What is the humanist understanding of human origins, human nature, and human potential?
Humanists believe that human beings have natural origins – we evolved like all other living things – and, if we if we put our naturally evolved capacities to good use, we have the potential to lead good and happy lives.
Where do we come from? tells the scientific story of our origins, from the Big Bang, through the evolution of stars, planets, life, and, ultimately, us, revealing what we are made from and how we are connected to the rest of the living world. This short but beautiful animation highlights the wonder in this story that humanists (and others) might draw on as a source of inspiration, meaning, and value in their lives.
Download the accompanying teacher’s notes.
Individual humanists answer the question
Where do we come from? tells the scientific story of our origins, from the Big Bang, through the evolution of stars, planets, life, and, ultimately, us, revealing what we are made from and how we are connected to the rest of the living world. This short but beautiful animation highlights the wonder in this story that humanists (and others) might draw on as a source of inspiration, meaning, and value in their lives.
Download the accompanying teacher’s notes.
This resource provides a useful memory aid for students, connecting the features of the human body to a humanist understanding of our origins, our capacities, and how best we can put them to use.
Individual humanists answer the question
What lessons for how we should live might humanists draw from our understanding of evolution?
This resource provides a useful memory aid for students, connecting the features of the human body to a humanist understanding of our origins, our capacities, and how best we can put them to use.
This clip from the BBC’s Wonders of the Universe featuring Brian Cox helps to illustrate the humanist approach of relying on science to answer questions about the universe’s origin and evolution.
A short film to help students unfamiliar with the theory of evolution.
Cultural transmission: A BBC animation on what makes us human: our capacity to share ideas, skills, and culture (for humanists this makes us special and can enable something of us to survive our deaths)
Individual humanists answer the question
What lessons for how we should live might humanists draw from our understanding of evolution?
This resource provides a useful memory aid for students, connecting the features of the human body to a humanist understanding of our origins, our capacities, and how best we can put them to use.
This clip from the BBC’s Wonders of the Universe featuring Brian Cox helps to illustrate the humanist approach of relying on science to answer questions about the universe’s origin and evolution.
Cultural transmission: A BBC animation on what makes us human: our capacity to share ideas, skills, and culture (for humanists this makes us special and can enable something of us to survive our deaths)
What lessons for how we should live might humanists draw from our understanding of evolution?
Philosopher Richard Norman describes the responsibilities that come attached to our human capacities.
This clip from the BBC’s Wonders of the Universe featuring Brian Cox helps to illustrate the humanist approach of relying on science to answer questions about the universe’s origin and evolution.
Cultural transmission: A BBC animation on what makes us human: our capacity to share ideas, skills, and culture (for humanists this makes us special and can enable something of us to survive our deaths)
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