Humanism is not as simple as “being human”. For example, a baby is human, a sportsperson is a human, an artist is a human, so is a paraplegic, a road sweeper, a toddler, a homeworker, an airline pilot, a king, a blind etc.
The “ism” in humanism is saying we are central to the whole being within which we exist. Not only that, it champions we as the ultimate do-er and ma-ker of what we could have and how we shall be.
Whether this ism has a place for God, or supports beliefs in God, is not quite a valid question. Humanism believes in itself, and believes in “tooling” itself to know more, discover more, and achieve more to be to better itself. Whether this is done with increasing distance away from God, instead of, or in spite of, God, is not the matter; but more to the matter is that it does it without needing God.
For example, electricity is needed to power this computer in order that this piece of written text is prepared and posted online, and electricity for the rest of the technology for the “online” part. If solar power is available, at a just enough level and as reliable as “normal” electricity, for me to do what I needed to do, then whether I need electricity is not quite a question. It’s more likely I will “need” a cup of tea or coffee, than me saying I must have electricity supply for this work to be done.
With humanism, it is the other way, or so it perceives itself, then it could be so – in the analogy of the coffee or tea, without the “need” of such. The necessity of coffee or tea has nothing to do with the thing being so, so it thinks. However, humanism will keep exploring questions about its own existence for many oens to come. It would have systems to “believe” and increase the belief of itself. Even if it does reach the destination of fully understanding the world and human itself, the celebration will be null because human without soul is a cup of tea or coffee without the one drinking it. It’s like a book of novel, titled “human”, but with nothing else on its covers and no content. Such an approach misses the whole point of being human, we are created in the image of God.
