Our humanist community should be thinking more about demonstrating the fundamental truth that goodness requires neither God nor the belief in God by organizing together as a community to do good. Less money spent on billboards that just make us feel good about ourselves and more on soup kitchens and organized visits to the sick and dying.
Interpretation
Goodness can exist independent of religious beliefs, and communities should focus on altruistic actions rather than self-congratulatory displays.
This quote by Rebecca Goldstein emphasizes the notion that moral goodness does not necessitate the presence of God or religious faith. Instead, she advocates for humanist communities to actively engage in practical acts of kindness, such as supporting those in need, rather than solely investing in promotional efforts that serve to bolster their own egos. The call to action highlights that true goodness is found in collective efforts to aid others, embodying the principles of empathy and solidarity.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a community service event to inspire participants.
Math . . . music .. . starry nights . . . These are secular ways of achieving transcendence, of feeling lifted into a grand perspective. It's a sense of being awed by existence that almost obliterates the self. Religious people think of it as an essentially religious experience but it's not. It's an essentially human experience.
I remained a socialist for several years, even after my rejection of Marxism; and if there could be such a thing as socialism combined with individual liberty, I would be a socialist still. For nothing could be better than living a modest, simple, and free life in an egalitarian society.
The greatest human ideal is the great cause of bringing together the thoughts of Europe and Asia; the great soul of India will topple our world.
There is a greater darkness than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities, it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope, the death of dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender.
When men stop believing in God, it isn't that they then believe in nothing: they believe in everything.
Opinion of ghosts, ignorance of second causes, devotion to what men fear, and talking of things casual for prognostics, consisteth the natural seeds of religion
The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it.
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