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Letters
Letters
Beyond Belief • Genocide in Poland • Our Nietzschean Selves • Beyond Mathematics • The New Minimalism • Mind: The Gap • Imagine There’s a God • Your Secret is the Truth
Beyond Belief
Dear Editor: In ‘Beyond Humanism’, Philosophy Now 138, Robert Griffiths suggests that ‘humanists still need gods so they can argue against them’. Humanists have mainly addressed the question of the existence of God because of the criticisms from theists, who argue that a justification or foundation for ethical conduct can never come from humankind. However, the central belief of humanists is that humanity is the curator of its own interests and does not need externally-imposed standards. Perhaps we should listen closer to the case they make for man being ‘the measure of all things’.
For those who believe that humanistic ethics would result in an unacceptable level of moral relativism, there is an argument to be made that a process of cultural convergence will even out the major differences between different moral systems.
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