Covenant Session 7 - Humanism/Experience/Reason
Chalice: "Though all of the contemplative traditions aim at going within and beyond reason, they all start with reason, start with the notion that truth is to be established by evidence, that truth is the result of experimental methods, that truth is to tested in the laboratory of personal experience…and that dogmas or given beliefs are precisely what hinder the emergence of deeper truths and wider visions."
Ken Wilbur
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Reading: Humanism is a broad category of ethical philosophies that affirm the dignity and worth of all people, based on the ability to determine right and wrong by appeal to universal human qualities - particularly rationality. Humanism entails a commitment to the search for truth and morality through human means in support of human interests. In focusing on the capacity for self-determination, humanism rejects the validity of transcendental justifications, such as a dependence on belief without reason, the supernatural, or texts of allegedly divine origin.
From Wikipedia
Quotes from the Common Bowl: See attached
Life Questions:
1. How does personal experience inform and shape your spiritual life?
2. Do you think that humanism is equivalent to atheism?
3. Can we be good people without faith in God?
4. Where is the ultimate moral authority in your life?
5. How would you describe a "biblical humanist?"
Closing ritual:
We extinguish this flame but not the light of truth,
The warmth of community
Or the fire of commitment
These we carry in our hearts until be are together again.
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