I thank Barry Klassell and Gary Brill, your Humanist Chaplains, for inviting me tonight.
In Australia the Humanist Society has not attracted young people for two reasons, as far as I can see.
The first is they have always come across as Rational and very cerebral — emphasising the use of logic and reason. I think logic and reason are important but I think it’s even more important to realise that Humanism has something to offer the whole person.
That is why Humanist of the Year, leading Rationalist and Attorney-General of Australia Lionel Murphy, in 1973, appointed civil celebrants. In this country, the USA, you have judges, various kind of clerks, and City Hall officials who officiate at very short legal marriages, which to my mind are deeply offensive and undignified. This was how it was in Australia in the 1970s and Lionel Murphy appointed us to take cultural celebrations, such as Marriages and Funerals and Namings away from narrow minded officials and humanise them.
Perhaps the best way I can illustrate this is to reflect briefly on the wonderful inauguration ceremony of your President Barack Obama. Humanists of 30 years ago would argue that - ” he has been elected president, he knows he is president, why in the name of the gods is there a need for a ceremony to tell him again?” These Humanists saw ceremonies as the residue and the carryover of church hocus-pocus and superstition.
Lionel Murphy saw it differently. He saw ceremony as having a number of valuable purposes, he saw it as a human construct which can communicate love, appreciation, recognition and celebration. And that is my contribution. I am a civil celebrant who simply tries to do the best ceremonies conceivable, and I run a College which trains and encourages people to follow these humanistic ideals.
Like the inauguration ceremony of Obama, the power of ceremony is enhanced by enriching it with the visual and performing arts - such as poetry, singing, instrumental music, symbolic actions, and choreography (like the processional in and the recessional out) . In short, ceremonies are just as necessary for secular people as they are for any other kind of people. They fill an emotional, artistic and cultural need that is felt by every person.
Now Barry mentioned the concept of humanist spirituality. When I started to use the term secular spirituality 20 years ago I was upbraided by humanist friends who believed that the phrase was a contradiction in terms. But if we believe that spirituality is the sum total of the moral principles by which we live, the ideals which drive us to productive action, the causes we embrace for the betterment of mankind, and the truths we believe in, I believe that Humanists are the most spiritual people I know.
One of the big problems with Humanist Groups throughout the world is that they come across as “those people who are against religion”. I am a strong advocate of the attitude that Humanism is 90% — and mostly — pro-human. We do have trouble with religions simply because most of them can’t be true and, in any case, even when they are onto something good, they are usually a 100 or hundreds of years behind the times in getting their thinking right.
I urge you to support your Humanist Chaplains in this unique attempt to enrich the life of this University and the world. Humanism isn’t like any other “-isms” -- Catholicism, Communism, Judaism, Buddhism etc -- you don’t have to be a member of the Humanist Society to be a humanist, but it is to your advantage to meet with other like-minded people to fine-tune your thinking about the world, its problems, and how you can contribute to its betterment. I wish you well.
Dally Messenger III
Principal
International College of Celebrancy
dallymessenger@mac.com