Humanity's manifest destiny is illumination.
Some may disagree, but this is the course I've set for humanity. The human race will have a conclusion, just as its risen from humble, animal origins over thousands of years. That ascent will continue. Humans will augment their knowledge and themselves; they'll explore the stars with high technology; they'll seek to learn all they can about the universe and themselves, and transcend humanity to achieve higher sentience. This is humanism (and these days, "transhumanism" is becoming another boon). This is the direction humanity is going, despite a few stumbling steps.
To frame all of human affairs and arguments in the context of human nature and this manifest destiny of illumination is to gain a solid foundation of understanding of things. When I first read the Constitution, I asked, "pursuit of happiness—but what is happiness?" Without awareness of a conclusion, or meaning (excluding even meaning assigned by religion, like "life exists to get to heaven"), this world is nothing but a population of frail life-forms who run about day to day in search of some fleeting pleasure. Everything begins with desire, whether conscious or biological; the "pursuit of happiness" is allowing these desires to compete for fulfillment.
I know humanity is more than that. All our efforts to reduce inequality and injustice; to educate and learn about this world and ourselves; to answer the cosmological questions of the universe and find our own meaning in this existence—it's all a forward process to our "enlightenment" as sentient beings, and beyond. To stand back, and accept human nature—for all its savagery and cruelty, as well as its passion, love, and altruism—and to desire still improvement and more understanding—that's meaningful and insightful, and that's what's going to happen. It's excelsior; it's the springtime of youth; it's the stars beckoning the children of earth to discover all the wonders of the world, within and without them.
To examine social issues and the human condition through this lens is humanism, transcendent of culture, tradition, religion, and belief. It ushers much into view about the beauty of humanity and our environment, and it allows one to debate and strive with a clear goal and metric in mind. It is acceptance and striving both; serenity and ambition.
Let's see what's out there.
I believe in the manifest destiny of humanity's illumination, and humanity's capacity to get there and improve itself. I believe in no gods or spirituality whatsoever, right down to watered-down quackery like homeopathic medicine or laughable ideas like an ubiquitous "life force" (that a share of atheists
do annoyingly believe in). If my career were in science, I'd probably imagine myself like GrayLensman did; as a rationally-thinking character from a hard science fiction novel. Spiritualism has no claim on the beauty of this world, nor the art capturing that beauty.
