What is Humanism?

Humanists believe in humanity’s capacity to create a more just, equitable and safe world. We understand ourselves (based on our knowledge of science and reason) to be capable of being good (and doing good) without a god (or gods) – we organize around the social contract and practice compassion following the golden rule, do unto others as you would like to be treated. We are optimistic, for the most part, seeing possibilities for improvement by appreciating how far human ingenuity in all spheres (arts, science, social sciences) has come – we accept that we have also contributed to human strife but and it is a big but, we believe we have the capacity to change. To use reason, critical thinking, empiricism, experience, science, and the scientific method while also applying compassion to find solutions both with our personal struggles and to solve larger seemingly intractable societal and global problems involving inequality, conflict, climate change, injustice and so much more.

Anita Peters

HFFC's bywords are Reason and Compassion. We look for evidence as the basis of our beliefs about the world, and we embody compassion as our approach to others.

We seek:

To form a welcoming, supportive community of humanists and like-minded people.
To provide a public forum for discussion, critical thinking and analysis of issues of interest to our community and the public.
To promote secular values including freedom, equality, inclusion and knowledge.

We welcome all who wish to participate.

HFFC is an independent chapter of the American Humanist Association.