Dr. Richard Thain
Presented at the 2023 OHS Conference #Fillyourlife
Barrie ON April 29, 2023
Dr. Thain participated in a panel discussion about humanism at the OHS 2023 #FillYourLife conference which took place April 29 and 30, 2023. Below are Richard’s responses as to why he chose humanism and his hopes and concerns about the state of humanism, in Canada and around the world.
Why is humanism important to you (how did you come to identify as a humanist)?
I suppose the most concise way to answer this question is to say that humanism is my home. My place of belonging.
But the questions inevitably encourage me to seek out those earliest intimations that humanism was a part of my identity as a thinking and curious individual…even if I was not quite aware at the time that humanism may be the most accurate term for that part of my self.
I once heard an adult at a social event, thirty years ago, when the conversation turned to what people’s religious affiliation were, she said, “I don’t have religion, I guess I’m a Nothing.” How sad. She wasn’t a “Nothing”. But she didn’t have the terms or language to express herself. She couldn’t articulate what her world view was. She was not a Nothing, she was a Somebody, a person with hopes and dreams, a person with a sense of right and wrong, someone with the ability to think for herself, to love her family and be empathetic towards others. She was not a lesser person for not identifying with
a religion. But I would not be surprised to learn that many of us who come to call ourselves “humanist” take some time to find the word that best suits such a deep and meaningful part of our identity.
So, let me begin with second part of the question.
I was born in1954 and grew up in suburban Toronto. Scarborough, in fact. My family attended the local United Church. As was common in the middle of the 20th century, my parents believed that attending church and Sunday school was a necessary part of family life and good for children. My parents brought us, my younger sister and myself, to church because it was expected of them. At about age eleven, I asked mt parents if I had to go to church. I recall the conversation at the kitchen table; my parents said, “Well, we’ve heard that it is not good to force religion onto children – it is better to let them decide what they want to believe when they are older.” They answered my question rather unceremoniously, “You don’t want to go to church? OK.” They and my younger sister stopped going to church too.
As for me, I didn’t know the term cognitive dissonance, but religion didn’t make sense to me – I wasn’t interested. Bible stories did not make sense to me. I did not understand why there wasn’t any history available to examine these things. Of course, I eventually understood that the leaders of organized religions actively suppressed knowledge, thinking and information. And I also realized that by declining to attend Sunday school and to question and challenge theocratic authorities, I was exhibiting a bit of
individual caprice. I was changing direction away from doing what was expected and instead decided to think for myself.
You can see that these earliest intimations of humanism began for me at home. My experience is not dramatic. It is, in a word, homely in the sense of the being unadorned and comfortable. Something quite natural and uncomplicated. There is no story of changing religions, being ostracized by a religious community, being kicked out of the house, and then seeking out gurus in the Himalayas, etc.
I am reminded that Tom Flynn said it was emancipating for him. He had a longer philosophical distance to travel to find “humanism” than I did. He had a stronger religious connection to be liberated from. In my case it was more a clarification and inspiration / inspiring learning about history of freethinkers and benefits of free inquiry and freedom from religion and the supernatural. The natural universe is awesome enough! In a 2017 blog post titled “What Secular Humanism Means to Me,”
Flynn, who had been raised in a traditional Catholic home, described becoming a secular humanist as an act of emancipation.
“To my mind, the realization that existence is purely physical — not just that there’s no such thing as the supernatural, but that there’s no such thing as spirit next to which the physical world must come in second — may be the greatest emancipation of all. It frees me to cherish this life on its own terms,” he wrote. “No longer must I devalue my existence as the eye-blink prologue to some boundless perpetuity where, if only by dint of its incalculably greater scale, true significance must lie.”
I used to bend/ bow head in prayer (weddings, funerals, etc.) to be polite. Then, when I had kids, I stopped pretending to pray. It is not impolite, to stand or sit quietly and let others try to communicate with a deity if they so wish. What is impolite, is to expect/ force/compel everyone to participate in a religious ritual in which you so not believe. I stopped praying because I didn’t want to set a bad example to my children.
I was part of that Baby boom generation which drifted away from organized religion, like so much of Canadian society. It was not from some profound analysis of philosophy, science, history, and religious studies – it was just a two-minute (maximum) discussion in the kitchen. Each small act of humanism is important. In my life – a tolerant and engaged conversation about whether religion had a place in my life was an act of humanism on my part and the part of my family.
