Practice

There is a current media blitz, waged by humanists and atheist organizations in the US. One of these promotes Greg Epstein's "Good Without God", an examination and exposition of humanism in modern society. This is all good. The more options of developing a constructive daily practice the better.

However, in this Facebook age, I do worry that a core piece of the message conveyed by Greg Epstein and others is being missed in the same way that a core piece of many religions is missed routinely. Humanism and religion are structures of intellectual conviction about the nature of the human experience and how best to make that experience worthwhile, moral, ethical, meaningful.

The practice of humanism or religion is the daily application of principles to reality in each human life. Some call this service, some call this mindful compassion, some call this practical morality. This practice piece, in my opinion, is the core value and worth of humanism or any religion.

The Facebook age is about information sharing, networking and virtual community. None of these is practice, as understood by most belief systems. These may lead to or support practice, but practice is something the individual does in real time with real people on real issues. Painting a disabled person's apartment is practice. Visiting hospice patients is practice. Volunteering in poor school systems is practice. Caring for your own elderly parents on a daily basis is practice. Teaching your children nonviolence and ethics is practice. Writing against injustice or for social progress to your political representatives is practice.

Virtual practice is not real practice.