed.
HumanLight is a Humanist holiday celebrated annually on 23 December. HumanLight was first celebrated in 2001, and was created to provide a specifically Humanist celebration during the western world's holiday season. The New Jersey Humanist Network founded the holiday in 2001 to aid secular people in commemorating the December holiday season without encroaching on other adjacent holidays—both religious ones such as Christmas and secular ones such as Solstice. The inaugural event involved only the founding organization, but is now celebrated by many secular organizations and individuals across the United States and other countries. Various organizations have recognized the holiday, including the American Humanist Association in 2004. The HumanLight Committee maintains the official HumanLight webpage and engages with humanist organizations and the media about the holiday.
The Happy Human is an icon that has been adopted as an international symbol of secular humanism. Created by Dennis Barrington, the figure was the winning design in a competition arranged by Humanists UK in 1965. Various forms of it are now used across the world by humanist organisations of all sizes including Humanists UK, Humanists International and The American Humanist Association (AHA).
Humanists International is an international non-governmental organisation championing secularism and human rights, motivated by secular humanist values. Founded in Amsterdam in 1952, it is an umbrella organisation made up of more than 160 secular humanist, atheist, rationalist, skeptic, freethought and Ethical Culture organisations from over 80 countries.
The Amsterdam Declaration 2002 is a statement of the fundamental principles of modern Humanism passed unanimously by the General Assembly of Humanists International (HI) at the 50th anniversary World Humanist Congress in 2002. According to HI, the declaration "is the official statement of World Humanism."
LGBT Humanists UK, founded in 1979, is a special interest section of Humanists UK which campaigns for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality and human rights in the United Kingdom. It also organises social events for LGBT humanists and public awareness initiatives around Humanism.
Roy W. Brown is a British-born engineer, humanist and human rights activist. He was president of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) from 2003 to 2006 and was for a time its main representative at the United Nations, Geneva.
Babu Gogineni is an Indian Humanist, rationalist, and human rights activist, who served as Executive Director of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU).
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to humanism:
The European Humanist Federation, officially abbreviated as EHF-FHE, is an umbrella of more than 60 humanist and secularist organisations from 25 European countries.
The Tyneside Group of the North East Humanists (NEH) was founded on 17 September 1957, although organised secularism in North East England had been active from the 1860s. The group adopted the name North East Humanists in 1997, after merging with the Teesside Humanist group.
Sonja Albertine Jeannine Eggerickx is a Belgian secular Humanist who was president of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), now Humanists International, a position she held for nine years until stepping down in 2015. In 2016 she was awarded the Distinguished Services to Humanism Award 2016 for her ground-breaking work in secular education and ethics.
Young Humanists International, known as the International Humanist and Ethical Youth Organisation or IHEYO from 2002–2019, is the youth wing of Humanists International, founded in 2002. It aims to network young humanists around the world together, support training and promote humanist values for the age category of 18–35. It is an umbrella organisation representing around 40,000 young people across the world.
The Allianz vun Humanisten, Atheisten an Agnostiker is a Luxembourgish association that serves the interests of atheists, humanists, skeptics and agnostics in the Grand-Duchy. It also explicitly supports secularist positions. Its official abbreviation is A.H.A. Lëtzebuerg; usually this is shortened to AHA, sometimes with an extra exclamation mark. The AHA was founded on 13 May 2010 as an association without lucrative purpose (asbl). AHA is a member of the European Humanist Federation and the International Humanist and Ethical Union. From 2010 up to 10 May 2019, the association was chaired by biologist Dr. Laurent Schley. The current chair is psychologist Dr. Robert A.P. (Bob) Reuter.
The Humanist Association of Ghana (HAG) is a humanist organization of atheists and agnostics living in Ghana who espouse humanism as a way of life, fight for the protection of human rights and promote critical thinking.
