It was recently pointed out to me that I think like a humanist. It’s an opinion to be considered, but not quite true in the way it was meant. Humanism is a belief system which places its focus on humanity and reason rather than the divine. Humanists also tend to emphasize the goodness in humanity and its potential. Of maintaining faith in the latter I am most definitely guilty. To a degree, I am guilty of the former as well. But not of the implications in the word, nor why it was used to describe me.
Humanism is presented by its critics as being in opposition to a belief in God, when in actuality it more often simply chooses not to comment on It. The criticism is that too much time is spent looking down here rather than up there. To traditional Christians specifically, it also implies a denial of Christ’s divinity. But I see no reason to deny such a thing. I also do not have the ability to affirm it. Yet I take it at Christ’s implication that we are all made of the same stuff as he, and could (if not should) perform the same feats. In this I believe he was suggesting we are all, himself included, an aspect of divinity. Is there room in the school of humanism for that?
When I take a deep dive into the life practice taught by Jesus, it appears to be entirely about the human experience. About where we came from, why we’re here and what we are supposed to do in order to bring about the best of all possible futures for humanity. It’s about how to relate with our own bodies. It’s about how to relate with the earth. It is especially about how to relate with each other, and by extension, God Itself. That seems to me a very humanist way of looking at faith, by definition. So perhaps I am a humanist. I believe we have been taught to find God in the face of one another.
If I were to make inferences about the mind of God as viewed through the keyhole of the master’s teachings, I might make an assumption that the best way to love God is to practice loving ourselves. By neither Jesus nor God are we taught very much at all about anything other than humanity, actually. We are virtually It’s only subject. To me this is an indication that we should be focused even more on humanity, not less. This is the age when we must practice loving our enemies most.
It’s unfortunate that we have all been indoctrinated to believe we are somehow less-than or unworthy of considering ourselves at least somewhere on par with the divine. To be clear, this is not to suggest humans are all-knowing or loving; quite the opposite. I do subscribe to the belief, however, that we are still all made of divine stuff. And that we all have the capacity to engage with the divine because we operate on the exact same frequency. Only varying levels of static separate us.
Is this an undue elevation of we messy, smelly, error-laden humans? Or is it a call to action to recognize more fully the divine spark within? It’s a charge to cast off old ideas about unworthiness and claim the gift of self-awareness. To me, this is what the masters have been trying to teach us all along.
It is understandable to want to place a line in the sand to define where we end and God begins. Or, where our neighbor ends and we begin. But the security of that line is an illusion. Even a gentle breeze would erase it forever, and gladly. It only serves to maintain the exaggeration of our distinctness from Source—and each other. The fear being that if we were to disband our collective notions of human inferiority to God we would then naturally claim superiority as the result. But I don’t think abandoning our second-class state is the same as setting ourselves above God. It is taking our place beside It. Recognizing ourselves for the co-creators that we are; that we were created to be.
So, yes. I think God‘s plan is a very humanist one. I won’t claim to know the details, the how’s or the why’s. But perhaps it’s safe to infer that the engine of human progress is not as much about learning who we really are as it is remembering it.
Our inherent perfection—our divinity—is never exposed by our fears. It is hidden by them. Let them go. Let your perfection shine through the false shroud of your unworthiness. It’s holding you back from the most likely and logical purpose of your existence here on earth: to thrive in the miracle of your humanity.
Be well!
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