Lesson video

Hello.

My name is Mr. Robertson and I love RE.

I am so delighted to be learning with you today.

We've got an amazing lesson in store.

We are carrying on with our big inquiry question, Humanists: How can you lead a happy and meaningful life? This lesson is called The one life, and we're gonna be learning all about what that means for humanists and how that helps them understand and give life meaning.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to explain how a belief in one life motivates humanists.

We have four keywords in this lesson today.

I will say the first word to you and then I want you to say it back to me.

Are we ready? Our first word is reason.

Amazing.

Our second word is evidence.

Great.

Our third word is freedom.

Amazing.

And finally, meaning.

Yes! Brilliant, I could hear all those words.

What do they mean? Well, by reason in this lesson, we're talking about the use of logic and facts to make sense of the world.

Evidence is proof supporting a claim.

Freedom is the power to act and make choices, and meaning is the purpose of our actions and decisions.

We'll come across these words as we go through the lesson, and I think you'll really understand them by the time we've finished.

So in this lesson on the one life, we're asking two questions.

And the first question is this: why do humanists believe there is only one life? This lesson is using philosophy, and we're going to be using some tools of philosophy.

To help us understand what we mean by philosophy, Sofia is gonna tell us about what it means in RE.

She says, "Philosophy is interested in what we know and how we know it.

Philosophers ask questions about how people think or reason about the world around them, and how we can know what is true or real.

We can better understand worldviews by using philosophical tools like thought experiments, critical thinking, and reasoning." So what does that mean for this lesson? Well, in this lesson we're going to be speaking to different humanists to understand their reasoning that there's only one life, and we're also gonna find out how they think this life should be lived, because an important part of philosophy is thinking about what's right and what's wrong.

Izzy and Alex are gonna help us with this lesson, and they're going to be leading it and talking to different humanists with us.

They've been thinking about the big question of life.

(imitating trumpet fanfare) Izzy says, "I know a big philosophical question is, is this life the only one we have? Different people might answer this question in different ways." Alex says, "I wonder how humanists would answer it.

Let's speak to some humanists.

We can ask them about their beliefs and how they might have reached them." I wonder what you think a humanist would say to that question and why they might say it.

You might want to pause the video and make a prediction at this moment, or talk to the people next to you.

So let's meet Diane.

Diane is a humanist, and Alex is going to interview her.

He says, "Diane, what answer would you give to the question, is this life the only one we have?" Diane says, "As a humanist, I would say yes, this is the only life we have.

Humanists are not religious, which means that we do not believe in heaven or an afterlife." So thank you, Diane.

That's really clear, isn't it? Let's just check our understanding though.

Think about what Diane's just been saying.

One of these statements is not correct.

Is it A, humanists believe in one life; B, humanists believe in an afterlife; C, humanists are not religious? I'd like you to pause the video and have a think about that.

Excellent! It's B, isn't it? Humanists do not believe in an afterlife.

Because they're not religious, they think this is the only life we have.

So Alex wants to find out a bit more.

He asks, Alex, "How do you know that this idea of one life is true?" And that's a really important philosophical question because we need to know how people come to these ideas, not just what they think, but why.

Diane says, "I use reason to make sense of the world using facts and logic.

As a humanist, I have not seen any scientific evidence of an afterlife.

Therefore, for me, the most logical explanation is that one life is all we can be sure of." So because she's humanist, the idea of using facts and logic is really important to Diane, and so is the idea of evidence.

She's not seen any evidence about an afterlife, so for her, therefore, the logical explanation is that we only have one life.

Now, Izzy and Alex are reflecting on what she's just said.

I wonder who's understood her better.

Izzy says, "Humanists rely on faith rather than facts and logic to decide what they believe about life and death." Alex says, "Humanists rely on facts and logic rather than faith to decide what they believe about life and death." Who's understood Diane correctly? Pause the video and have a think.

Absolutely, it's Alex, isn't it? Because as Diane said, facts and logic are really important to her.

Faith is something which people with a religious worldview would have, and so for humanists it's important to find out there is evidence for belief.

So Izzy and Alex are going to reflect on these humanist ideas.

Izzy says, "I see that humanists believe evidence and reason lead them to seeing there's one life.

But if there's no afterlife, does that mean that people can act however they want?" I wonder what you think about that question.

What do you think the answer might be here? Alex says, "I think we need to find out more about what living one life means." So Alex goes back to Diane.

He says, "If humanists only have one life, how do they think they should use it?" Diane says, "Humanists believe there is no single ultimate meaning of life.

Instead, it's up to us as humans to make our own lives meaningful.

Humanists believe we have freedom to decide how we live." So that's a really important point there from Diane.

