3022 If Not God, What? A Humanist Elevator Speech

Rev. Brian Eslinger
Rev. Kathleen D. Korb: Complete Remarks
Dr. David E. Schafer: Complete Remarks
Rev. Sarah Oelberg

If you were a humanist and someone who was riding in an elevator with you asked you to define your beliefs, what would you say, given the brief ride?

Audience

In this workshop, sponsored by HUUmanists , a panel of four Humanist U.U.s took the challenge and, in doing so, demonstrated that among Humanists in the denomination there is a diversity of belief. Each panelist summarized his or her spiritual journey, culminating in an “elevator speech.”

Rev. Brian Eslinger of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Ames in Ames, Iowa, described an incident in his youth on his family’s farm in which, after having just filled the tractor with gas, he rode away, inadvertently catching the hose from the tank and releasing a torrent of fuel, which he tried to collect into a series of nearby pails.

	Rev. Brian Eslinger

“I wasn’t sure how (my father) would react to this (incident). Times were very tight then…and that was a hell of a lot of gas we just lost. …He gave me this look that was just so filled with compassion….” Eslinger used this incident as a metaphor to describe what happened when he left the Methodist faith of his childhood. He felt an emptiness, much like the depleted gas tank, but yet there remained values from that tradition and others (Zen Buddhism, Native American spirituality, paganism)---values such as radical economic ethics and inclusivity, compassion, interconnectedness and reverence for the earth---which he retained in “buckets” of belief. Later, when he discovered Unitarian Universalism, he realized that “what I saved in all those buckets was Religious Humanism.”

Eslinger ended with his “elevator speech”: “Religious Humanism is one that celebrates the beauty of life as it is experienced in our own lives, as it is expressed in the arts and in the natural world and in experiences of love itself. Religious Humanism also challenges us to respond to that beauty by bringing the best of ourselves forward, to help make that same experience possible for all people, to help us to create a world where justice is possible, where peace is permissible, and where compassion is a standard to which all our actions are held. All of life is our text. All of human experience is our revelation.”

Panel

Rev. Kathleen D. Korb, of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Greater Naples in Naples, Fla., took a different approach, claiming from the outset that she wasn’t sure she could define Humanism in any terms. She pointed out, however, that when she took the Beliefnet test , she scored 100% as a Secular Humanist and 100% as a U.U. She said that such a difficulty with defining Humanism is shared by other U.U.s She cited a U.U. Ministers Association meeting several years ago at which, she claimed, the denomination’s humanists in attendance, along with the Rational Christians, felt marginalized. “(This marginalization) shouldn’t necessarily have surprised us,” she said. “The position of Humanism, despite its continued we as a self-identification among Unitarian Universalists has been declining steadily ever since the 1960s. It has even in some circles become a term or opprobrium.”

She explained, however, that there is a fundamentalist strain of Humanism which has sought “to make sure that religious words or rituals should never be used in our congregations.” She believes that this is a major contributing factor to the decline of Humanism in Unitarian Universalism.

“Humanism is in the very bones of our faith,” she said, “from its beginning in Rational Christianity, which argued that human beings were the only possible interpreters of the teachings of the Christian church and were perfectly capable of discerning truth for themselves.” Korb said that Humanism is not a theological position. There can be all kinds of Humanists: Christian, Rational, secular, theistic, atheistic, etc.

She cited these implied Humanist characteristics: a rejection of the supernatural and of an intervening God, acceptance of the scientific world view, critical thinking, and humans’ ability to freely choose the good and be accountable for their choices. Rather than knowing how to define themselves by what they believe, many Humanists use contrast as their tool. “…When society as a whole at least says that it believes certain things, that is the context within which we are required to define ourselves,” said Korb. “It’s very easy to hear a statement of faith and know immediately that you don’t believe it.”

Korb’s “elevator speech” “A Humanist accepts the scientific world view, its explanation of the origins of the universe and the evolution of humankind as a natural part of that universe. We believe those things for which we have found evidence, reflected upon and refined by the use of reason and critical thought. That which we revere and find sacred is manifest in human freedom to choose the good, its quest for truth, its love and justice, its practice of compassion, and its creation and appreciation of beauty. We believe that it is through human will and human work that the ills in our lives can be overcome and the world can become a place of beauty, of peace, of justice and of love.”

