The Principles of Being a HumanIST by Annie L

I think I’m like a 70% humanist, because I’m not exactly religious, but I agree with the ideas of the humanists. The reason why I think religion takes up 30% is because I think one of the important things about the Renaissance humanists is that they tried to balance their religion with their own ideas. I really admire the fact that they can find ways to let two different (big) ideas exist in their head at the same time, and since I’m not really religious, I only have one big idea inside my head at the moment. However, I think other than that I’m pretty humanist-like.

I know that being born into a good family is really important, but I also agree with the humanists that being born into a bad family doesn’t mean you can’t do great things. Sure, it might be harder, but it’s still possible. Since I’m not religious, I’m not exactly in a position to talk about going to heaven, but I do know that since we’re alive, we should just make the most of our time here. Even though people in history made lots of mistakes, I do believe that they also have lots of wisdom they left behind for us. Their ideas can help us make our time better. For example, Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series. Besides, the mistakes of ancient people can help us know what NOT to do, right? Sometimes I tend to ask  questions to my parents, like “Why is this thing called ‘this thing’?”, or “Why does this work the way it does?”. I also like to observe things around me. I think that fits pretty well into the humanist idea of “Questioning Everything”, even though observing isn’t quite questioning yet, it can certainly lead to questions. Lastly, yes I agree with the idea that knowledge is important. I think the reason for that is pretty self-explanatory though. If knowledge isn’t important then lots of things wouldn’t exist. For example… just about everything the Renaissance people made.