Social issues of the day seemed more important, more relevant than the stories in The Holy Bible. In 1960s and 70s Toronto suburbia, we witnessed the civil rights movement, the Viet Nam war, the space race, Women’s Liberation, the Gay Rights Movement, science discoveries and so forth. My parents emphasized that religious discrimination is wrong. The Beatles seemed more relevant than the Bible. “All you need is love. Love is all you need.”
The concerns of those times combined with what I had learned at home. I did learn from my parents at a young age, that religious discrimination is wrong. My mother worked for the Dutch Resistance in Amsterdam during WWII. She worked as a cook and maid for wealthy families, with the Jewish families treating her the best. They would invite her to join them at the table, as part of the family once the meal was prepared. During the Nazi occupation, she decided the least she could do was to help the Jews. She saved many lives, sneaking Jewish people out of Amsterdam at night on the trains. Eventually she was arrested and was held with other prisoners, until the next train arrived, to ship them east, presumably to a concentration camp. While mom was being held captive – other prisoners were crying and praying She told me that she neither cried nor prayed, because she didn’t believe that that would change anything. She decided, sitting there in the warehouse/prison, “that if there was a god, and this was the kind of world he made, then he could have it.”
Fortunately, the Canadian army arrived before the train and liberated them. Years later, she was commemorated by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, with an olive tree planted in her honour. I shared this story with Dr Henry Morgentaler, and he described how he, similarly, put any beliefs about god he had behind him, when he was liberated from the Dachau concentration camp.
So, you can see that to ask how ‘humanism’ came to be important to me is rather like asking how ‘home’ become important to any person. Humanism is our universal and common heritage.
Why is humanism important to you?
In the early 1980s I saw a philosopher named Paul Kurtz on TV Ontario and learned about the HAC, the HAO, the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism, (CODESH became CSH; Centre for Inquiry) and a variety of other organizations. I learned through organized humanism that people without a religion or supernatural beliefs have a philosophical and social place. That helped me …it provided clarification and gave me a philosophical home. Secular humanism is not a religion. Atheism is not a religion. But that does not in any way suggest that it cannot be a place of intellectual belonging and emotional comfort. A home.
Through organized humanism, I was introduced to new ideas, gained better understanding of social issues and discovered biographies. One example (from Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF): Frances Wright- “Not only have an infinite number of the purest hearts, and most gifted intellects in ancient and modern times been wholly devoid of religion, – but there exist those who consider religion as decidedly injurious to virtue.”
Secular humanism is a naturalistic philosophy. Humans are part of nature and the laws of nature apply to us. I am an atheist because the burden of proof rests on religion, and religion has yet to meet that burden.
Albert Einstein, “I do not believe in the immortality of the individual, and I consider ethics to be an exclusively human concern with no superhuman authority behind it.”
I don’t think I would have: written letters to-the-editor; spoken out on issues; supported the one-school-system-issue ad campaign; co-hosted with my daughter, the Pride flag raising ceremony in our township; pursued the ongoing Winnipeg lawsuit, etc., without learning some history of freethinkers, and being inspired by so many people I’ve met in organized humanism. Organized Humanism provided an environment and a community which clarified ideas for me and helped me to understand what issues and principles I stand for.
Why is secularism important to the world?
I have already suggested that humanism is a kind of home for me. To extend that metaphor of humanism as a home…let me further suggest that secularism is the very hearthstone of this home that is humanism. Without it, our home can have no warmth and no community.
For me humanism necessarily entails universal fraternity. I can only hope to share the most comforting and necessary parts of my home (humanism) with my brothers and sisters throughout the world.
Secularism, the hearth of the home that is humanism, is the most vital source of warmth and true community that brings all of humanity into community. There is an inverse relationship between proximity to secularism and proximity of human tragedy.
