Lesson video

Hello everyone, and welcome back to our next RE lesson with me, Miss Harrison.

And today, we're going to be continuing our learning all about humanism.

And in our lesson today, we're going to look at this learning question, what are humanists' goals for society? So how do they want our world to look? How do they want our world to feel? How do they want our society to be? Whew, really big question.

Let's break it down.

So in our lesson today, we are going to recap the humanist beliefs that we know so far.

We're going to look at something called human rights, which you may have heard of before.

We're going to look at what the human rights are and why do we have them? We're going to think about why freedom and responsibility are important ideas to humanists.

And we are going to look at something called secularism.

Again, you might have heard of this.

You might not.

Don't worry if you haven't heard of it before.

We're going to find out what secularism means and why that is important to humanists as well.

So let's get started.

For our lesson today, you are going to need a piece of paper or a notebook to write on.

You're going to need a pen or pencil to write with.

And, of course, you are going to need your very inquisitive and creative human brain.

Now, if you are missing one of those things or if you want to just make sure you can find yourself a nice, quiet space with no distractions, then you can pause the video now and get ready for our lesson.

Okay, fantastic, so let's start by recapping what humanist beliefs do we know so far? So first of all, we know that humanists believe that humans were not created by a god.

So they believe that we evolved over millions of years, so they trust the science and the evidence rather than believing that we were created by a god or gods.

Humanists also think that we should look to science and evidence to find the truth and to work out what to believe rather than just having faith in a supernatural power, like a god or gods.

Humanists believe that people should use reason.

That means thinking about individual situations really carefully.

And empathy, that means considering other people's feelings to decide what is right or wrong.

So they don't have a set of rules, and they don't have a set text that they have to follow, but they judge every situation individually and decide, thinking about other people's feelings, what's the kindest thing to do in each situation.

And then we know that humanists believe that there is no life after death, so that means that we should make the most of the life that we have and live it to the full and help other people to do the same as well.

So those are just some of the core beliefs that we have looked at in our study of humanism so far.

Today, we're going to think about what humanists want to see in our society, and the first thing we're going to think about is human rights.

Now, you might have heard of human rights before.

Have a think.

Have you ever heard that phrase human rights before? So let's have a look at what the human rights are and why we have them.

So the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a document that was created in 1948, so after the end of the Second World War.

And it was created by an organisation compiling lots of different representatives from different countries around the world.

And the reason these people got together was because during the Second World War, lots of really, really horrible things happened.

Lots of people sadly lost their lives, and lots of people suffered a lot.

And this organisation wanted to join all countries around the world and make a promise and decide that things like that weren't going to happen again.

So that's why they created this document, which is called the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

And this is a list of the rights or things that people should be able to have or should be able to do.

So it states all of the rights that all humans should have, so things that we should be able to do or things that we should be able to have.

So have a think now.

What are the most important things that you think all people should have or that all people should be able to do? Hmm, have a think now.

What's something that everybody should be able to have or that everybody should be able to do? Have a think now, and I want you to write down what you think those most important things are.

So pause the video now.

You've got a sentence starter on the screen for you.

I think the most important things that all people should have and all people should be able to do are.

And write them down.

Okay, well done.

Now let's have a look at just some of the human rights.

So the human rights, the Declaration of Human Rights contains lots and lots of different things and lots of different articles.

I've picked out some of the human rights that align with humanists' beliefs that we can compare.

So here are just some of them.

So one of the human rights is the right to live in freedom and in safety.

Then we have the right to believe in what we want to believe.

We have the right to make up our own minds to think and to say what we want.

And we have a duty to act responsibly so that we can all enjoy our rights and freedoms, and we should protect the rights of ourselves and of others.

Now, these are just some of those human rights, and these are ones that I thought align with what we know already about humanist beliefs.

For example, we know that humanists really value human life, and they want everybody to be able to be safe because human life is really precious and all humans are special.

They also want everybody to have freedom to believe whatever they want to believe.

They don't think that everybody should have to follow exactly the same belief system.

They think that everybody should be free to think for themselves and believe what they want to believe.

So those are some examples of human rights, and they're something that humanists really, really feel strongly that they want to have in our society.

So let's focus in on some of those key words.

And we saw the words freedom and responsibility, so let's think about why freedom and responsibility are important ideas to humanists.

Now, from a humanist point of view, let's have a look at what we mean in the context of their beliefs.

So humanists want to have freedom, and they think freedom is important.

For example, the freedom to think for ourselves, to make our own choices, and to live our lives in the way that we choose.

And we also, according to humanists, we should have the freedom to change what we believe.

Remember that humanists base their belief on science and on evidence and on research.

And if new evidence comes up, humanists are willing to change their beliefs based on new evidence.

So the freedom to think for ourselves, the freedom to believe what we want, the freedom to make our own choices and to change our beliefs if we want to, those are really important to humanists.

Then the idea of responsibility is another important one for humanists.

So you can see, by responsibility we mean the responsibility to think carefully about the decisions that we make and consider other people and other animals.

We all have a responsibility to make the most of our lives and to help others do the same.

So we know that humanists believe that this is our one life.

They don't believe in an afterlife, so they believe that we all have a responsibility to live our lives to the full and to help other people to do the same.

So now, our next activity.

I have some statements on the right-hand side, and I want you to see if you can match those to either being about freedom or the idea of responsibility.

So you might want to draw on your page two columns, one with freedom, one with responsibility, and write each statement to match to the correct idea.

Pause the video now and have a go at that.

Okay.

Let's see which ideas you matched the statements to.

So our first statement was being able to think for ourselves.

