Hurricane Harvey Response

Photo: David J. Phillip, AP

Photo: Scott Olson, Getty Images

Photo: Harris County Sherrif's Office

Photo: Courtesy Muslim Youth USA

Take a look at these photos or type in Hurricane Harvey Rescue into Google images and ask yourself what do you see? Do you see Caucasians, African-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Asian-Americans, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Atheists, Sikhs, Buddhists, Illegal Immigrants, Native born Americans or do you just see Human Beings responding to a horrific natural event?

What I see is Human beings regardless of race, religion, legal status and or creed pulling together to rescue and comfort other human beings. This morning I was looking at this story (Storm Images Shows America at It's Best ) in USA Today on my iPad sparked a feeling in me that could only be described as spiritual. Not spiritual in any religious sense or new age sense, but spiritual in a Humanist sense.

What is Humanism? The American Humanist Association defines Humanism as: "Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without supernaturalism, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity.

The lifestance of Humanism—guided by reason, inspired by compassion, and informed by experience—encourages us to live life well and fully. It evolved through the ages and continues to develop through the efforts of thoughtful people who recognize that values and ideals, however carefully wrought, are subject to change as our knowledge and understandings advance."

The Humanist Manifesto III "is part of an ongoing effort to manifest in clear and positive terms the conceptual boundaries of Humanism, not what we must believe but a consensus of what we do believe." A key component of the Humanist lifestance is that it evolves and continues to develop as this is the third manifesto since 1933. This is a difficult concept for a lot of conservative people especially fundamentalist in the Abrahamic religions.

People have a need for consistency, so they develop cognitive dissonances where they have difficulty in adjusting changes, so they look for confirmation of their beliefs. This need for consistency is why a lot of religions would rather use and in some cases impose ancient texts, morals, values, and supernatural beliefs to inform societal debates on race, sexuality, the role of women, blasphemy laws and the separation of church and government. What fundamentalist do not understand is those morals and texts were written during the early developments of civilization. Humans were just developing cities and states, so those morals, values, and beliefs were created to help build identities to build those nations and cities. Those teachings have not kept up with the modern world where ideas, values, videos, pictures, and concepts are distributed globally with in seconds.

Each religion claims to have the single source of truth for morality and wisdom. Beliefs that create some of the deepest division between humans besides the arbitrary lines that separate nations.  Religions power to divide is even seen today as some evangelical Christians are trying to say that their god is punishing Texas for either allowing abortions (perfectly legal procedure), electing a lesbian mayor that has been out of office for 18 months, or not passing a Transgender bathroom bill. 

Humanism is the idea that each and every human as the same value. There should not be an in group or an out group as defined by religions. It also values humans regardless of where they were born.
That is the spiritual feeling I was enjoying yesterday as the pictures show humans helping humans regardless of race, religion or nationality.  Considering the hatred and violence, we have seen recently in the United States it is great to see how people come together to help other people. Even other nations are working to assist those people affected by Harvey despite the President of this country calling for a will to further divide the two countries while promising Mexico will pay for that wall.

While there are several outstanding groups working to assist those affected including groups from various religions. The fourth picture is a picture of Muslims Youths who are assisting in relief efforts. Often time religious groups use this assistance to proselytize to unbelievers. If you would like to contribute to a group that is only looking to assist I would encourage you to donate to the Foundation Beyond Belief's Hurricane Harvey Recovery Drive.