Jay Forrest Podcast

Spiritual Humanism is a philosophy of life that believes in science, reason, and the natural world, but it also believes in experiences of deepening awareness and oneness with the Cosmos. It does not believe in God, the supernatural, or an afterlife, but believes in pursuing wisdom, flourishing, and serenity.

Stoicism is an ancient Greek philosophical school that taught how to handle the stresses of life and learn how to flourish in the midst of the world. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy was inspired by Stoicism. Epictetus said, "People are troubled not by events, but by the meaning they give to events.” Our judgments are one of the main things that disturb our minds.

Friedrich Nietzsche proclaimed in The Joyful Science, "God is dead! God remains dead! And we have killed Him!" (125). This is a lament, not a shout of joy. What Nietzsche meant when he said God is dead was that "belief in the Christian God has become untenable" (343). We are destroying the foundations of European society, and we are not ready for the next step. 

Daoism can be divided between philosophical Daoism and religious Daoism. I am only interested in philosophical Daoism. Here I argue that there are a number of ideas in philosophical Daoism that can be brought into a Humanist philosophy of life. I am thinking about the Dao, as understood not as something separate from Nature, but a description of the way of Nature. 

I have been on a lifelong quest to find or create the best philosophy life. A philosophy of life is a worldview and way of life. It is usually inherited from the culture, language, and social upbringing. You can think of a philosophy of life as the human operating system. 

“Humanism is a democratic and ethical life stance, which affirms that human beings have the right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives. It stands for the building of a more humane society through an ethic based on human and other natural values in the spirit of reason and free inquiry through human capabilities. It is not theistic, and it does not accept supernatural views of reality.” - IHEU Minimum Statement on Humanism

Buddhism is wrong about a few things. The three biggest are rebirth, karma, and the six realms. 

But Buddhism is also right about a lot of things. The Buddha was the greatest psychologist of all time. Even today modern psychology is learning much from ancient Buddhism.

Christianity is wrong and Christians cannot see it. Why? Part of the reason is confirmation bias. We only see what confirms our belief. Another is sentinel memes that form mind traps that guard against an honest assessment of the evidence. What evidence? The evidence that the books of the New Testament were selected 300 years after the death of Christ and by only one branch of the church. The evidence from textual criticism that shows that no two ancient manuscripts of the New Testament agree. And that there disagreements would fill a book larder than the Bible. And the evidence that an all-powerful and all-good God is a contradicted by the prevalence of evil.

For more information see Jay Forrest's book Nontheism Defended.

I share my journey from Evangelical Christianity to Buddhism, and then from Buddhism to secular Humanism. On the way I comment on Stoicism, Daoism, and Mysticism.