Mission
Cultivating community rooted in reason and compassion to support atheists and promote humanist values.
Vision
A world where everyone has secular community support for learning, growing, and doing good for good reasons.
Values
Our top-level Values are Reason, Compassion, and Joy.
These are our primary values. Some values, or aspects of values, function as drivers. They motivate us to take initiative and put in effort to shape the change that the world is continuously undergoing. Others serve as checks, prompting us to take a moment to consider how to approach our goals most effectively instead of just blundering forward.
Reason
Reason comes first, because we understand how easy it is for us, as perfectly normally-functioning human beings, to deeply fool ourselves about consequential matters. The best of intentions aren’t good enough on their own. History is littered with examples of great harm caused by well-meaning people who get carried away by ideas of how to “fix” things that sound good at first glance, but that are poorly thought through and ultimately bring about bad outcomes. This can happen in our personal lives with health and financial matters, in our interpersonal relationships with our friends and families, or in society at large with public policy. Proper treatment can only follow a proper diagnosis, so it’s imperative that our map reflects the territory accurately enough.
No society in human history has ever suffered because its people became too reasonable.
Reasoning well requires at least the following:
Scientific Naturalism
The natural world is all there is, and the best tool we have for understanding it is science.
This does not mean we put blind faith in the results of a single study, but instead trust in the scientific thought process and the aggregate body of knowledge that science has produced. We operate with the understanding that there is still so much to know, and what we learn next may overturn what we thought we knew before. Instead of a weakness, the recognition that all conclusions are merely provisional, and the ability to update them in light of new evidence, is one of science’s greatest strengths, in stark contrast to more dogmatic approaches, both religious and secular.
Critical Thinking
The U.S. National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking defines Critical Thinking as: “the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action” (Wikipedia).
While there’s more to critical thinking than just thinking logically, the ability to recognize logical fallacies in one’s own arguments and those of others is key so that we avoid making consequential mistakes. It’s often much easier to recognize mistakes that others are making than to recognize our own, so we can each benefit from being in relationship with others who care about our well-being and can provide corrections with kindness and tact. If I have a speck in my eye, please let me know, kindly, even if you have a log in yours. I want to be wrong for the shortest possible amount of time.
It’s also important to remember that our brains are locked in a dark wet box with no direct access to the external world. They’ve evolved by natural selection over hundreds of millions of years, and they’re only built to help us survive in our ancestral environments long enough to reproduce and raise the next generation. As a result, they’re structured with mental shortcuts that worked pretty well in our ancestral environment, but work less well the less the environment we live in resembles that of our ancestors, and the less the problems we face resemble the problems they faced. These are cognitive biases, and while it’s impossible to eliminate them, it’s crucial to be aware of them so that we can correct for them as best we can, and help each other do the same.
Curiosity
The VIA Institute on Character describes the Character Strength of Curiosity with: “I seek out situations where I gain new experiences without getting in my own or other people’s way.” They elaborate further that: “To be curious is to explore and discover, to take an interest in ongoing experience for its own sake. Curiosity is often described as novelty-seeking and being open to experience, and it’s associated with the natural desire to build knowledge. It is fulfilling to journey toward an answer, to engage in a new experience, or to learn a new fact. To go to a new restaurant, visit a new city, meet a new person in your class, or to conduct an online search for a question can each fulfill your quest for new experiences and new information. There are two key components to curious individuals: They are interested in exploring new ideas, activities and experiences, and they also have a strong desire to increase their own personal knowledge.”
When I notice that I am surprised, that tells me that my mental model does not, in fact, correspond to external reality, at least in some aspect. This is an opportunity to get curious. Huh! Well, what is external reality like, really? How should I update my map to better reflect the territory? And what was the process by which I came to have a mistaken map? Was it just bad luck, or is there a way I should update my mapping process to avoid mistakes of that kind as I explore further?
Curiosity also plays a key role in our interpersonal relationships, especially where there is disagreement. Seeking first to understand instead of to be understood goes a long way in resolving disagreements. When we shift our mindset from arguing or debating someone we disagree with to having a meaningful conversation exploring the path that the other person took to reach their conclusion – when we get curious about the other person’s journey – lots of good things happen. First, you may identify something that they’re missing that you happen to know about, and you can share that information with them (kindly and with tact) and help them update their map. Second, they may reveal some important piece of information that you’re missing, and that can help you update your map. Finally, even if no one ends up convincing the other to change their position, you’ve invested in your relationship with that person by taking an interest in their life story, and strengthening social bonds is so important in our polarized, tribal times.
