The things we experience in our lives - in the here and now - are the main basis of the humanist life stance. Our joys and sorrows, the challenges we meet and fellowship with others, give our lives meaning without the need of neither religion nor hopes for an eternal life.
Our views on what is right and wrong, good and evil, spring from our sense of empathy and mutuality. This enables human beings across barriers of culture, politics and religion, to share notions of tolerance and human worth and to develop the ideas of liberty and equality, as they are expressed in the Declaration of Human Rights. These ideals form the basis of humanism.
The ideology of humanism in Norway is based on several sources:
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the writings of the great ancient philosophers
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the ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity as they were expressed in the age of reason
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the breakthrough of modern Norwegian writing (Henrik Ibsen, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Alexander Kielland)
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the scientific interpretation of the world
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hearts and minds of ordinary men and women meeting the challenge of life in an ever changing world
The Norwegian Constitution of 1814 § 2 states: "All inhabitants of the realm enjoy the free exercise of religion. The religion of the state remains Evangelical-Lutheran. Inhabitants of that confession are committed to raising their children in the same." The Norwegian Humanist Association want an amendment to this §2. The aim is to
Other aims are:
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a society without a state religion or religious stipulations for public institutions
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a society free from any law or ordinance discriminating citizens outside the State Church
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a public school and kindergarten system free from denominational control, without obligatory participation in religious ceremonies
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to offer adequate humanist ceremonies for the rites-of-passage
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to promote and fight for human rights
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to spread information about humanism