Mission statement of the UCD Humanist Society
The UCD Humanist Society seeks to promote Humanism as a worldview. We also seek to promote science and reason over pseudo-science, blind faith and superstition.
We affirm the worth, dignity and autonomy of the individual and the absolute right of every human being to the greatest possible freedom compatible with the rights of others. Humanists have a duty of care to all of humanity, including future generations. We condemn racism; all people are equal in their intrinsic worth. We believe that ethics are an intrinsic part of human nature, needing no external sanction.
We believe that the solutions to the world’s problems lie in human thought and action, and that religion is deleterious to the human species. We advocate the application of the methods of science and free inquiry to the challenges facing humanity. We call for the actions of people, both individually and collectively, to be based on reason and evidence, not on fear and assumption.
We support democracy and human rights, and believe that human rights cannot be limited by religion, culture or tradition, and call for the abolition of any practice which interferes with those rights. Humanism aspires to the fullest possible development of every human being.
We believe that personal liberty must be combined with social responsibility. Humanism ventures to build a world based on the concept of the free person responsible to society, and recognises both our dependence on and responsibility for the natural world. We are committed to education free from indoctrination. We believe that governments are obliged to work for the good of every citizen, and thus they cannot favour one religion over another, or a religious view point over a non-religious viewpoint. We assert that if any faith has preference over another or over none, this is discrimination. We therefore strongly support a strictly secular society, with absolute separation of church and state.
We note that the vast majority of religious schools of thought are ideologically exclusive and declare themselves as singularly truthful. Many religious texts, both in literal form and through ambiguity in the interpretation of these texts, encourage coercion, violence, fear, and hate to impose their parent religions on the world. Humanism recognises that reliable, evidence-based knowledge of the world and ourselves arises through a continuing process of observation, evaluation and revision; we thus reject all dogma, religious or otherwise, as impediments to our ability to think freely and understand. We insist that religion does not deserve protection or respect any more than does a political philosophy, and that in all cases and without exception, freedom of speech must not be abridged. We recognise that there are many ways to live one’s life, and we respect the choices people make, provided they do not infringe on the fundamental rights of others.
Finally, we believe that actively promoting humanism has the potential to improve the lives of billions of people, liberating societies from sectarian violence, barbaric human rights abuses and superstition, which serve only to cheapen and minimise the resplendent universe in which we live.
