New Milton Humanists Talks
- 18th April 2008: "Shelley the Poet" by LA and Mike Hammond. Inaugural meeting of New Milton Humanists.
- November 2008: "Tom Paine, Revolutionary & Rationalist Hero" by David Warden
- March 2009: "Intelligent Design?" by Terry Baker
- July 2009: "The Alpha Course Exposed!" by David Warden
- November 2009: "Godless Morality" by David Warden
New Milton Humanists also hold bi-monthly Members' Discussion Group meetings. For details of future meetings subscribe to the Dorset Humanists Bulletin.
Review of "Godless Morality" by David Warden
In his talk David Warden set out to explore the rational foundations of morality and argued that Humanists have no simple, rational method for moral decision-making. Any given moral situation, such as a family faced with the question of whether to move a sick parent into a nursing home, is agonisingly complex. Moral action cannot be reduced to one rational moral principle. There's a lot going on in any situation that calls for some kind of moral response. It is obvious that morality is objectively rooted in social necessity. Human life would simply be intolerable if we didn't try to uphold moral conventions. 'Strive to be happy' or 'Aim at human flourishing' is the Humanist equivalent of religious salvation. If we can achieve a state of human flourishing then we really don't need the additional consolations of religion. David denied that there could be a 'Humanist Ten Commandments' although he suggested a few guiding principles such as 'Do no harm', 'To thine own self be true' and 'Be kind to the people you encounter as you go about your daily business'.
LA
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