“Two things form the bedrock of any open society – freedom of expression and rule of law. If you don’t have those things, you don’t have a free country.” – Salman Rushdie
“Secular” means that something doesn’t have anything to do with religion- it doesn’t mean opposition to religion. The “secular community “refers to people who live without religion, particularly those who participate in atheist, free thought, humanist, and similar groups in person and online. However, when we talk of secularism as a movement, we’re talking about keeping faith-based ideas, superstition, and religious ideology out of government. That doesn’t mean evangelizing for atheism, but it does mean recognizing that people’s rights are best protected, and government is fairest when religion and myth are not the basis of public policy. Instead, secularists want public policy to be based on evidence, science, and reason. A person can be religious and still believe that a secular government is fairest since it guarantees religious freedom for all, favouring no one religion over another- or over non-belief. (Source, AHA?)
Look at the condition of the countries which are less secular. See Prof. Phil Zuckerman’s research and UN Reports.
Wole Soyinka- “The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism.” – Wole Soyinka (Nigerian playwright, poet, essayist, political activist, humanist) Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature (1986) the first sub-Saharan African to be so honoured in that category.
As we all are quite aware, secularism is the separation of church authority from state authority. I must admit that I agree with Eric Idle’s quip, “I believe in the separation of church and planet.”
Evolutionary biologists and psychologists have taught us those supernatural religions certainly played important roles in human development, but we must not tie ourselves to the past, but look to the future. Isaac Asimov: Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to be lost under the burden of juvenile folly and ignorant superstition. – Isaac Asimov, president American Humanist Association – 1985-1992.
Wherever religion is found, one also tends to find various forms of human tragedy. While it would be an exaggeration to suggest that religion is the sole source of human tragedy…Even the Christian, Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) recognized that “men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”
The government-sponsored religious discrimination, via the current public funding of two school systems in Ontario must come to an end. – Richard G L Thain
Secularism, the separation of the authorities of church and state is a process with a glorious, and almost certainly unintended, consequence…it produces degrees of freedom. The fact of secularism is the destruction of absolute power. Secularism places the respective militarism and authoritarianism of church and state in different citadels.
The fact that the inevitable despots of either camp cannot claim authority over all inevitably means that there is some authority left to us. Secularism is the hearth-fire that generates autonomy and self-determination if only we can keep the fire burning.
And perhaps by degrees, the citadels of authoritarianism can be brought down to ever-less-imposing scale. George Carlin- “I’m completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.”
What do you see as the current, significant world events that humanism has a role in solving?
One thing? OK, here’s my one thing….and it is a rather big thing. It is everything.
Steven Pinker said that “Open debate, discussion, evaluation is our only way of approaching the truth. Punishment of opinion, punishment of criticism is a guaranteed way of locking us in to error.”
One significant, emerging challenge is how we are going to deal with Artificial Intelligence. We will have to work together to save ourselves from our own technology. I hope others, more qualified than me, will be able to elucidate on this unknown territory.
Despite what the proponents of supernatural religions declare…humanism provides the ethical, moral, and philosophical home that people need to solve all of humanity’s problems. We must simply start at home. “Human problems must be solved by humans.” The first time I time read this sentence was in a Humanist in Canada magazine that Blodwen Piercy gave me at the first HAO meeting I attended, held in Paul Pfalzner’s home.
It is an understanding of real humanity that allowed Christopher Hitchens to say. “Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. The grave will supply plenty of time for silence.” There is no seeking for solutions in the afterlife for the humanism of Hitchens. He saw that we must seek our solutions for ourselves while we are living and breathing with the immediacy of the problems we face.
“The taming and domestication of religion is one of the unceasing chores of civilization.”
-Christopher Hitchens
Humanism does not set people onto the task to pray for the good will of some supernatural force to clean up our problems…it tells us to get to the important task of communicating with our fellow humans to solve the problems we have created for ourselves and each other. It also tells us to launch a capricious cannonade against the citadels of religious authority.
I listened to a two-hour zoom meeting sponsored by the Century Initiative – they want to increase the Canadian population to at least 100 million people within 75 years (by 2100), proposing a Toronto of over 10 million. During this meeting, the word “environment” was not used once. On Monday, March 27, 2023, I listened to a speech hosted by the Empire Club of Canada in Toronto, by the Hon. Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship of Canada, about addressing Canada’s labour shortages. A word search in the written copy of his speech, failed to find the words biodiversity, climate [change], [global] warming, farmland, limits [to growth], traffic congestion, crowding, or crime. Strange, isn’t it?
