@HUMANISMEDU - FOLLOW US FOR UPDATESKnowledge and belief
‘Rationalism is an attitude of readiness to listen to contrary arguments and to learn from experience. . . of admitting that “I may be wrong and you may be right and, by an effort, we may get nearer the truth”.’
Karl Popper, philosopher and former patron of Humanists UK (1902 – 1994)
What should I believe? How can I know what is true? Can you ever have too many questions? Find out why humanists believe our curiosity is one of the things that makes human beings special and the importance humanists place on evidence when deciding what to believe.
What makes us special?
Suitable for: 5-7, 7-11
Lesson Plans
What makes us special?
In this lesson students will investigate what makes human beings special. They will discover why humanists value human beings’ ability to ask questions and find answers. They will explore how our questions and the desire to answer them can help us to understand ourselves and the world, and transform the world for the better. They will go on to explore their own questions, assess what makes a question interesting, and think about how they can know whether they have been given the right answer to a question. Finally they will take a look at what else, as well as our curiosity, humanists think makes us special, and use what they have learned to create an artwork. DownloadActivities
Interesting questions?
Which questions are difficult? Which questions are interesting? Are more difficult questions, more interesting? DownloadHappy Human outline
Decorate a Happy Human with questions or with what makes human beings special. DownloadOther activities
Three activities to get students thinking about good questions. DownloadHow do humanists decide what to believe?
Suitable for: 11-14, 7-11
Lesson Plans
How do humanists decide what to believe?
In this lesson students will explore different reasons to believe things and how those beliefs can sometimes be mistaken. They will discover how humanists try to rely on reason and evidence to help them decide what to believe. Through playing a card game they will evaluate what counts as good evidence to believe something and discuss how humanists might respond to particular claims. DownloadActivities
The Murder Trial
Acting as the jury on a murder trial, students will assess the evidence provided by different witnesses. DownloadBeliefs and evidence
A card game to explore what evidence counts as good evidence for different beliefs. DownloadHumanist responses: belief
Fill in the speech bubbles with how humanists might respond to various beliefs. DownloadHumanist responses: belief (blank)
A sheet of blank speech bubbles for students to write different beliefs and comment on them. DownloadExternal Resources
Karl Popper and Falsification
Karl Popper and Falsification: A BBC animation on the scientific method and the importance of our claims being capable of being falsified
Models of the solar system
Film: How did we develop our understanding of the universe? A celebration of the scientific endeavour, and how our capacity to question makes human beings special.
Origins
Where do our beliefs come from? This film from TrueTube explores how the circumstances of our birth and our upbringing affect the person we become. Great for exploring questions around freedom of belief.
The Big Bang
Big Bang: A BBC animation on the Big Bang and what happened before it