Humanist Values

First of all, this is a beautiful quotation from Ayn Rand on commandments: "If I were to speak your kind of language, I would say that man's only moral commandment is: Thou shalt think. But a 'moral commandment' is a contradiction in terms. The moral is the chosen, not the forced; the understood, not the obeyed. The moral is the rational - and reason accepts no commandments".

Is that not worthy of framing?  It is wonderful. I love it!  End of discussion.  After that, everything else is just advice.

Here are a few thoughts:

No dogma is worth killing or hurting over.  No disagreement over beliefs warrants violence.

Act so as to increase the amount of happiness in the world.
Act so as to decrease the amount of unhappiness in the world.

Act as though all interested parties had all the available facts, even if they haven't.  For example, you work together with a friend on a job. You both work equally hard, but your friend goes home 5 minutes before you.  You are unexpectedly given some money after your friend leaves.  Do you keep it all? You should act as though your friend knew this had happened.

Be honest where at all possible, but not so rigidly that you can't tell a lie to save a life - in other words - use your mind.  (This last one covers all of the "lying, stealing, coveting" commandments more concisely - after all the only reason there were "10 commandments" is that it's a catchy-marketing-type number.)

Rape and slavery could have been mentioned in the commandments but were apparently not as evil as picking up sticks on Saturdays.

Look after elders if you can, but even more importantly - don't abuse your kids.  This was another one missed out by the 10 commandments which of course were only written to reinforce control by existing authorities.

Enjoy and care for your own mind and body, they are yours to do with as you will - as long as you don't hurt other people in the process.  You have one life, enjoy it and don't waste it sitting in front of computers all day.  Educate yourself - no-one else will. 

Look after the planet - it is and should remain a beautiful place.

Your sexuality is none of my business.  (Ever heard a religion use that sentence?) Check your partner is of a legal age and that they have consented - that's all.  Try to do it healthily and be aware of your responsibility for the side-effects - ie children. 

Objective values are Reason, Purpose, Self-Esteem, with their three corresponding virtues:          Rationality, Productiveness, Pride.

If you like my little list, you may like to ask yourself how I could come up with it in only 5 minutes - and most children could too.  The Bible takes a couple of thousand pages to say what could be said on one sheet of paper - and it still fails to point out that slavery, child abuse and rape are bad things.  But it did help mankind to abstain from picking up sticks on Saturdays.

Geoff Mather 2007

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