Lesson video

Hello everyone and welcome to our RE lesson for today.

My name is Miss Harrison and today we are going to be continuing our learning on humanism.

Now, humanism isn't actually a religion itself, it is a non-religious world view.

And last week we started looking at some of those key beliefs that Humanists hold.

And today we have another big question to think about.

And that question is: "where do Humanists find their truth?" So, how do they know what to believe and what is true.

During the lesson today, we are going to think about these things.

Firstly, what do Humanists believe about human beings? Why do we believe different things? And do Humanists follow a text or a scripture, like many other religions do? Number 4: where do Humanists look to find the truth? And finally, how do Humanists look at the world around them? Lots of really big questions there for us to get stuck into.

Now, before we do get stuck in, you are going to need these things for your lesson today.

So you are going to need some paper or a notepad in front of you.

You're going to need a pen or a pencil to write with and, of course, you're going to need that lovely, curious, inquisitive brain.

So, if you haven't got one of those things or, if you just want to find a nice quiet space without any distractions, then you can pause the video now to make sure you're ready.

Okay, awesome, let's get started.

So our first big question of the day: what do Humanists believe about human beings? So let's recap some of those key beliefs that we learned last lesson.

So, we know that Humanists believe that we are animals who have evolved to be able to learn, to make our own choices and to have our own beliefs.

Humanists believe that we were not created by a god or any other supernatural power.

They believe in the science behind evolution.

And Humanists celebrate the things that make human beings special and we thought about all of those amazing qualities and those amazing achievements of human beings in our previous lesson.

So, let's have a think about another big question: why do we believe in different things? Think about things that you believe, and where do you get those beliefs from or where do you get those ideas from.

I'm going to show you an example.

Now, if I throw a stone into the air, I believe that it will fall back to the ground.

Why do I believe that? I want you to have a think, and I'd like you to have a closer look to this question.

You're going to pause the video and write down your response So, if you throw a stone up into the air, you believe that it's going to fall back to the ground.

Why do you believe that? Pause the video now and write down your response.

Okay so hopefully you've written down your response of why you would believe that if I threw a stone up into the air, that it would fall back down again.

Now let's have a look at some different reasons why you might believe that.

Firstly, I have seen it before, that's why I believe it.

Next, my teacher told my that that's what would happen.

I really want that to happen.

I did an experiment to check it.

I've read about it in a book before.

Or maybe I've thought carefully and I've worked it out.

Now, those are just some reasons why we might believe that that statement is true.

And there are many different reasons why people believe different things and there's no right or wrong answers.

Let's have a look at some of those reasons why we might believe certain things.

The first one is personal experience.

And that means things that we have seen, or experienced ourselves.

The next one is authority.

And that means things that we have read or heard from trusted sources.

So it might be that your teacher told you something was true and you trust your teacher.

It might be that you read something in a book, and so you think that that's going to be true.

The third one is reason and logic.

And that means thinking really carefully and forming a judgement.

Then we have scientific evidence.

Which are things that have been tested through investigation or experiment, so things we know to be true because there is evidence of that.

And then finally we have faith, which means believing in something without the need of evidence or proof.

So, there is so many different reasons why different people believe things.

But Humanists rely more on reason and logic and scientific evidence.

Those are the two that Humanists rely on the most to form their beliefs.

They don't take things on faith, so they don't believe things if there isn't sufficient evidence to prove that they are true.

Now, let's see if you can remember some of those definitions and match them together.

So we've got the definition of faith, we've got reason and logic, and we've go authority.

So those are just some of the examples of why we might believe in different things.

I'd like you to pause the video now, write down those terms, and then write the definition next to them.

Pause the video now, have a go.

Okay, let's see how well we managed to match those definitions.

So, first of all, we have the term faith.

And faith means believing without the need for evidence or proof.

If you got that right, give yourself a tick.

Next up we have reason and logic.

And reason and logic mean when you think carefully before forming a judgement.

Give yourself a tick if you got that one correct.

And then finally, we have believing things on authority, which means things that we've read, or things that we've heard from trusted sources.

Again, give yourself a tick if you got that one correct.

Check your answers now, if you need to fix anything you can do so.

Okay now, I want you to think about which of these three would a Humanist most likely use.

Which of these do Humanists rely on to form their beliefs or their opinions.

Have a think.

Get ready to shout it out, you're going to shout it out on three, two, one.

Fantastic! I hope you went for reason and logic.

That's what Humanists are most likely to use to form their beliefs.

They don't just believe things on faith without evidence, and they don't trust everything that they hear from different sources or everything that they read.

So they look for reason and logic.

Now, my next big question for you is: do Humanists follow a text or scripture? And the answer is no, they don't have a set text or scripture, like we might find in other world religions.

Because remember that humanism is a non-religious world view so they don't have set texts which tell them what to believe.

Instead, they look for things like science, and looking for evidence and they believe that this is the best method for understanding the world.

So rather than just forming their beliefs based on something that's written down, Humanists look for science and evidence to form their beliefs and to find out what is true.

So they don't rely on faith.

They look for that scientific evidence and proof before they believe something.

