This week By Jove’s Blog Editor Woody writes a little about his own Humanist world view.
Hello. You know what’s exciting? Well, firstly on 10th of April we are showing a work in progress of our Othello at the CLF Theatre, Peckham. That’s very exciting. The other thing that’s exciting is that I can use this blog to write about almost whatever I like. Trick the higher-ups into trusting you and you are generally allowed to just get on with things without interference. Good life lesson there for you. No charge.
What one believes affects how one views the world and therefore how one behaves. As editor of this blog I may well have occasion to comment and opine on happenings, so I thought I’d give you a bit of a run-down of my personal world-view that you might see whence those opinions come. I have mentioned before, however briefly, that I am an atheist. Atheism is a big part of my self-identity – it’s what I put for myself in the census, for example. Atheism, however, is not a belief, it is a denial of a particular sort of belief. You who read this blog, I assume and hope, are reasonably intelligent and knowledgeable people. As such you probably don’t believe – as I have found certain denizens of the Internet profess to believe – that Atheism = Devil Worship. Even so, I think it worthwhile to state what I actively believe, if for no other reason than the fact that -isms by their very nature are general and can’t hope to convey the details of an individual human.
Everyone should believe in something. I believe I’ll have another beer – W.C. Fields
First and fundamentally, I like to view myself as an empiricist. I value evidence and reasoned argument. This is the wellspring of my atheism: I see no evidence for a god so I don’t believe in one. Tied up with this is the fact that arguments from authority don’t hold much water for me. I won’t believe a thing to be true simply because it’s proclaimed as such by a person who holds a well-regarded office. There is no equivalent of a Pope in atheism (not since Christopher Hitchens died, anyway. Hitch’s God is Not Great isthe best book I know for an atheist world view). I do, however take things on trust. For example, I accept the fact that matter is made from atoms on trust. I have never done (nor witnessed firsthand someone else doing) an experiment to verify the existence of atoms. I trust that atoms exist (and that similar scientific facts are true) because of the nature of peer-review in science. If someone were to put forward a paper disproving evolution, say, it would be scrutinised in the utmost by a cadre of people who were highly knowledgeable in that area. They would poke the logic, check the data analysis, and test every shred of evidence the author of said paper had used. When and ONLY when, no flaw had been found would the paper be accepted. This meticulous process lets me accept the propositions of Science in good faith, and thus frees up my own time to do things like write blog posts for a theatre company’s website.
That is roughly how I come to accept facts, on to the moral beliefs based on facts.
First, morality and atoms. This aspect of my beliefs is heavily based on Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura (On The Nature of Things). In the first century BCE Lucretius wrote a long poem (6,000+ lines of Latin dactylic hexameter) to entice people into reading the teachings of the Greek philosopher Epicurus. I shall try to rough out these teachings as simply and briefly as I can. The world is made out of “atoms” tiny, fundamental bits of matter which join together in various ways to make everything in existence, even you. When you die your atoms aren’t held together any more and break apart. As your “soul atoms” break apart on death, there is no way for your consciousness to survive death and thus no way for you to suffer in some afterlife. As you don’t need to worry about death you’re free to spend your life trying to enjoy yourself, that is avoid suffering and seek simple pleasures such as friendship. Your aim is ataraxia or “an untroubled mind” , “tranquility” if you will. Now, some of the explanations of natural phenomena are false (Lucretius explains lightning as the result of clouds crashing together and forcing out the “fire atoms” contained therein), and I don’t agree with some of the advice on how to attain ataraxia (Lucretius says that though sex is fine and jolly, romantic love should be avoided as its stormy and unpredictable nature will just mess with your head – I’m a hopeless romantic at heart), but overall I view it as quite a good approach to life. Understand things to reduce the fear and suffering they cause, and live for THIS life. Carpe diem (Horace, whose Odes I.11 is what we’re quoting when we use that phrase, was described by Suetonius as a “pig from an Epicurean herd.”) An incidental book recommendation: as far as I know it was written independently of the De Rerum Natura, but if understanding the world and avoiding suffering as a basis of morality appeals to you I heartily recommend Sam Harris’s The Moral Landscape.
Next, morality and evolution, which is simpler than morality and atoms. I don’t mean how our evolutionary past feeds into our morality (though that is a fantastically interesting field) I mean how the fact we are evolved beings feeds into my view of and approach to the world. I am one individual out of a billions-strong species. We are all the result of the same processes of evolution by natural selection. We are all apes just trying to muddle along and be happy. My rights and needs do not trump theirs, and vice versa. This is the intellectual foundation to my belief in equality, which is at the heart of my thinking on specific moral issues.
On any given issue or event on which I might decide to comment there will be more specific concepts which need to be taken into account, but the above will always be lurking. Now you know my basic stance, I feel at liberty to opine at leisure on this blog should the feeling take me.
You are, of course, here and on any future opinion I or anyone makes, free to disagree. That is why humans invented debate. Just promise me you’ll try to debate properly, and not just insult people you think are wrong. Debate moves humanity further from being egregiously wrong. This is something worth doing. Discuss (100 marks)
One hopes you’re well,
Yours,
ADWoodward
