Greetings!

It has been an amazing year for the Humanist Society (Singapore).

We have come a long way since we were gazetted as a society in October 2010. From the original founding 13, we have grown to more than 140 members. We have also organized some significant events such as the Winter Solstice,  Darwin Day and the Humanist of the Year Award. Apart from these major events we have also successfully managed many smaller events such as Barbeque Night at the east coast, Evening at the Agora and Stargazing at Pulau Semakau.  [Read more…]

This is a speech given by Catherine Lim upon receiving the Humanist of the Year Award 2011. Catherine is a well-known Singapore author who has published several books and political commentaries. The transcript is also published on her website and it describes her journey to become a humanist. [Read more…]

By Paul Tobin

The word “humanism” originated from the 15th century Italian term umanista – which meant a scholar of classical Greco-Roman literature and its underlying ethical philosophy. By the enlightenment during the 18th century, the word became linked with the concepts / ideals / life stance that we understand today as Humanism. These ideals include (1) the primacy of reason – that evidence, observations and experiment, and rational analysis have the form the grounding for our knowledge (2) a human centered ethics which is based on a spirit of compassions coupled with critical thinking and finally (3) a skepticism and rejection of the supernatural – that life can be happy and meaningful without recourse to superstitions and myths. [Read more…]

By Dan Dan

In the evening of 9 July 2011, a ethusiatic group of humanists and their loved ones stepped on Singapore first and only offshore landfill: Pulau Semakau! The island is incredibly clean and well facilitated, and a short introduction to this modern marvel left a deep impression on us. The team from The Astronomical Society Of Singapore (TASOS website) then gave us a short briefing on astronomy and the July night sky, raising our expectations. [Read more…]

The third event organized by Humanist Society (Singapore), Darwin Day 2011, was a huge success with the biggest turnout yet!

[Read more…]

The first Humanist Society (Singapore) (HSS) get-together was held on the 28th of November, 2010, at Cashew Park Condominium. Despite the heavy downpour, around 40 eager members and interested participants came to meet fellow Humanists and to find out more about the HSS. Paul Tobin, President of the HSS, gave an overview of the society’s goals and objectives, emphasizing the role of the HSS in providing an organized platform for non-believers in Singapore. Future plans, which include participation in inter-religious forums and becoming a recognized member of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) were also shared.

[Read more…]

By Paul Tobin

Humanists, by definition, are atheists, agnostics or non-theists. Many people assume that for life to have meaning, there has to be a “giver” of such meaning – such a “giver” is normally referred to as “god.”  In this article, I intend to show that life can be meaningful without recourse to such a concept.

[Read more…]

The Singapore Humanism Meetup (SHM) organised a workshop on ethics on 26 September, 2009. The workshop, designed to be generally light and casual, is lead by WT.

WT stressed that this isn’t a workshop to present what he thinks is ethical, but to highlight ethical issues common to the human condition, and invite people to resolve these from the humanist point of view. It hopes to explore whether there ethical ramifications to the humanist philosophy beyond rejecting the supernatural.

Therefore, the workshop is not meant to provide any universal prescription, but to get people to ponder and discuss on certain ethical issues, and hopefully find common ground.

The short powerpoint presentation given before discussion begins covered definitions of humanism, meta-ethics, normative ethics, and evaluating ethical standards descriptively along several broad axes such as:

1) Means vs ends
2) Individual vs group
3) Rights vs duties
4) Objective vs subjective
5) Casuistry vs principle

After the presentation, workshop participants broke up into 4 discussion groups of 3-4 people, and each group are given 2 case studies to discuss.

The imaginary scenarios touch upon dilemmas a person would encounter in life, such as sacrificing lives for the greater good, speaking up on uninformed choices, and whether to respect the rights the individual have.

Throughout the workshop, there were certain trends during the discussion that indicate some common ground, and generally most participants agree that humanism should be about benefiting humanity. They also agree that there are no simple solutions to complex problems, and no universal prescriptions exist.

There were also perceptions that the SHM is anti-religious, but WT hopes that this workshop provides people some food for thought as to what humanists are positively for as human beings, as well as why they are for it.

Huifen stated that the SHM mailing list was not representative of the views of the meetup generally. In addition, the workshops do not take an anti-religious direction, as many perceive humanism to be, especially through the internet.

At the end of the workshop, WT hopes that members enjoyed themselves in their discussions, hopefully, despite their differences, focus on their common grounds so that collective action can be taken, rather than merely discussions.