Dr. David E. Schafer, a physiologist, and a member of the Unitarian Society of New Haven in Hamden, Conn., studied Christianity, Judaism, and other religions often in their original languages, and had a very intellectual approach to religion. He finally came to Humanism through his studies in the philosophy of science and in science itself. “It’s often said that Humanists fail to emphasize sufficiently the awe and the wonder of the universe,” he said, “but I must say that I have found that scientists are motivated by their awe and wonder of the subjects that they work on. And I find the molecular and cellular structures of our bodies to be perfectly amazing and beautiful. I think there’s enough awe and wonder in our world to satisfy anyone’s craving for these things.”

He has found that, when the answer to a mystery has been discovered, there are two kinds of people: those who see that discovery as a loss and grieve it, and those who are uplifted by the discovery, knowing that there are still many more mysteries to solve. As a Humanist, he, too, rejects the concept of the supernatural.

Schafer is a musician and composer. He discovered Unitarian Universalism when he was asked by a member of the music committee of a U.U. church to be its chairman. Not a U.U. at the time, Schafer was surprised and intrigued by the fact that it didn’t seem to matter to the music committee.

Commenting on the title of this presentation, “If Not God, What?”, Schafer said that it needed a verb, but that he couldn’t think of an appropriate one to describe a substitute view of God. “For me as a Humanist, I don’t have a substitute for God. I have humanist values, but I don’t worship humans.” He doesn’t believe in a personal God that rewards and punishes us. Schafer’s substitute for the entire title, however, is “What Do We Value, As Humanists?” “The problem with (the ‘elevator speech’),” he said, “is that as you shorten (it) down to a reasonable length, it doesn’t mean anything. You have to define every word in order to make sense out of it.”

Schafer said that to formulate his “elevator speech,” he preferred to borrow from the words of John Dietrich, a signer of the Humanist Manifesto : “Science and democracy are the essence of Humanism.” Schafer added a modification to this definition. He said humans are lucky to have rational minds but we don’t often use them, and we need a system of life and thought that takes into account the emotions. He believe that music, poetry and other arts---in fact all forms of beauty, natural or human-made---are important in addressing the emotions. “Three things are essential (to a Humanist view of life): life, love and truth.”

Schafer then gave his “elevator speech”: “We hold conscious life precious, and we cherish the inherent worth and dignity of every member of our human family. Our beliefs are driven by a free and responsible search for truth, through careful observation and analysis, which constantly increases our understanding of ourselves and the rest of nature, of which we are an integral part. Because the universe is hostile to life, and earth is a tiny oasis supporting life, we struggle to preserve our fragile environment here. And so that every member of our human family may achieve the greatest possible fulfillment, we strive to create for all humanity the conditions of joyful life, beauty, love health education justice freedom and peace.”

Rev. Sarah Oelberg

The final speaker, Rev. Sarah Oelberg, of the Nora Unitarian Universalist Church in Hanska, Minn., defined herself as a lifelong Religious Humanist. Her first experience with Humanism came when she was 5 years old at a U.U. church in Oklahoma City, Okla. Her Sunday school class was singing the children hymn “Jesus Loves Me, This I Know,” when the minister abruptly interrupted the class, which caused the teacher to run out of the room in tears, to tell the children that they couldn’t sing such a song. He said, “Jesus can’t love you. He’s dead.” He pointed out that only people who are alive can love. He went on to explain that the Bible is a collection of stories and that Jesus was a good man and teacher, but that the children should never feel that they need someone else in order to live a good life. They can decide things on their own. She described the many Humanist principles that the minister taught her.

“Religion to me is that which people have invented to help them explain the big, unanswerable questions of life,” she said. “Religion does not need to be theistically based in order to support how we live in the world.”

Her elevator speech: “Humanism is my religion. It is a faith focused on hope, love and charity, directed at humanity, realizing that ultimately it is human beings who can and do make a difference, giving respect, dignity, justice, peace and good will to the human community. It is committed to discovering objective truth through the use of reason, science and direct experience, while recognizing that there are other ways of knowing. These tools tell me that we are an integral part of the interdependent web of nature, the diverse peoples of the world and the commonweal. Therefore we have a responsibility to be actively engaged in the world, to care for our environment and care about other people of all kinds and in all situations. It gives me my ethical grounding. It is a religion of responsibility, but also of joy, as it celebrates the arts, music and crafts, which result from human creativity. Humanism is what gives my life meaning.”

Reported for the web by Jeanette Leardi; Web Design by Julie Albanese

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