Without testing, reason is akin to superstition says Stephen Fry.

BHA Distinguished
Supporter - Stephen Fry

BHA Distinguished supporter Stephen Fry put it well  in February 2011 at Harvard @ 7’30” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HiaePLocUw&feature=player_embedded

when he said that ‘humanism is not interested in convincing anybody else how to live, it can show, not tell”.. and “humanists, as citizens of the world, have no interest in owning the minds of others.. you can tickle the minds of others or play with the minds of others or be graceful with the minds of others, but don’t try to own the minds of others’.

The whole of his talk is worth listening to especially this comment (with my Chair of Humanists4Science hat on)…

'Reason is almost akin to superstition ... reason must be tested" @ 8'35”

http://humanists4science.blogspot.com/2011/04/stephen-fry-why-reason-is-almost-akin.html

This is empiricism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empiricism

BHA Distinguished
Supporter - Peter Atkins

BHA Distinguished
Supporter - Stephen Law

Peter Atkins tried to persuade Stephen Law to think always both philosophically AND empirically at a debate I attended in Oxford in February:-

http://humanists4science.blogspot.com/2011/04/peter-atkins-debates-stephen-law.html. 

All fascinating stuff, to me at least! ... but then I'm not trying to own your mind, just tickle it!

Stephen Fry: "it is essential to nail one’s colours to the mast as a humanist."

The British Humanist Association has welcomed the author, comedian, presenter, and director Stephen Fry to its membership and as a Distinguished Supporter of Humanism.

The news comes during a busy Membership Month in which the BHA has announced that it has doubled in size in the last five years and wants to double again in just half the time.

Stephen told the BHA, ‘At a time when the achievements of the enlightenment* are questioned, ridiculed, misunderstood and traduced by those who would reverse the progress of mankind, it is essential to nail one's colours to the mast as a humanist.

‘For me, that is not a turning away from mystery or a cold rational dispute with the numinous and spiritual in life, it is an acceptance of the awesome and splendid responsibility we each have for our own destinies, ethics and morals. I repudiate the authority of churches, revealed texts and vain unsubstantiated assertions and embrace the shared glories of humanity's intellectual and spiritual struggle to understand the universe into which we are born with honesty, openness and faith in our own natures.’

Stephen Fry has long stated his support for Humanism and his personal non-religious beliefs.  He was interviewed in New Humanist magazine in 2003 and also discusses his views on God and religion in his autobiography Moab is my Washpot.  In November 2009 Stephen won the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association’s award for services to Humanism and LGBT rights in 2009.

* I recommend the book "In Defence of the Enlightenment" by Tzvetan Todorov.

Dorset Humanists is Affiliated to the British Humanist Association.