{"id":33356,"date":"2021-04-24T10:04:57","date_gmt":"2021-04-24T14:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=33356"},"modified":"2021-05-02T23:29:08","modified_gmt":"2021-05-03T03:29:08","slug":"humanist-ethics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/","title":{"rendered":"Humanist Ethics: Morality Without God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is the source of humanist ethics<\/a>? In the absence of a divine entity to look to, how do humanists determine morally what’s right and what’s wrong?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Humanist ethics is not based on the divine principle of any kind. As a non-theistic ideology, humanists derive their moral code from their internal feelings and the best human thinking in the areas of ethics, science, and well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep reading to learn about the rise of humanist ethics and how it differs from religious morality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

What Is the Source of Humanist Ethics?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Meaning creates morality by determining what\u2019s important in life. Historically, people didn\u2019t believe that humans had the ability to determine morality on their own and turned to a higher power for guidance. However, modern proponents of humanism<\/a>, however, believe that people can use their personal feelings to define their version of \u201cright\u201d and \u201cwrong.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, if a woman spoke out against her husband in the 1300s, the local priest may demand that she be brought to the church for guidance and forgiveness. After prayer and a healthy donation to the church, she could be absolved of sin. Conversely, if a woman spoke out against her husband today, few people would try to silence her by saying a higher power demands her subservience. Instead, she\u2019d reflect on her feelings and determine if her relationship was worth staying in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historically, theistic religion dictated ethics, regardless of human impact. <\/strong>For example, if a man wanted to be romantically involved with another man in the 1500s, religious fundamentalists would condemn the behavior as a crime against God. Though the homosexual behavior wasn\u2019t directly impacting anyone outside of the couple, the holy text deemed homosexuality unethical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the modern era, many humanists believe that an action that harms no one shouldn\u2019t be restricted or condemned. <\/strong>However, because humanism promotes individual morality, ethics can become challenging when the situation lives in a gray area, such as someone killing another person in self-defense or a child stealing to feed himself. Humanists develop their own ethical judgments and make ethical decisions based on their internal feelings, removing the black-and-white judgments of religious fundamentalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, if a man steals from his neighbor, older civilizations would proclaim that he\u2019s committed a crime against God and man, then cut off his hands or throw him in prison. Humanists, on the other hand, would ask questions about the man\u2019s feelings and sense of morality: Was his family starving? Should he be punished or helped? Was the neighbor also struggling? They\u2019d use the answers to these questions to guide their decision-making<\/a> process and reach a verdict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is the source of humanist ethics? In the absence of a divine entity to look to, how do humanists determine morally what’s right and what’s wrong? Humanist ethics is not based on the divine principle of any kind. As a non-theistic ideology, humanists derive their moral code from their internal feelings and the best human thinking in the areas of ethics, science, and well-being. Keep reading to learn about the rise of humanist ethics and how it differs from religious morality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":17692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,21,6],"tags":[269],"class_list":["post-33356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethics","category-philosophy","category-spiritual","tag-homo-deus","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nHumanist Ethics: Morality Without God - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Humanist ethics isn't based on a divine principle of any kind. Humanists believe we can use our internal feelings to define our own morality.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Humanist Ethics: Morality Without God\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Humanist ethics isn't based on a divine principle of any kind. Humanists believe we can use our internal feelings to define our own morality.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-04-24T14:04:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-05-03T03:29:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/traits-of-humans-inner-fish-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"Humanist Ethics: Morality Without God\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-24T14:04:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-03T03:29:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/\"},\"wordCount\":449,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/traits-of-humans-inner-fish-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Homo Deus\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Ethics\",\"Philosophy\",\"Spiritual\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/\",\"name\":\"Humanist Ethics: Morality Without God - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/traits-of-humans-inner-fish-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-24T14:04:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-03T03:29:08+00:00\",\"description\":\"Humanist ethics isn't based on a divine principle of any kind. Humanists believe we can use our internal feelings to define our own morality.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/traits-of-humans-inner-fish-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/traits-of-humans-inner-fish-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Humanist Ethics: Morality Without God\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World's Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\",\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png\",\"caption\":\"Darya Sinusoid\"},\"description\":\"Darya\u2019s love for reading started with fantasy novels (The LOTR trilogy is still her all-time-favorite). Growing up, however, she found herself transitioning to non-fiction, psychological, and self-help books. She has a degree in Psychology and a deep passion for the subject. She likes reading research-informed books that distill the workings of the human brain\/mind\/consciousness and thinking of ways to apply the insights to her own life. Some of her favorites include Thinking, Fast and Slow, How We Decide, and The Wisdom of the Enneagram.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/darya\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Humanist Ethics: Morality Without God - Shortform Books","description":"Humanist ethics isn't based on a divine principle of any kind. Humanists believe we can use our internal feelings to define our own morality.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Humanist Ethics: Morality Without God","og_description":"Humanist ethics isn't based on a divine principle of any kind. Humanists believe we can use our internal feelings to define our own morality.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2021-04-24T14:04:57+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-05-03T03:29:08+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1707,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/traits-of-humans-inner-fish-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Darya Sinusoid","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Darya Sinusoid","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/"},"author":{"name":"Darya Sinusoid","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46"},"headline":"Humanist Ethics: Morality Without God","datePublished":"2021-04-24T14:04:57+00:00","dateModified":"2021-05-03T03:29:08+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/"},"wordCount":449,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/traits-of-humans-inner-fish-scaled.jpg","keywords":["Homo Deus"],"articleSection":["Ethics","Philosophy","Spiritual"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/","name":"Humanist Ethics: Morality Without God - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/traits-of-humans-inner-fish-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2021-04-24T14:04:57+00:00","dateModified":"2021-05-03T03:29:08+00:00","description":"Humanist ethics isn't based on a divine principle of any kind. Humanists believe we can use our internal feelings to define our own morality.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/traits-of-humans-inner-fish-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/traits-of-humans-inner-fish-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1707},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/humanist-ethics\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Humanist Ethics: Morality Without God"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World's Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46","name":"Darya Sinusoid","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Untitled-design-1.png","caption":"Darya Sinusoid"},"description":"Darya\u2019s love for reading started with fantasy novels (The LOTR trilogy is still her all-time-favorite). Growing up, however, she found herself transitioning to non-fiction, psychological, and self-help books. She has a degree in Psychology and a deep passion for the subject. She likes reading research-informed books that distill the workings of the human brain\/mind\/consciousness and thinking of ways to apply the insights to her own life. Some of her favorites include Thinking, Fast and Slow, How We Decide, and The Wisdom of the Enneagram.","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/darya\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/traits-of-humans-inner-fish-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33356"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34146,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33356\/revisions\/34146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}