Okay, I've got another multiple choice question, a true or false question for you to answer for me now.

Humanists have their own special text which tells them what to believe.

Pause the video now and write down true or false.

Okay, let's see how we did.

So Humanists have their own special text which tells them what to believe.

The answer was.

False! Humanists do not have a set text that tells them what to believe.

Instead, they rely on reason, logic and scientific evidence to answer questions about the world.

If you got that right, give yourself a tick.

Fantastic! Now, next big question for you: Where do Humanists look to find the truth? So Humanists always try to use reason and evidence to back up their beliefs.

They won't rely on faith or traditions, so they don't believe things if there isn't evidence for it and they don't believe things just because they're told or just because that's what other people believe.

So Humanists do accept that we can't test every claim ourselves and sometimes we do just have to trust the word of other people.

But, Humanists believe that we should always think carefully about what we are told and whether we can check it to find evidence.

So they're not afraid to question what they have been told.

And they believe that people should have freedom of belief as long as your beliefs don't harm others and as long as they don't restrict other people's freedom.

So they're willing to challenge their beliefs, to challenge other people's beliefs and to question things that they're told, and they're also willing to change their own beliefs if new evidence is found.

So if they believe one thing and then a new experiment or new evidence comes out to disprove that, Humanists are willing to change their beliefs to go do that.

So, they believe that you should be able to question what you're told or things that other people believe, but they should try and focus on what we do agree on, rather than things we disagree on.

So, I've got another quotation here from another famous Humanist, and this is from John Maynard Keynes, who's an economist and he says: "When the facts change, I change my mind.

What do you do?" So that goes along with the humanist belief that if new evidence comes up, that could change the beliefs that Humanists hold.

So, let's use this knowledge and now think about how do Humanists look at the world around them.

So, Humanists believe that we live in a natural world, so there will be a natural explanation for everything and Humanists try to look in science and investigate to find those natural explanations.

They don't believe in supernatural worlds, so they don't believe in any other worlds apart from the world that we live in.

And they don't believe in any supernatural beings, like god, or any other power like that.

And they believe the best ways to understand the world around us is through science and through investigation.

So they believe that this material world is the only one that we can know exist and they'll always try to look for natural explanations for things rather than looking to supernatural powers like a god or gods.

So, I'm going to test you now.

I have some statements, and I want you to have a think bearing in mind the information that we've learned in this lesson how might a Humanist respond to each of these statements.

So, statement a is: "I believe in the Loch Ness Monster because I read about it in a book." Statement b: "I believe that if you eat bread crusts then your hair will go curly, because my mom told me it was true." And statement c: "I believe that it's bad luck to to walk under a ladder, because lots of people believe it." Now, I would like you to pause the video, read through each of those statements and in your book or on your paper, you're going to write for a, b and c what would a Humanist say, or how might a humanist respond to each of these statements.

Remember that they don't just believe things on faith, that they look for evidence and they use science to back up their beliefs.

So how might a Humanist respond to each of these statements.

Pause the video now, and see if you can write your response.

Okay, awesome.

Let's have a look at some of those responses that you might have thought about about how a Humanist might respond to each of these statements.

So the first one, I believe in the Loch Ness Monster because I read about it in a book.

Now, a Humanist might try to do some research into any other sightings of the monster or any evidence that the monster does exist.

They might assume that it doesn't exist until they can find evidence that is does.

So remember, they're basing everything on science and research and evidence.

You might have written something similar.

If you did, give yourself a big tick, awesome work! Let's have a look at statement b.

I believe that if you eat bread crusts that your hair will go curly because my mom told me it was true.

Now a Humanist might conduct a scientific experiment over a longer period of time to see if this was true.

So maybe they would try, somebody with straight hair or two children with straight hair, one who eat their bread crusts and one who cuts their bread crusts off and then after a certain amount of time, see if their hair has changed.

That would be a scientific experiment that they might do to find out evidence to back up this claim.

But, they probably wouldn't believe it just because somebody else told them that it was true.

If you've written something similar, you can then give yourself a big tick.

And then statement number three: I believe it's bad luck to walk under a ladder.

Because lots of people believe it.

Now, a Humanist would not just believe a statement without any evidence.

So, if they couldn't see any evidence that it was bad luck to walk under a ladder, then they probably wouldn't believe that straight away.

They might be eager to discuss or debate it with a friend or with somebody else, to find more evidence to back up their claim.

Because remember that Humanists are not afraid to question what they're told, they don't just believe things on faith and they don't just believe things because other people believe them as well.

If you've written something similar to that, you can also give yourself a big tick.

Well done! Now, awesome work everybody, that's the end of our lesson today.

I hope you found it really interesting to think about the different ways that Humanists find their truth and decide what to believe.

So well done for working so hard.

Now if you're super proud of the work that you have done and you want to share it with the Oak National team, you could ask a parent or carer to take a photo of your work and upload it to social media, tagging @OakNational and with the #LearnwithOak.

That way, some of your Oak teachers might be able to see the wonderful work that you're doing at home.

Keep up the great work everybody and I will see you again next time to learn more about humanism.