Humanist - Atheist - Existentialist Intersections of Belief

I still need to do further research of humanism and existentialism. My goal is to find some point of departure from which to establish some new ideas. As with existentialism, sorting out humanistic beliefs is a difficult process. Both terms function as umbrellas that contain some widely divergent views. My fear is that I will never quite stand on newly discovered ground because of humanism's inclusiveness. In a philosophy known for its diversity, held together by a few common principles, any new idea that adheres to those principles is immediately added to the canon. I am left with two options: to work within the confines of humanism or to borrow the choicest principles for my own applied philosophy. The same can be said of my existentialism research.

One of the key differences between humanism and the singular belief of atheism is the level of social engagement. Atheism is personal. It can even be construed as an anti-social belief in some small respect (church, temple, etc. are communal in nature). The larger point is that the atheist, for the most part, has learned to keep his belief to himself. It requires no social engagement whatsoever. I may be setting up what seems like an apples to oranges comparison. After all, atheism is only one potential unit of belief that may be contained within existentialism and humanism, philosophies with a great number of beliefs. Nevertheless, I will continue.

After a modest amount of research, existentialism still remains a nebulous slurry of ideas; some foreign and archaic. I place it somewhere between the very personal atheism and the very socially aware humanism.

This is what is attractive about humanism: it brings in elements of social justice and the common good. I find it almost serendipitious that I should stumble upon humanism at this point in my life, especially since it coincides so well with my strategic management course. We are discussing exclusively the hows and whys of creating socially responsible businesses and the consequences of letting the shareholder perspective trump the stakeholder perspective.

I don't know. Maybe it has something to do with age and perspective. It has been an interesting journey from becoming a self-centered atheist with a chip on his shoulder to adopting more inclusive and socially conscious attitudes. I could spend another entry altogether on my loss of faith in the religion into which I was born, drifting into agnosticism at a young age. It was never really about religious faith for me. Science and empiricism* ran through my veins since early childhood. There came a point where my growing love for science, my "faith" in it as it were, prevented me from turning a blind eye to all of the inconsistencies and lack of proof.

* - I have since backed away slightly from empiricism, as I have in the case of many absolutes. Existentialism reinforces the idea that rationalism has its limits. Current systems and standards are not the last word on existence, and in their meticulous bean counting, may be missing some subjective element entirely.