If you ask a humanist "what should we sing about?" they might answer: reason and science. That is true but ultimately knowledge is not usually an end in itself, it's simply a means to an end. So, to what end do humanists apply their knowledge?
The answer comes from recognising that mother nature gave humans two brain functions (reason and emotion) not one. Nature gave us feelings to emotionally appraise what is of value in the environment, and it gave us reason to pursue those emotionally satisfying rewards.
So, for non-religious people (humanists) it is our feelings that tell us the things of worth in life, and our feelings are what we should be singing about. Yes, we can also sing about reason and science, but that's not very moving. It is matters of the heart that drive us.
The purpose of collecting these songs is to teach humanists how to live without religion. Too many humanists are lost and confused as to where to get their morals/values/lifestyle from without religion.
And by teaching humanists a solid foundation of affective values (i.e. feelings), and rational beliefs, this equips them with the knowledge required to enter debates about philosophy, lifestyle, culture, politics and so on. Such humanists are then able to drive the humanist forward by engaging in thriving debate about better and worse ways to live.
So, on the face of it, Song of Appraise may look like nothing more than a bunch of feel-good songs. But the educational value of these songs is hopefully very empowering for the humanist movement. Too often humanists have a one-eyed view of human nature, that focuses on reason, and ignores the role of emotion. This one-eyed view of human nature leaves humanists cold and confused and, subsequently, the humanist movement is stagnant. But hopefully the knowledge of affective values will equip humanists with a complete view of human nature and empower them with the knowledge required to drive the movement forward.
Important note: this website does not say that emotion is better than reason. This point of this website is that emotion and reason perform different but complementary functions. Reason informs us, and emotion moves us. They are interdependent. Reason is a model of the world but that model contains no inherent drive or motivation. Rather, it is feeling that stimulates action (in terms of end goals). We act in anticipation of emotional rewards. Reason is merely a tool used in pursuit of emotional rewards.
About Me
I am approaching 50 years old, and live in Sydney, Australia.
I had a fairly typical Australian upbringing. Religion was not a big part of our lives. We respected it at the appropriate times but most of the time we just got on with life. However, as a 20-year-old, my boss (a software engineer) had a bookcase in his office with some Christian books. And before I knew it, I was a born-again Christian, playing guitar in a church band, "praise the Lord" and yadda yadda. That lasted a couple of years. I was a huge Amy Grant fan (I still am, sort of). But reality eventually beckoned and I woke up to myself, shook my head, and walked away.
To say that I struggled after leaving religion is an understatement. I lost my faith and at the same time began having health problems that ended my computing career. While dealing with the health problems (and subsequent depression) I was also trying to reconstruct myself from the ground up i.e. how does one live without religion? Where do we get our values? What is right and wrong? All the usual questions that come post-religion.
Eventually I took the naturalistic/evolutionary view of life and came to realise that, like the other animals, nature gave us feelings to tell us what is good and bad, right and wrong, in terms of end goals. I read one of Richard Dawkins' books, quickly got lost in the maths, but was at least convinced that the scientific worldview was the right one.
And so, once I had a solid foundation of affective values (feeling), and rational beliefs, then every problem became answerable, and solvable. Not easy, but solvable.
And so for the next ten years I increasingly found my feet by applying the foundation of affective values, became more sure of my place in the world, eventually drifted onto the internet and became interested in the atheist/humanist movement.
Alas, like a lot of humanists, I was disappointed by the prevailing one-eyed view of human nature that focused on reason, and ignored the role of emotion. I found a few sane voices like James Croft, Jonathan Haidt, Antonio Damasio, Julia Galef, i.e. people who had a complete understanding of the relationship between emotion and reason, and I felt compelled to collect quotes from more of these voices and build up the case against the cold one-eyed view. So I started the website Affective Propulsion (website under construction) to collect these quotes.
And then came along Steve Martin with his hilarious but provocative Atheists Don't Have No Songs and so I looked around for atheist song lists and was yet again confronted with the one-eyed view of human nature i.e. most of the atheist song collections were the Losing My Religion type of songs that had little to say about how to live without religion.
And so, gradually I began collecting songs about the emotional life i.e. songs of appraise. Many times while discovering new songs I felt very uplifted, like finding your identity or sense of belonging, as well as clarity and focus. And so, hopefully others might feel the same by sharing these songs.
The purpose of these songs is to help humanists to live well without religion, and to rescue them from the cold one-eyed view of human nature that focuses on reason and ignores emotion. Hopefully such enlightened humanists can then drive the humanist movement forward.
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And finally, please note that the bulk of this website was written a couple of years ago, and there may be some (or many) broken links to the songs on YouTube. I had intended to publish this website at the same time as my other website Affective Propulsion (website under construction), but due to health problems that website is still a work-in-progress. My health is not getting any better, so I have decided to publish this website while I still can. And hopefully I can finish off Affective Propulsion in the near future.
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