The human view (From Durham Times)

The human view

11:01am Wednesday 23rd December 2009

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AT CHRISTMAS, a time of giving, we can focus on doing good. What we do with our lives, the only ones we know we have, is vital. We must do all that we can to create meaning and purpose, to achieve self-fulfilment and, more importantly, to help others do the same. We must strive for justice, liberty, tolerance and freedom from oppression throughout the world.

As long ago as the 1650s, Diggers’ leader Gerrard Winstanley decided that holding beliefs was not enough, that “action is all”. What he attempted to put into practice, with groups working together to satisfy the needs of all, was an example of what has been termed practical morality. Striving to improve the lot of others, both materially, when people are hungry or lack clean water, medicine and/or shelter or need practical help, and ethically, when they lack human rights or are being persecuted, is a worthy aim in itself, not because it is promoted by others.

Let’s hope that, in 2010, governments can take meaningful steps towards resolving major problems that beset the world today; global warming, poverty, the Afghan war, the Middle East and nuclear weapons, with us prepared to make sacrifices where necessary.

Let us align ourselves with this statement from Vision for Europe’s Declaration of 2007: We recognise our duty of care to all of humanity including future generations, and our dependence on and responsibility for the natural world.

JOHN SEVERS, British Humanist Association

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