She's saying, "I don't think there's just one meaning of life.

We need to make our lives meaningful and we've got freedom to decide how we do this." She goes on.

"I think having the freedom to decide how to live is a bit like being an author writing a book.

As an author, you can choose the characters, the beginning, the middle, and the end, as well as the words you use.

Life is similar.

You have the freedom to decide what you do and be the author of your own story." I wonder, do you like writing stories? Do you like creating characters and having adventures and sending them where you want them? Diane's saying she thinks life is a bit like that.

As human beings, we've got freedom.

We can create our own lives, and we can make those decisions about what we do with them.

Alex goes on, "Does this mean that humanists believe you can do whatever you want in life?" What a great question, Alex.

Because Diane said that we have freedom, so does that mean the freedom to do whatever we want? Diane says, "We do believe we have the freedom to make our own choices in life, but humanists want to ensure that these choices do not cause harm to others.

We believe we have a responsibility to think carefully about the consequences of our actions." In other words, what happens to somebody else if we do that? "I think," she says, "we should try to be happy and make others happy." So actually, if you think what Alex has asked, is Diane saying that humanists say you can do whatever you want? No, she's not saying that, is she? She's saying, "Yeah, you've got the freedom, but actually we need to think about the consequences of what we do." And for her, it's really important to try and be happy and make others happy.

Let's just check our understanding so far.

I want you to complete this sentence for me.

Humanists believe that they have the, to make their own choices in life.

What's that missing word? Pause the video and have a think.

The missing word is freedom.

Brilliant! Humanists believe they have the freedom to make their own choices in life.

But if you remember what Diane said, that freedom doesn't necessarily mean you can do whatever you want.

Okay, we're gonna sum up what we've learnt so far.

Two questions for you here.

First question from Alex.

He's not sure why humanists believe in the one life.

I wonder, can you help Alex with this? Can you think back to what Diane said right at the beginning of this lesson? What was it that led her to believe that there was only one life? You might want to use these words: reason, evidence, science.

Can you use those words to give Alex a really careful answer to explain why humanists believe there's only one life? Next task is this: Izzy has explained how believing in one life affects how humanists choose to live, but she's made a mistake.

She says, "Humanists believe in the one life, and that means you can do whatever you want in life." Is that right though? I think we might need to look again at what Diane said.

I'm sure she said something about this.

She talked about freedom, but she also said something else as well.

I wonder if we could help Izzy understand a little bit more about why that statement doesn't really make sense.

Okay, I think you're gonna do some brilliant thinking here.

I want you to pause the video, and then I really can't wait to see what you do.

See you soon.

What amazing deep thinking going on here.

Okay, so for question one about why humanists believe in one life.

So you might have said things like this.

You might have talked about the fact that humanists use reason to help make decisions.

And by reason we mean thinking carefully about logic and facts.

Many humanists look at facts from science, and from that they conclude there isn't any evidence for an afterlife.

And so because there isn't any evidence, humanists say they would believe in the one life, because that's the only thing that we can really be sure about.

So if you've said something like that, brilliant, you've done really well.

Secondly, we have to correct Izzy's mistake when she said humanists' belief in one life means you can do whatever you want.

So why was she so mistaken? You might have said something about the fact that although humanists believe that they have the freedom to do what they like, to be the authors of their own lives, as Diane said, what's important is the choices that they make do not cause harm to others.

Diane talked about this, didn't she? She said it's important that you think carefully about your choices and also the consequences of their actions, and she went on to say that she tries to be happy and she wants others to be happy as well.

So again, if you've talked about the idea of freedom, but you've also talked about the importance of not causing harm to others and thinking about consequences, and you might have mentioned happiness as well, then well done, you've given a brilliant answer to that question.

Fantastic work on both of them.

So for the second part of this lesson, we're going to be asking this question: how does belief in one life motivate humanists? Izzy and Alex are thinking a little bit more about what they've learned so far.

Izzy says, "If humanists believe we only have one life, do they think that life has no meaning or purpose?" And Alex says, "We know that humanists think they should think carefully about their choices and the consequences of their actions, but what else might they say?" I wonder what you think about this.

Just because humanists believe in one life, do you think that humanists think that life hasn't got any meaning and there's no purpose in it at all? Again, you might want to pause the video and consider that or talk to someone about it.

So Izzy's gonna ask two humanists this time, because if we ask two humanists we'll get some different opinions, and that's really, really helpful, because one person might not be representative.

Neil says, "I find the idea of one life is really motivating.

It makes me want to make the most of my time on earth and to find happiness.

We have one life, we should live it well." So actually, Neil doesn't find that idea of just one life gives him no meaning at all.

