I don't think it undermines the basic tenets if you look back at what people were fundamentally arguing for the criticism from now would be that they were not thoroughgoingly humanist enough. I'm a patron of humanist UK but I'm somewhat of a critical friend I think sometimes they regret having me as a patron because yeah there are things about it which I think have a tendency to go a bit wrong. The Ingersoll line is you know happiness is the only good and this is something that contemporary humanists often say so we have that humanist bus campaign a few years ago where posters on the side of buses said there's probably no God.
The writer Sarah Bakewell explores the long tradition of humanist thought in her latest book, Humanly Possible. She celebrates the writers, thinkers, artists and scientists over the last 700 years who have placed humanity at the centre, while defying the forces of religion, fanatics, mystics and tyrants.
But placing humans at the centre isn’t without problems – critics point to its anthropocentric nature and excessive rationalism and individualism, as well its Euro-centric history. The philosopher Julian Baggini guides the listener in unpicking the tenets of humanism. His latest books is How to Think Like a Philosopher: Essential Principles for Clearer Thinking.
Humanism may have relegated the divine to the side lines, but for the characters in Leila Aboulela’s novels faith and devotion are integral to their sense of themselves. In her latest book, River Spirit, set in Sudan in the 1880s, her young protagonists struggle to survive and find love amidst the bloody struggle for Sudan itself.
Producer: Katy Hickman