Sarah Bakewell pledges her allegiance to the humanists in “Humanly Possible”, yet she also acknowledges that anti-humanism has its place as an antidote to naivety
of creation and established the continuity between humanity and the rest of the living world. Her narrative explores how generations of educated Anglican curates struggled to reconcile Darwin’s ideas with their own religious beliefs—and how, as the poet Matthew Arnold was to write in “Dover Beach”, the “Sea of Faith” receded.
Any account of humanism in the 20th century must grapple with its failure to prevent the rise of fascism and communism. Some humanists, such as , thought that belief systems built around violence and power would self-destruct. Yet he eventually concluded that faith in the goodness of mankind was a “beautiful error”., living in exile, said that “in all humanism there is an element of weakness, which…may be its ruin.” It did not help that, with honourable exceptions, many humanists had been blind to the claims of all those who were not fortunate enough to be white, European and male.
Having alerted readers to today’s populists and dictators, you might think that Ms Bakewell would use the conclusion of her book to explore the threat from contemporary anti-humanism. Instead, she is distracted by modern humanist organisations and their designs, such as the launch of an advertising campaign under the slogan: “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”
In that spirit, Ms Bakewell closes with a quotation from her favourite humanist, Robert G. Ingersoll, a 19th-century American lawyer and orator: “Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so.” That is indeed one foundation for a good life.
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