In fact, quite the opposite.

He finds that he wants to make the most of his time, and so he wants to live his life well.

Diane says, "The idea that life will eventually be over works as a call to action for me.

I want to make it as meaningful and rich as possible." So what Diane's saying there is she wants to really make the most of it as well.

She wants to give that life meaning because she knows that it is the only one life that we've got.

Thank you, both of you.

Diane says, "Look at the symbol of humanism, Izzy.

What do you see? What do you think it might tell us about humanism?" I wonder what you think you can see.

What does it remind you of? What might it represent? Izzy says, "I can see a human figure.

It looks like a person holding up their hands to celebrate winning a race!" Was that the idea you had, or did you have some other ideas of your own? Diane says, "That's right! It's the happy human symbol; the international symbol of humanism.

You might also have noticed it looks like a human being and an H, for human and humanism.

The happy human symbol celebrates being human; our happiness, positivity, and potential as ways of making the most of our one life." Let's see if we've understood so far.

Can you complete sentence? The happy human symbol celebrates being.

What's that missing word? Pause the video and have a think.

Absolutely, it's human, isn't it? The happy human symbol celebrates the fact that we are human beings, and that's a wonderful and an amazing thing.

Izzy wants to find out a little bit more.

So, "How do you make life rich and meaningful as a humanist?" Diane says, "The happy human stretching up and making the most of life sums up what I think.

We believe there are lots of different ways a person can find meaning and happiness in their lives.

That is a really good thing, as all humans are different!" So that's brilliant what Diane's saying, isn't it? She's saying there's so many ways of being human, there isn't one way of finding meaning and happiness, but there are lots of different things we can do.

Neil says, "What gives my life meaning is helping others.

I volunteer bringing hot food and drink to rough sleepers on a Thursday night.

Seeing the difference I can make, even in small ways, gives me a sense of purpose." So Neil finds meaning in life through helping others, and he goes out into London and helps people who are sleeping rough, and that really makes him feel like he's got meaning in his life.

Diane says, "For me, life is about enjoying the little things.

I find meaning in painting and spending time in nature.

I try to make the most of each day and appreciate the world as it is." So Diane wants to make the most of the time she's got, and she finds that painting really helps her and being outside in nature and appreciating each day.

I wonder what we can see here.

Which of the following statements is not correct? A, the idea of one life can be motivating for humanists; B, there's only one way for a humanist to pursue happiness; C, humanists find happiness in lots of different ways.

Think about what Neil and Diane just told us.

Which of those answers is not correct? Pause the video and have a think.

Brilliant, the answer's B, isn't it? Because both Diane and Neil showed that having one life does motivate them and they found happiness in different ways, didn't they? Neil enjoyed his voluntary work, whereas Diane really loved being in nature and painting.

Okay, I'd like you to do this for me.

One, I'd like to explain how the idea of the one life might affect the way a humanist chooses to live.

I'd like you to think about the ideas we've had from Diane and Neil.

Could you use some words like this: meaning, motivating, and happiness? Some people might think that being just one life means that there's no point in living and life doesn't have any purpose, but I want you to think about what Neil and Diane said and can you explain how for a humanist, it might affect what they choose to do? And secondly, I'd like you to describe the happy human symbol.

You might want to draw it for yourself and explain what it means about how humanists might approach life.

Think about the shape of the happy human.

Think about what people said about it.

Why is that symbol important, and how might it talk a little bit about how humanists see life? Really looking forward to seeing what you come up with, and you might want to pause the video now.

Off you go.

Awesome, brilliant work here.

So you might have wanted to say about the idea of one life that some humanists find that idea really motivating.

They might want to find as much meaning as they can.

You might have mentioned our case studies, that Neil found meaning in working with the homeless people and going out and giving them soup, whilst Diane found meaning in painting and spending time in nature.

Both of them talk about the idea that humanists find the idea of one life really important and it does give them a sense of purpose.

Secondly, I asked you to describe the happy human and what it might represent.

You might have said that the symbol looks like a human, as well as an H for humanism and human being.

It talks about the happiness and positivity and optimism that a humanist has towards their one life.

If you've come up with some ideas like this, brilliant, and well done for trying so hard.

Let's summarise what we've learnt today.

We've learned that humanists use reason and evidence to reach the conclusion that there's only one life.

We've learnt that humanists believe that we should find meaning and happiness in our lives and we have the freedom to make our own choices.

And as we can see there, the happy human symbolises how humanists believe they should live their one life, with positivity and happiness.

Thanks ever so much for being with me today.

I really enjoyed our lesson and I hope you have too, and I look forward to seeing you in another lesson soon.