Explain to future generations that it was good for the economy when they can’t farm the land, breathes the air, or drink the water.
In addition to our environmental nightmare, we face Isaac Asimov’s warning… “Democracy cannot survive overpopulation.” -Isaac Asimov
To some, it may seem overblown – but it is my firm conviction that humanism is indeed absolutely essential to the survival of the human race, and that we are in a time when these few principles:
•humans solving their own problems
•democracy and the free exchange of ideas and information
•universal compassion and empathy
•science and evidence-based methods of inquiry
are what will ensure that humanity continues to have the opportunity to flourish on this planet. Or to say this slightly differently – that superstition, authoritarian clampdowns on public debate, divisive differentialism among people and, appeals to ancient mythologies will absolutely NOT contribute to the survival of humanity as a whole.
What are your biggest concerns about the state of humanism/secularism around the world?
It seems natural that this question should vex and frustrate any secular humanist…most likely because our vexation is and will always be rooted in the state of the world itself. At times, it can seem as though every bit of our world is over-run with terrible matters. This perspective is a product of humanity’s collective advancement in two ways: first – an unchecked proliferation of humanity has resulted in unprecedented strains and dangers to our natural and civilizational worlds; second – our collective understanding of these worlds means that we comprehend our intricate and complicated existence more and better each year.
Overpopulation and unsustainable growth make discussing topics such as secular wedding ceremonies (and I endorse secular wedding ceremonies!) and opposing public funds for religious education (and I oppose public funds for religious education!) seem trivial. “Not to mention” how competition for resources is/will exacerbate geopolitical tensions and rivalries.
And, lest we forget, …nuclear weapons.
As secular humanists we have the responsibility, occasionally uncomfortable responsibility, to set aside myths and magical thinking and bring ourselves and our communities back around to address the many metaphorical elephants in the room.
With that being said, I do want to emphasize that there is a considerable difference between the state of secularism/humanism…and the state of the many issues that secular humanists must engage themselves in addressing. We have begun the twenty-first century with secularism and humanism as leading ideals around the world. Here in Canada, Stats Canada’s website indicates that Christianity is down from 67.3% of the Canadian population to 53.3% since 2011 and from 77.1% in 2001. Meanwhile the non-affiliated has risen from 16.5% in 2001 to 34.6% in 2021.Secularism and humanism are on the rise.
We will need strong secular humanist organizations and leaders to ensure that the millions of people who are turning to humanism find a welcoming place to call home.
In keeping with my theme that humanism as home…my biggest concerns regarding humanism and secularism begin here at home. We must start with ourselves. If want to change improve the world, must first change improve ourselves and our immediate communities.
The government-sponsored religious discrimination vis-a-vis the current public funding of two school systems in Ontario — which gives preferential treatment to one religious group — is an international embarrassment, a financial disaster, and a moral disgrace.
Please excuse me for using a military metaphor, but it’s useful in explaining my view on this. I use the term ‘capricious cannonade” (as described by Paul Blanchard).
The humanist movement… “freethought movement, is more like a capricious cannonade than a movement. The pattern is something like this: Isolated iconoclasts aim their verbal weapons at the primary enemy, organized religion, and occasionally a shot reaches its mark. Then preachers continue to preach, and the doubters continue to doubt, and the world moves on.
But the effort is not wasted. Orthodoxy has been weakened and superstition reduced. The stream of culture has been slightly diverted. The world is wiser because some freethinker has dared to speak.” – Paul Blanchard
Thanks to public education, popularizers of science, the internet, availability of scientific, rational, secular humanist information, we have a storage house of ammunition to be used by freethinkers in the battle against orthodoxy. I wish to be clear that I am not recommending we go out and purchase cannonballs. My use of the term is a metaphor.
The funding of two school systems is a relic of ancient faith-based quarrels that has become the leading example of systemic faithism in Canadian society. For Canadian humanists, it is the biggest target for our own capricious cannonade against the citadels of religious authority.
Recall Dr Brock Chisholm- Canadian humanist – “Unless we are very careful… there is still great danger that our children may turn out to be the same kind of people we are -Brock Chisholm (1986-1971, Oakville, ON. First World War Veteran, medical practitioner, Director- General of WHO (1948-53))
We, the humanists of these first decades of the twenty-first century must undertake our best efforts to end this massively entrenched citadel of privilege and ensure our children’s children are not left with this divisive problem.
