Last Thursday, April 15, 2021, a new cohort started the Central London Humanists’ presentation of Humanists UK’s One Life: An Introduction to Humanism course. We enjoyed welcoming this group very much. Participants were engaged and articulate and seemed genuinely enthusiastic about the content of the first session of the course. It was a pleasure having them and we look forward to seeing them in the remaining 5 sessions.

In Thursday’s session, we discussed the Big Questions, such as: Why does anything exist? How did life begin? What is consciousness? What is a Good Life? We discussed these questions in groups and then shared our thoughts with the rest of the participants.

We heard truly deeply personal reflections on the question of what is the meaning of life to us as individuals and for our time while we are alive. Not believing in life after death makes our lives uniquely special.

When asked what is a good life, some groups concluded that for Humanists having a good life is about being decent and kind to others as well as looking after yourself. “No man is an island”, summing up this perspective.

Perhaps, the question that sparked the most interesting exchanges was “how do we live a happy life?” For some, happiness as an objective is a subjective relativistic phenomenon. In order for human beings to have the ability to pursue happiness, they first have to have the essentials of life provided. For others, they felt like there is a pressure to be happy and to present ourselves as happy. Happiness should be about caring for others and having good relationships.

We have a very engaged group of participants in this year’s cohort and we are very impressed with the conversations generated in the discussions. We can’t wait to take part in more interesting discussions during the next 5 sessions.

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