The Humanist Guild

So this is a short post hoping for some suggestions, I'll write a longer post with some additional ideas and the results of any research based on comments on this post. I'm interested in cataloguing the skills that we need as proactive Humanists to make the world a better place.  And more importantly to get some suggestions as to to how these can be acquired. Here are a few general ideas to start with: Persuasive speaking Research skills Organisational skills Confidence building How to be happy How to make the personal changes needed (mental fortitude) Any thoughts on what else or how to achieve these things.

Finding a hook to hang ideas for a more focused version of Humanism, on gives the possibility of collecting ideas from like-minded people and perhaps put something more practical together.  Of course there is the possibility that someone will point the way to a group that has already found the answers and direction that these posts are working towards.  In which case this is a moot point... Names like Brighter Culture and Ethical Living sprang to mind, but this is not the invention of something new, I'm no genius or expert on the subject.  So perhaps a title claiming this doesn't fit.  Gymnasium implies training and improvement and once had an academic implication.  Guild implies trades and artisans, standardisation and training.  Unions have a similar association but often for professions.   As living is a practical affair involving all walks of life Guild seems to fit.   So for the moment its Humanist Guild, that is until something better comes along. Life is serious,

I think we Humanists need something extra, a bit of zing, a bit of a turbo charge, that missing ingredient. Humanism, is to me is the most sensible approach to the one life we live; but I wonder if we are not quite there yet, or perhaps that some of us need to travel to the next destination. What you might ask has that to do with the title above? Well... Growing up my family were all religious, we discussed and debate our beliefs (particularly my mother and me). We were interested in understanding our faith, what was ethically "right and wrong" and what was true. Ultimately this, handed down curiosity, resulted in my digging too deep into the faith in which I was raised, through the bottom to the empty underside, discovering to my surprise (and shock) that I had become an atheist. There was however in my family one person that had never believed in Christianity.  However there was a difference in approach: they didn't study any of the literature, debate or discus