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<p>We clearly have not been doing a good enough job with our marketing.</p>
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<p>Haha to be honest I haven’t seen anything from you guys around campus, but I’m not really good at paying attention. I stand corrected about the lack-of-atheist-group statement though.</p>
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<p>Tell me you at least saw the Mythbusters signs, they were everywhere. :)</p>
<p>For some reason, I kept thinking you were talking about the Ghostbusters, and I had absolutely no idea what that had to do with atheism other than possibly skepticism. Hmm…bedtime. I’ll def. PM you if I have questions, thanks.</p>
<p>@ admiral. Can a christian be a “humanist”? Or is it just a label reserved for atheists and agnostics? I’m assuming you’re an atheist/agnostic.</p>
<p>gedion9324,</p>
<p>Humanism is a term that is used in many different ways, some of which (see “Christian humanism”) are not only compatible but are in fact connected with religion. This is not the sense it is used in my description above, in which it describes (in short) a moral philosophy that does not include belief in the supernatural or in a deity. A less ambiguous term would be “secular humanism.”</p>
<p>[Secular</a> humanism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_humanism]Secular”>Secular humanism - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>“Harvard students are generally pretty liberal.”</p>
<p>This is true, and it’s largely true of the committed Christians on campus, as well. Many of their programs have a strong social justice flavor. There isn’t a whole lot of fire and brimstone.</p>
<p>Hmmm.“Like other types of humanism, secular humanism is a life stance that focuses on the way human beings can lead good, happy and functional lives.” I’m an atheist myself and I’m more of an absurdist/nihilist. Living for the day and rejecting purpose. Living the dream, in other words.</p>
<p>Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
Life is but a dream</p>
<p>Nihilism’s hard to fight when you’re on a burnout, I’ve discovered. Shortly after completing my college apps I burned out pretty hard, and life became empty and void, and it took me months to get back to where I am now, much, much more motivated and happy and ambitious. But honestly, I haven’t figured out anything. Camus and Sartre are empty. Gotta read more there (but it’s depressing to read if you’re not depressed already ;)). If I fall out into burnout again it’s going to be the same thing…absence of objective meaning and all that. So I’m curious - do any of you have a stance on that? I’ve always wondered. Sorry for bringing this relatively off topic ;).</p>
<p>Humanism is a much, much more productive and happy route to take if you can manage it imo</p>
<p>Hey guys,
The people you saw were probably from the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, MO…they’ve been going around to a lot of the New England area colleges, I happen to have been following their blog and I think Harvard was on the list somewhere.
They are definitely NOT the Westboro church “Christians”
[IHOP?KC</a> BlogIHOPU New England Update](<a href=“http://blog.ihop.org/category/new-england/]IHOP?KC”>http://blog.ihop.org/category/new-england/)</p>
<p>@intenex. Humanism, from what little I know about the philosophy apparently still embraces purpose. As I’ve said on my previous post Humanism “is a life stance that focuses on the way human beings can lead good, happy and functional lives.”</p>
<p>Frankly I don’t think you can create purpose even if you want to. Other atheists might say that “you’re work will live on”, and that “you’ll have affected people when you die” etc, but the sad truth is in the end, when the sun engulfs our planet and destroys all our “immortal” work (and when the universe is destroyed by the Big Crunch) there’s little consolation in empty words. The sum total of human achievemnt, including yours and mine, will inevitably be destroyed. How do I deal with it? I don’t really. I just try to live in the present and not think about our grim ending. Yes, I’m pathetic. </p>
<p>Absurdism also advoates that you have a purpose in life but urges a person to be detached and ironic about his/her work realizing that its foolish. <a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absurdism[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absurdism</a>. Below are what some atheists think about death and meaning.</p>
<p>The eighteenth century atheist La Mettrie, proposed that the fear of death arose only from the religious belief in afterlife punishments, and claimed that thoroughly discrediting this idea would free human beings of an exaggerated anxiety about death. Many atheists have also appealed to the (ultimately Epicurean) argument that death has no significance for human beings, since by definition they cannot be there to experience it. D’Holbach, for example, stressed that for these reasons death should not be a cause for anxiety.</p>