And I would match that to freedom because humanists want to have the freedom to be able to think for ourselves.

The next one was making sure other people can live their lives to the full.

And I would match that to responsibility.

We have the responsibility to make the most of our own lives but also to help other people to do so as well.

The third statement we had, being able to change your beliefs, and that one matches to freedom because humanists believe that we should have the freedom to be able to change our beliefs if we want to.

And then finally, to consider others when we are making decisions, and that goes with the idea of responsibility.

We all have a responsibility to consider others when we're making our decisions.

Wow, I wonder if you managed to match those to the correct ideas.

If you did, give yourself a big tick.

If you need to fix anything, that's okay.

You can do it now.

So bearing in mind those humanist ideas of freedom, of responsibility, and of human rights in general, I want you to have a think about you and your personal views.

So I'd like you to either create an image, so you could draw a picture, or write a paragraph, so write a couple of sentences, about something that's important to you, something that makes you happy, how you see you at your best, so when you're being your best self, how do you see yourself, and how you see yourself in the future.

So maybe something you want to do with your life when you grow older.

So think about those things that are important to you.

They might be similar to the humanists' ideas that we have looked at, things like being kind, things like considering other people, things like having freedom to think what you want to think.

Those might be important to you too.

Think of something that makes you happy.

It might be a hobby.

It might be a food.

It might be seeing your friends.

Think about you at your best.

So when you're really, really proud of yourself or when other people feel proud of you, how do you see yourself? And how do you see yourself in the future? Maybe what job you want to do, maybe what kind of person you want to be when you grow up.

So pause the video now.

You can either do this as an image, so draw a picture, or you could write these things down.

Pause the video and have a go.

Okay, fantastic.

I wonder what all of those things were that were important to you or that make you really happy in your life.

So we've thought a lot about the ideas of freedom and responsibility, and let's just look a little bit closer about why those are important ideas to humanists.

So humanists believe that we should live in a society that promotes freedom.

And that means freedom to think what you want, freedom to believe what you want, freedom to say what you want, as long as it doesn't harm other people and it doesn't cause other people upset.

So they believe that the freedom to change what we believe helps humanity to grow and to progress.

And humanists believe that there's no single right way to live.

There's no right or wrong way to live.

We should have the freedom to choose how we want to live our lives as long as we're not impacting negatively on other people.

So as long as we're not hurting other people or endangering their human rights, we should have the freedom to believe and to act as we wish.

So let's have a look at one final idea that humanists find very, very important, and that is the idea of secularism.

Whew, that's a tricky mouthful.

Try and say it with me, secularism.

Try again, secularism.

Excellent.

Well done.

So secularism is an idea that's important to humanists.

Let's have a look at what it means.

So, the first part of secularism is that religion is separate from the state or the government of a country.

So many countries around the world have a state religion, and that means that's maybe a common religion in that country and that's the religion that the government supports.

Now, humanists don't want that to be the case.

They don't believe that the state should have any kind of control over religion or the religions of the people that live there.

So they want it to be separate so that nobody feels left out, because if you have a state religion in a country and some people don't belong to that religion, they might feel slightly left out.

So humanists would prefer a secular society, which means that the state, so the people in charge of the country, and the religion are two separate things.

The next part of secularism is people having freedom over what they want to believe.

So people believing what they want as long as it doesn't harm anyone else's freedom or rights.

That's something that's really important to humanists.

And then we have the idea of equal treatment of people, regardless of what they believe.

So humanists don't want anybody to be oppressed or to be treated unfairly because of a religion that they follow or a religion that they don't follow.

So they think everybody should be treated equally, regardless of what they believe.

So bearing that in mind, I have a true or false question for you.

Now, humanists believe that everybody should believe the same as them.

Is it true, or is it false? Pause the video now and write down your answer.

Okay.

Let's see whether you got that one right.

So humanists believe that everybody should believe the same as them.

Our answer was false.

So remember that humanists want people to have freedom over what they choose to believe as long as this doesn't harm others.

This could be following a religion or choosing not to have a religion.

And they respect everybody's right to choose their religion.

If you got that right and wrote the answer of false, give yourself a big tick.

Well done.

So let's have a think about what humanists hope for the future of our society.

So what's their ideal goal for our society? So humanists believe that there is no supernatural power, like a god or gods, so they think it's up to human beings to maintain and to improve our world.

And to do that, humanists want human rights to be protected and to be respected.

So everybody should be able to have their human rights, and nobody should endanger those human rights.

Humanists also really want democracy in society, and democracy means that everyone has the right to have their views heard.

And they also believe really strongly in equality for all, regardless of what you believe.

So those are just some of the goals, some of the ideals that humanists have and what they hope for our society.

So our final task today, I want you to have a think about whether you agree with the humanist goals for society.

How do you think we can make our society better? And this is a question that doesn't have a right or wrong answer.

This is just your opinion and your beliefs.

So do you agree with those humanist ideals that we've looked at today, and how do you think we can make our society better? Pause the video now and write your sentence down.

Okay.

Fantastic work.

Well done everyone for your hard work today.

That brings us to the end of our lesson.

The only thing you need to do once you finish watching the video is to complete your end-of-lesson quiz to see how much you can remember today.

Now, if you've enjoyed our lesson and you're super proud of the work that you have done, you might want to share that work with the Oak National team.

Maybe you want to share a picture of the image that you've drawn of the things that are important to you, for example.

If you'd like to, you can ask a parent or carer to take a photo of your work and to put it on social media, tagging @OakNational with the hashtag LearnwithOak.

I hope you enjoyed our lesson today, team.

You've worked really, really hard, and I will see you next lesson, bye.