Humanist Creed

My Humanist Creed

My Humanist Creed

I believe in myself, in reason and mind, in freedom and dignity for all of mankind. I believe in the values that bring us together, and give us the strength to brave any weather.

I stand with the enlightenment, freedom and right, with human dignity as our guiding light. I believe in this life, in the world we know, being good and responsible wherever I go.

My purpose is learning, grow and unfold, to gather knowledge and skills I can hold. To shape what I can, and to do what I may, and use what I learned in a meaningful way.

Of heavenly powers no proof I know. No world beyond will ever show. Whatever we know, whatever we see, arises from nature and from reality.

We are responsible for all that we do; no divine power will answer it too. We cannot escape to a heavenly plan – our choices and actions belong us as man.

Peace, Freedom and Human Rights

I wish peace and freedom for all who are here, for every human being, both far and near. I wish human rights to prevail in the end, so no one is servant, and no one must bend.

Freedom needs people and democracy, the sharing of power and accountability. Human rights are the foundation we share: each person’s dignity must be held with care.

They safeguard the freedom, they strengthen the law; where rights are ignored, tyranny gains what it saw. A ruler who tramples on freedom and right can never call darkness a very bright light.

Life is diverse, full colour and wide, and no „religious truth” can the whole world provide. We differ in thinking, in living, belief – and none owns the truth as a final relief.

Tolerance and Resistance

Tolerance is a value we all should defend; it belongs to young and the old, to foe and friend. But whoever denies another’s free choice cannot demand that we honour his voice.

Tolerance can not mean that injustice is right, without our freedom there will be a plight. For freedom and justice impose a demand: we must resist when oppression commands.

History teaches the lesson again and again: we must stand up who dehumanise men. Where freedom is threatened, we must not stay silent and passive while terror holds sway.

No human being should be forced to cower before violence and hatred of those who seek power.

Humanity and Nature

The more people live on this beautiful earth, the harder it becomes to divide what has worth. Responsibility means that families should care, and think of the children and life they will share.

The water, the soil, and the air that we breathe, the space and resources that nature can give, are finite and precious; we cannot pretend that the earth and its riches will never end.

The human is part of Mother Nature, not master and ruler, but simply her creature. We walk in her footsteps; we live by her grace – and what we do to her, we do to our place.

Whatever we damage, whatever we destroy, will sooner or later diminish our joy. For nature is not something outside of our lives: our future depends on the earth that survives.

Reason, Science and Doubt

I trust in the science that questions and tests, though science itself may not always be best. It grows through doubts, through questions we raise, and changes its answers when evidence says.

Humanist values should guide what we do; let reason and feeling both help us through. We should think selve, with our conscience awake, and change opinions when new reasons they make.

When My Life Is Over

When one day my life fades away into night, and nothing of me remains in the light, it will feel like the time before my birth — no sorrow, no suffering, no hurt on this earth.

The suffering ends, the worries are gone; yet if you remember me, I will still live on. May something of me remain in the world: some words and some thoughts, some music unfurled.

Perhaps there will be traces of things I have made, of pictures and writings that slowly may fade. And therefore I want, while my life is still here, to learn and to grow, and to live without fear.

I know that perfection belongs to no one; no human can finish the work once begun, in learning, creating, in writing and art, we may make mistakes – but that’s still a good start.

And you too should learn to think for your own, to question the things that you have been shown. No one should demand that you blindly believe; your reason is yours – use it, question and consive.

What I Believe

I want to use all that I can for the good, to do what I can, as a good person should. And hope that, when all of my efforts are through, some good may remain in the things that I do.

When someday I’m gone and no longer am here, I hope that my memory brings you to cheer. If someone remembers me kindly and true, then perhaps something of me will live on in you.

I believe in humanity, freedom and light, in reason and conscience to guide what is right. I need no salvation, no promise divine – my life and my reason are enough for mine.