Just imagine if science and rationality coupled with our capacity for human kindness and generosity had come first, before humanity latched onto the supernatural for explanation and guidance. I know this is an irrational thought, an impossibility, but it does expose the extraordinary opportunity that Humanists are presented with to guide us all to a future of decency, of respect for our individuality and of how we rely upon community to self-actualise and to achieve a meaningful prosperity. 

It is time to ask each of us to reconsider our responsibilities as citizens of Planet Earth. With the ongoing withering of religious hegemony, we need to step up to the plate and take a bold step forward to offer an all-encompassing code for living, an overarching community of purpose within a humanist framework that will serve our planet as we continue our amazing human journey. But we’re not getting anywhere near to filling the moral and intellectual vacuum that is growing all around us, and it is chaos and not rationality or decency that is awaiting us. 

It is my view that if we don’t develop a humanistic approach to society from the widest possible range - and very soon - our opportunity to influence will soon disappear and that will set our planet and species back, possibly never to recover.  

A belief in the supernatural has been with us since we developed our sentience. Before the scientific method and critical reasoning, we could only wonder how and why we were here and dream of answers guided by our own sense of self. A god, or gods, in our own image. After all, what else did we know? 

Theism has made an extraordinary contribution to the entire history and development of our human experience. Countries and landscapes have been shaped by our beliefs in gods, and religious writings have wielded huge power and influence over swathes of humanity. Religion has given us permission to love and behave with a generosity that gives us hope for our human journey and has taught us the importance of belief, morality and our need to belong. This has been central to defining our humanity. But this has often been alongside acts of sheer hatred and prejudice resulting in the suffering and death of millions, even the annihilation of entire cultures, in the name of religion. 

Whilst our theist inheritance has ultimately shaped the way in which we make sense of ourselves we have to acknowledge that every individual person and all that people have created showcases the triumphs and the disasters of our religious inspired endeavour. 

Such is the nature of faith. But faith without democratic reason has long been outdated. Indeed, it has become dangerous, a threat to our civilised humanist aspiration. We think we live in a secular society, but nearly all national cultures are still dominated by religious ideas and organisation, some of which specifically undermine human rights, justice and freedom – for women, of course, but also for minorities – and in some cases, for those who identify as humanists.  

There have always been those agnostics and atheists who doubted supernatural explanations for the living world. But the struggle to maintain such ideas has always been just that, a struggle. Maybe the need for cultural acceptance where religious belief becomes essential to belonging, or perhaps out of fear of religious persecution that has atomised non-believers, spread us to the wind. Even in our twenty-first century there may well be millions of potential humanists who are, at worst, driven underground or at best sublimated by not having the foggiest idea of what Humanism actually means. 

At the last UK census in 2021, for the first time, non-believers outnumbered those who professed a belief in a religious faith. Non-believers consist of agnostics who either don’t know what to believe or are just disinterested; of atheists who have no belief in the supernatural but with perhaps some trust in science, and humanists who believe that human beings have a capacity to understand natural phenomenon. Such people accept human, rather than divine, responsibility for our behaviour to others and to ourselves. 

This presents a dilemma for many humanists. We aim to respect other beliefs and cultures, of course, but how passive should humanists be when others openly and aggressively evangelise discrimination and hatred in the name of religion? The rest of us have a responsibility to demand different. 

We have a chance to introduce a transformative opportunity to redirect the human journey to a better place. A road that leads to a future guided by reason and humanitarian values of equity of power and influence, of long and fulfilling lives, of freedom from poverty and curable disease, of experiencing the benefits of kindness and community, of respect for ourselves and each other. These are Humanist values, which have a dominant history within human actions as expressed by billions throughout history. Humanism, the belief in the rational, of critical reasoning informed by scientific evidence and probability is the positive vision we so desperately need. 

Humanism needs to be brave. It needs to accept the mantle of leadership in setting out the road ahead for decency and reason, and this hugely widens the scope that humanists need to review, and many questions need to be considered.  

• What should be within our humanist code for life? 

• How can we inspire potential humanists to become part of an active and positive humanist community? 

• Can Humanism replace, over the coming generations, supernatural belief systems and the regressive values that many of them seem to celebrate with our creed of human respect and decency? 

Now is the time for the non-religious and those of goodwill everywhere to find our common values and purpose and seize the mantle of leadership. It is time for a Humanist code for life for our planet. Let hope and determination re-enter our otherwise cynical age. 

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