I would rather we left our children to the stars than digging in the mud of a deeply entrenched citadel of religious privilege.
What is one thing you would like everyone in this room to consider/do following this meeting?
It is our responsibility to be engaged…and to be politically active.
I have done my best to convince you that humanism is my home and place of belonging and I have the impression that this is a sentiment that most humanists feel along with me. As it is my home, I feel it is my duty to take it upon myself to care for humanism as I would my home. Because humanism is my home and my refuge. I must tend the fires of the hearth that is secularism; I must ensure the various tools of my home (reason, compassion, science, critical thinking) are kept in good order so they can serve me. And I would like everyone in the room to think about how they can look after humanism and put it into action in the world. Each of us can look after our humanism and launch our
capricious cannonades against the citadels and fortresses of faith-based discrimination and privilege.
The Beatles didn’t get it exactly right. Love is all you need? No…not according to Victor Hugo…
Aimer, c’est agir. (To love, is to act.) – Victor Hugo.
Let’s put our humanism into action. It is our own capricious cannonade to put our humanism into action, from small acts to more major projects. For example, we can call out the hypocrisy and bigotry enshrined via systemic faithism when we see it.
Pope Paul VI said, “Finally, Government is to see to it that equality of citizens before the law, which is itself an element of the common good, is never violated, whether openly or covertly, for religious reasons.” But popes are leaders of their church, what arguably is the world’s largest pedophile protection ring. A Pope calls for equal treatment of all people – except, of course the criminals who creep among the cathedrals. We must call out this hypocrisy! Let’s eliminate the public funding of government-sponsored religious discrimination in our schools. If we do not, it will spread. Recently a top US court ruled that Mormon leaders are not obligated to turn in pedophiles who confess during religious rites!
Religious privilege is a disease which spreads.
What one thing would I like everyone to do following this meeting? Do what you can!
Volunteer at humanist associations and conferences.
Explain to people, your dissent from religion, (out as a nonbeliever).
Write letters to the editor (recall how Wole Soyinka encourages us when he wrote: “The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism.”).
Recommending to friends, humanist books, websites, blogs, alternatives to traditional ceremonies and religious holidays.
Support the secular advances that are being made all the time – we have Humanist Officiants, Military chaplains (Canada, and see recent news from Ireland!)
Political lobbying, petitions.
Launch legal cases when human rights are violated, or when Constitution/Charter protected rights such as freedom of expression has been breached by a government body (such as a city or municipal government.).
Take out an advocacy ad campaign (examples: on the one school system issue; oppose religious discrimination, etc.).
Oppose censorship; defend freedom of expression.
Support other freethinkers around the world, such as Muslim apostate, humanist, atheist, Mubarak Bala in Nigeria.
My one suggestion? Do whatever you can. There are opportunities for everyone to contribute to our freethought movement, our capricious cannonade (based on our secular principles).
We do care about future generations and the world they will inhabit…people we will never know. And we are willing to contribute toward this effort.
I don’t think the supernatural will help or save us…because I don’t believe in the supernatural.
Humanists/atheists approach the world, without theism or other supernatural beliefs. We don’t need gods or religion. We have the ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good. (AHA)
Friends, humanism is in many ways like a home. The more that you put into building your home, the more that you will receive in comfort, friendship, love and meaning.
References and Quotes:
Gaylor, Annie Laurie, Ed., Women Without Superstition, “No Gods – No Masters”, Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc., 1997
Blanchard, Paul, Ed., Classics of Free Thought, Prometheus Books, 1977
Canadian Humanist Publications
https://humanistperspectives.org/about
“Merely to critically attack religious beliefs is not sufficient. It leaves a vacuum. What are you for? We know what you’re against, but what do you want to defend?”
– Professor Paul Kurtz
Honorary Patrons – Population Institute Canadahttps://populationinstitutecanada.ca
Yadvashem.org
“I used to think that somebody ought to do something about that. Then I realized, I’m somebody.” – Lily Tomlin
“In nature, nothing exists alone.” – Rachel Carson