Margaret Nelson led a discussion at a Suffolk Inter-Faith ResourceForum of Faiths on16 October 2007**. The others speakers were Manwar Ali (Muslim), Robin Herne (Pagan) and Shpetim Alimeta (“thinker” of Albanian origin).

For those who don’t know me, I’m a Secular Humanist. I make that qualification because in the States there are Religious Humanists as well as Secular Humanists.

However, in Great Britain and other countries where there are Humanist organisations that are part of the International Humanist & Ethical Union, Humanism is totally non-religious. It’s an approach to life for people who’ve rejected religious and supernatural explanations for life, the universe and everything, and whose ethical outlook is based on our common humanity and our experience. We have a naturalistic view of life, rather than a supernaturalistic one. Science can’t explain everything but it can and does help us to understand our place in the natural world, and where there aren’t any answers, we prefer to leave a question mark, rather than explain the gap in our knowledge with a religious answer.

Humanists believe that this is the only life we have, and we must make the most of it. We’re generally described as atheists or agnostics, but I prefer to avoid those definitions, as they can be confusing. Suffice it to say that religion is irrelevant to my life, and if asked if I believe in God, I’m with the first openly non-believing MP, Charles Bradlaugh, who’d respond by asking his questioners to define God. Since none of them could agree on this, Bradlaugh said he couldn’t be expected to say whether or not he believed in something they couldn’t explain, and for which there’s no evidence. But that’s not why we’re here.

I’m here to talk about living in a s