Compassion
Compassion is the desire and the drive to alleviate the suffering of others, which springs from our belief in universal human dignity. We acknowledge that every person, regardless of background or belief, deserves to be treated with respect and kindness. Compassion is distinct from “feeling another’s pain”, which is often how “empathy” is understood. To see the difference, consider how you might go about helping someone lost in a corn maze. If you join them where they are in the maze, is that helpful? No. Now there are two people lost in the maze. A better approach would be to maintain some degree of separation so you can more effectively help the other person navigate their way out.
As the Buddhists point out, compassion is also distinct from pity, which is a form of sorrow often rooted in condescension. Sometimes it lacks a motivation to help, other times it casts the sufferer as a poor helpless victim who needs a savior, neither of which are compassionate. As some Rationalists argue, the units of caring are dollars and hours. After all, what can it possibly mean to “care” about something without being willing to sacrifice some amount of a scarce resource to improve it? This echoes the sentiment of James 2:15-16 – it’s not enough just to tell somebody who’s suffering, “Go in peace. Keep warm and well fed.”
Compassion is not limited to humans within the animal kingdom. Even rats will work to free another rat who’s trapped instead of indulging in nearby treats that are irresistible under normal circumstances. Pigs have been shown to work to free other pigs from traps as well.
Our compassion manifests and motivates us in several ways:
Supportive Community
Humans are a social species. As such, humans typically need community in order to thrive. We benefit greatly from being in community with others, and we recognize how important it is to provide that community for others as well. We co-create our community together. Sometimes this means holding space for others to share their journeys and their struggles with us, while balancing the need to protect the well-being of others who are listening. Sometimes this means answering a call for help. Sometimes this means making that call ourselves if we’re in need, and allowing others to come to our aid. We further live this value by sharing knowledge with each other, helping each other develop new skills and strengthen old ones, and increasing each other’s effectiveness. Within the context of a supportive community, challenging each other’s beliefs, actions, and even lifestyles can be beneficial, provided that it’s done in good faith, in love, and with humility and respect.
Secular Humanist Ethics
We are committed to a secular humanist approach to ethics. Not only is it possible to be good without any gods, it might even be preferable. Our ethics are informed by our best science-backed, evidence-based understanding of the well-being and suffering of conscious creatures and of the most effective interventions. As that understanding changes, what we consider to be ethical or unethical should update accordingly. What ought to be done must be deeply informed by what is true about the relevant state of the world. This naturally leads us to advocate for the Effective Altruism movement, which combines the heart and the head to figure out how to benefit others as much as possible (though without endorsing the foibles of any particular individual associated with the movement).
Societal Benefit
Our commitment to compassion extends beyond our community to encompass all living beings, as we strive to create a world where empathy and kindness are guiding principles in our interactions. By promoting compassion, we hope to inspire a broader cultural shift towards understanding and care for one another.
Our recognition of the inherent worth and dignity of every person motivates us to take action not just within but also outside of our community. A few armchair philosophers of ethics engaging in discussion and debate as a hobby doesn’t help alleviate suffering on its own. Making a difference requires going out into the world, rolling up our sleeves, and getting to work. Further, we must take care to make sure that the solution we plan to implement is as fair as possible for everyone involved.
Joy
Joy is what enables us to bear the weight of our compassion from day to day and to avoid burnout. It is what inspires our growth and gives purpose to our reasoning. Increasing our capacity for joy makes our reasoning and compassion more effective. Most of all, it is the value that motivates an appreciation for life, both our own and others. If Reason is the ‘Where-When-How’ and Compassion is the ‘Who-What’, Joy is the ‘Why’.
Joy can be integrated into every part of our lives through:
Awe
Awe appears in moments of connection between yourself and your environment. Any time you look at a sunset and experience that sense of appreciation for natural beauty, you are immersed in awe. Those moments of wonder, both child-like and otherwise, where you marvel at what you are experiencing are awe. Any time you are inspired by something AWEsome, it’s full of awe. Awe is deeply rooted in mindfulness. It starts from an awareness of the experience you are actively having and layers on an appreciation of that experience.
Optimism
Optimism is about focus. It doesn’t suggest that bad things don’t exist, it simply directs attention to emphasize the good things. It calls us to hope, not out of an effort to block out despair, but from an embrace of possibility. It is the little voice in the back of our mind that points out when things are a bit silly and reminds us to laugh. Like its component, gratitude, it is a practice. We are continuously presented with opportunities to be grateful and optimistic.
Purpose
A sense of purpose is an extremely powerful motivator. Purpose drives us to set goals and accomplish them effectively. It flows from a positive psychology perspective, acknowledging the areas where we are skilled and encouraging us to grow them. It propels us to become better versions of ourselves, which, in turn, propels us to make our communities and the world better too.