What is Humanism? How do you live without a god? And Other Big Questions for Kids

What Is... And Other Big Questions

by Michael Rosen, Annemarie Young

What does it mean to be a humanist? Is humanism a new idea? How do people live their lives without religious beliefs? The first of its kind aimed at the new curriculum for upper primary and lower secondary school children, this book examines how humanists respond to fundamental questions about morals and ethics, the origins of life, religion and the state. It looks at how humanists mark the milestones of birth, marriage and death. How do people without belief in God live moral and fulfilled lives, with respect for humankind and the universe? This thought-provoking approach encourages readers to think about the big questions for themselves.

The book includes contributions from a number of prominent humanists, such as Stephen Fry, Camila Batmanghelidjh, Philip Pullman, Jim Al-Khalili, Natalie Haynes and Shappi Khorsandi, who explain their own philosophy and tell us what is important to them.

Part of the groundbreaking and important 'And Other Big Questions' series, which offers balanced and considered views on the big issues we face in the world we live in today.

Other titles in the series
What is Feminism? Why do we need It?
Who are Refugees and Migrants? What Makes People Leave their Homes?

Genres: Childrens, Parenting, Nonfiction

48 pages, Paperback

First published April 23, 2015

About the author

Michael Rosen, a recent British Children’s Laureate, has written many acclaimed books for children, including WE'RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, and I’M NUMBER ONE and THIS IS OUR HOUSE, both illustrated by Bob Graham. Michael Rosen lives in London.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Sorrento · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a very easy to read explanation about how Humanists try to live a good and meaningful life without God. There are some great contributions from celebrities, such as Stephen Fry, Jim Al-Khalili, Shappi Khorsand and Philip Pullman who talk about how they live as humanists. This book is an excellent introduction to Humanism for school children.

[Jess Elam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic big questions, quotes and perspectives on life. I love how the reader is invited to consider and develop their own philosophy. I particularly enjoyed reading and learning about Humanism through history.

[Michael Prendergast · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aimed at the younger market it introduces you to the concepts behind Humanist it really doesn't give you any answers but as an introduction it will male you seek out more

[Lorie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastically accessible book about Humanism. Raises really great questions and encourages deep thoughts. Very interesting and helpful when considered in relation to my children and how we can discuss different opinions, moral values and questions of meaning. Excellent.

[J · Rating 1 out of 5]

A book I chose to tackle since one it seemed rather short while I was waiting around with a dead phone and secondly since I was wanting to compare it to not only my own beliefs but also to Elle the Humanist, which I had read somewhat earlier before. As a result I have to say that I am not impressed.

First of all for those who have really bad eyes the font size is extra small thus even though the book is only 47 pages long it has a bunch more text included than you could imagine. As a result I felt myself sloughing through the pages as I tried to get from page one to the next. And secondly all the Humanist viewpoints presented so the reader can see how others live with them are made so that the reader really doesn't have a chance to compare each person's beliefs to the the next whether it is Stephen Fry, Shappi Khorsandi, Michael Rosen, Natalie Haynes or Jim Al-Khalili (and truly with maybe one or two I have never heard of any of these people before). As a result the reader instead will get to know an aspect or two, maybe event the origins of how that person became a so-called "Humanist" without contradicting the next inclusion.

The book itself is set-up to introduce the topic, explain what a Humanist is, its purpose in "believers" lives, its place in history, how it can be included in milestone events with only one example per mentioned event and how you can have secular holidays so that way you aren't missing out with those who do believe in those days. Other sections explore how you can live a life without a structured religion or preceding god(s), values and laws and a tackle on a purpose of life, which is basically rounded up to their is no purpose in life except to be lived.

Peppered through all these are those individual "My Humanism" point-of-views, word definitions, "What Do You Think ?" interactive questions and other inserts to either provide favorite quotes or other "need to know" information. The interactive questions could have been left out of the actual pages since they are all just collected in the back anyway where the author hopes that the reader will be encouraged to answer all of them while making their own statement charter based off an earlier community example.

The book does have some brightly colored photographs and other illustration mediums tucked in to help young readers get a sense of the people they are reading or puzzle pieces to help remind them to put the pieces together. Each of these photographs or quotes is provided with a caption for readers who are interested in getting to know just a bit more but not by much.

What intrigued me the most is that the book puts an emphasis that they are only providing you with this information to help open your mind but they aren't going to force you to convert although throughout the book they are insistent upon why you shouldn't believe in religion or God(s). Furthermore for being based so much upon science instead of bringing Humanism to their followers via a scientific set-up it all seems to reflect structured religion such as the "The Ten Commitments", serving others before yourself (the author and others in this book attempt to make sure young readers are aware these steps aren't followed by any other religion as it is only Humanists who do this), the Golden Rule (in Elle the Humanist they made themselves superior by adhering to the Platinum Rule instead) and working on improving yourself before you can help to make others better. Yep sure none of the structured religions do or follow any of the above *eye roll*.

To me it felt like the main message was to ignore all the contributions that religion has provided even for this set of beliefs, act like all religious people are bad and that since we evolved as the animals did via Darwin's theory than we should accept Humanism which worships our species as a collective animal species while touting this herd mentality to enjoy living in here and now.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my rating system, 5 stars means it was very good and also that just about everyone should read this.

In my opinion, even we who have labeled ourselves atheists should read this. I'm going to add humanist to my identity. because I, too, think critically & scientifically and want to raise our children to do the same, and also I, too, want to do what I can to increase the health and happiness of humankind.

Another reason to read this is to get ideas for how to talk to people about our own lives and choices when they just don't get it.

I see that this is part of a set of Big Questions books. I will look for more.

[Spillminttea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Humanities teach us how to be thoughtful and how to be generous toward the viewpoints of others and invite us to set our egos aside thus we can begin to inhabit the joys and struggles outside of our own.