Thank Heavens For Humanism

 “Humanists recognize that it is only when people feel free to think for themselves, using reason as their guide, that they are best capable of developing values that succeed in satisfying human needs and serving human interests” Isaac Asimov.

In our discussion group about What a Piece of Work is Man: Humanism and Rhetoric, Braden compared the birth of humanism to the story of Adam and Eve. He said that they were like children, lost and with a small capacity of knowledge.    

It wasn’t until they had partaken of the forbidden fruit were their eyes opened and a thirst of knowledge was born. In the early stages of the renaissance, people were surrounded by ancient pieces of art and remnants of some of the greatest civilizations that the world has ever known. At this, time people had a very limited knowledge architecture and art. It wasn’t until the philosophers of Turkey came to Florence did people gain a thirst for knowledge.

Humanism gave humans self-worth and gave them a sense of confidence that they could be whatever they wanted to be. Martin Luther, the father of the Reformation, challenged this idea. Luther felt that man was lost and that it was only through faith and the grace of God that man could be saved. In my opinion, I think that Luther makes a good point; we are lost without the grace of God. However, I also believe that it is also through the works of man plus grace that we can be saved.

Humanism has had a great effect on the world and it continues to influences our society. It helped establish the idea of recognizing individuals’ greatness and this idea still holds true today.

For example, last Sunday millions of people from around the world tuned into watch the Super bowl. Almost everyone sat on the edge of their seats to see which team would come out on top. We watch movies about extraordinary people just to get a glimpse of their lives and spend large sums of money to hear musician play. Our society loves recognizing others and their individual worth. This can all be traced back to humanism.

As humans, we liked to be recognized by others for our work.  In the last couple of years, I have become an amateur photographer. Each photo that I take and share on social media has a little bit of myself in it. If I share a photo and it doesn’t get a lot of likes then I usually take it off social media because that means that people don’t think that it’s a good photo. This is why humanism was so important to the renaissance and is even more important to our society today. It pushes us to create and achieve greatness. Without it, we could still be living in the dark ages.