Humanism and Higher Purpose

The only higher purpose for humanity is that which we lift up above ourselves.

And lift up such purposes we do! We lift them up through our shared ideas and ideals. We lift them up through art, storytelling, music, religion, philosophy and sport; through great teachings and speeches; through politics, culture and law. We lift them up locally, nationally and internationally too.

And in so doing, I dare say, we often benefit greatly. For amongst the many benefits humanity can and does gain in doing so, we can find ourselves united by a shared sense of meaning - and synergistically bonded together in a narrative drama of both triumph and defeat that is inherit to the human pursuit of a shared mission or goal.

For the secular Humanist, the most fundamental difference is simply the lack of the illusion that said higher purpose(s) come from any conscious minds other than our own. That and the locating of said higher purpose(s) in this life rather than one supposedly promised to follow. For we observe that every bit of higher purpose that has ever been experienced and recorded by humanity in this world is that which (a) can be attributed to humanity's own imagination and (b) that which has been experienced in this life or this world.

Despite having shed the ancient myth of a higher purpose from an external source or for another life to come, we find through first hand experience that can yet drink deeply of meaning and purpose. Only now we do so freely in a way that can fully grow with our understanding of life, the world and therein how best to maximize the well-being of conscious creatures, especially humanity. That is to say, we are not forever chained to a definition of human meaning and purpose born of the limited understanding of a specific part of humanity at a specific time and place in human history. Instead, ours is one that can grow with humanity itself. And for this, we are capable of lifting up higher purposes that more optimally benefit us moving forward.

For us then, the good news is that the hopes of humanity needn't be so constrained by our past short-comings. We may forever be "born-again" upon a more refined understanding of the truth. To would be oppressive ideologies of the past, we find an antagonist in a heroic drama of humanity to which we may be called to play a small role. We rise in protest, "Let our people go!" There is yet a greater land of promise that awaits us if we should let the chains of the past fall from our minds.