What It Means to Be Moral. Phil Zuckerman

century as “The Great Agnostic,” wrote, “Many people . . . have tried to guess the riddle—tried to know the absolute—to find origin—to know destiny. They have all failed. These things are beyond our intellectual horizon—beyond the ‘reaches of our souls.’ Our life is a little journey from mystery to mystery.”¹⁹ Or as nineteenth-century British scholar Leslie Stephen expressed it: “we are a company of ignorant beings, feeling our way through mists and darkness . . . dimly discerning light enough for our daily needs, but hopelessly differing whenever we attempt to describe ultimate origin . . . [and thus] we shall be content to admit openly . . . that man knows nothing of the Infinite and Absolute.”²⁰

      Embracing mystery, and letting that mystery be, is at the heart of agnosticism. Agnostics are thus happily down with Hamlet, who said to Horatio that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in his philosophy—or any and every possible philosophy stemming from human consciousness.

      It’s a pretty humble position. After all, it’s hard to be dogmatic, truculent, or fanatical when you are admitting a lack of knowledge.

       Naturalism

      Theism, atheism, and agnosticism all revolve around the God question: the first says there is a God, the second says there isn’t, and the third says, well, no one can really ever know. But the secular orientation that transcends the God question and attempts to encapsulate all of reality is naturalism. And to understand naturalism, you need go no further than Scooby-Doo.

      Scooby-Doo—the TV cartoon that started in 1969 and has never let up—presents the antics of Scooby and his human friends: Shaggy, Fred, Velma, and Daphne. But here’s the funny thing about that show: every episode is the exact same. In every single installment, the main characters stumble upon a spooky mystery—a ghost haunting an old mine, a monster terrorizing a popular beach, a witch bewitching a remote hotel, an alien unnerving a summer camp—and in every episode, the four protagonists and their dog Scooby come to reveal that it was all a hoax. Through basic sleuthing and intrepid skepticism, the heroes show that it is all smoke and mirrors—or silly costumes and fancy lighting, or chemical reactions and audio trickery, and so forth. And the message is thus always the same: there is nothing supernatural out there, only natural phenomena.

      Naturalism takes this very position to the extreme: that which can’t be observed or proven empirically does not exist. Whatever is out there, it is natural. As the Carvaka thinkers of the ancient Indian school of Lokayata philosophy pronounced over twenty-six hundred years ago: “Only the perceived exists; the unperceivable does not exist by reason of its never having been perceived.”²¹ But who paints the peacocks such delightful colors? Who causes the birds to sing so sweetly? The Carvaka were adamant: “There exists no cause here excepting nature.”²² Or as contemporary naturalist philosopher Kerry Walters affirms, “there is nothing apart from nature, and nature is self-originating, self-explanatory, and without overall purpose.”²³

      For theists—and many other religious people of various traditions—there are essentially two realms of existence: the this-worldly and the otherworldly. Or to use terms already employed: the natural and the supernatural. Religious believers accept that there is a natural world, but they also insist that in addition to this natural world, there exist other realms or planes of existence: heavens, hells, purgatories, etc. And they will claim that in addition to the plentiful beings of nature—such as people, plants, animals, etc.—there are other beings out there: angels, demons, gods, ancestral souls, spirits, imps, jinn, ghosts, etc., etc. Naturalism denies the existence of these otherworldly, supernatural places and things. According to Professor Tom Clark, director of the Center for Naturalism, “what science reveals . . . is a vast, interconnected, multilayered, diversely populated, and yet single realm in which all phenomena partake of the same basic constituents. This realm we simply call nature. There seems no reason to suppose, given scientific observations thus far, that there exists another, supernatural realm that operates according to different laws or that contains radically different phenomena.”²⁴

      The scientific method, empiricism, rationalism, materialism, evidence-based beliefs, and accepting what actually is true, rather than what we wish were true—these are the smooth, strong pillars of a naturalistic worldview. And while some may find such a naturalistic worldview less enchanting than a world filled with poltergeists, angels, shamans, healing crystals, amazing miracles, and gods and goddesses, others find it replete with endless opportunities to marvel and gaze in awe at the intricate, chaotic, beautiful, terrible wonder of nature, in all of its majesty and vastness. And while some may find a magicless, indifferent cosmos lonely or dull, most secular men and women find such a reality not only true but comforting and affirming.

      OK, well, then if there is no God (as atheism maintains), or if there might be a God, or perhaps something else out there, but we can’t be sure and no one can really know (as agnosticism maintains), and if, ultimately, whatever may be out there is nonetheless natural and not supernatural (as naturalism maintains), then to whom or what are we to look for to help us or guide us as we flail around on this all-too-natural, godless planet? Whom or what are we to rely upon to help us fight injustice, cure disease, and ensure moral progress?

      Ourselves.

       Humanism

      Humanism begins with denial or doubt concerning the existence of God, and the concomitant embracing of naturalism—but then goes well beyond that by positively affirming and valuing the potential of human beings to solve problems and make the world a better, safer, and more just place. Humanism rests firmly upon the recognition that people have the capacity to do great things, to solve problems, and to act ethically. Thus, a humanist is someone who does not believe in the otherworldly tenets of religion—and soundly rejects both theism and supernaturalism—but who does believe in many things of this world, such as family, friendship, cooperation, reason, art, science, humor, love, rational inquiry, ingenuity, democracy, compassion, tolerance, imagination, open debate, human rights—and then some.

      According to British humanist philosopher Stephen Law,²⁵ humanism is a comprehensive worldview that rests upon these key premises: there are no gods or supernatural beings out there, science and reason are the best tools available for discovering what is true, this is the only life we will ever have, moral values and ethical frameworks should be strongly shaped and informed by an empirically grounded understanding of the human condition, every individual is responsible for making his or her own moral decisions and cannot hand over this responsibility to someone or something else, democratic societies with a clear separation of church and state are ideal, and finally, life can be quite meaningful—in fact, can be more meaningful—without the existence of God.

      According to the American Humanist Association (which has nearly 650,000 likes on Facebook and counting), humanism is “a progressive philosophy of life that, without theism and other supernatural beliefs, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity.”²⁶

      Humanism is what makes atheism and agnosticism actively moral.²⁷ After all, simply lacking a belief in God does not ensure any sort of ethical orientation—the godless butchers Joseph Stalin and Pol Pot and the godless advocate of selfishness Ayn Rand make that perfectly clear. But humanist principles—especially those that emphasize human worth and dignity, the imperative to respect human rights, reverence for life, and the intrinsic ability of humans to be caring and just—provide the foundations of secular moral orientations.

      Of course, the secular humanist can often be met with pessimism and doubt. Whenever I find myself discussing religion and humanism with a group of friends, some individual will express strong skepticism concerning humanity’s ultimate goodness. And interestingly, one thing I’ve noticed from such discussions on this topic is that it is almost always a person of faith—a theist—who takes the position that humans are not intrinsically good but rather intrinsically wicked. And this