Chris is the Administrator of “Humans for Science, Reason and Humanism.” Here we talk about the page.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: “Humans for Science, Reason and Humanism,” why found it/administrate for it?
Chris: It is mostly a hobby and interest actually. As a kid, I’ve always been into books. I love learning. about the discoveries and tales in the sciences and history.
By college, I learned how to properly vet valid and reliable news which, recently, has been increasingly blurred and mixed, online, with a lot of fake news and misinformation.
At first, I started sharing a lot of articles on my facebook wall. But this annoyed my followers (friends, relatives and acquaintances). I even learned that some of my cousins unfollowed me because they considered my posts to be an act of spamming. There was just so much to be shared. So I took a long hiatus from sharing stuff online.
However, as time passed, I kept seeing more and more people peddling all sorts of rubbish online and I thought to myself, “How much harm do fake news and misinformation actually cause the world?”
As an educator and someone who values what is true, I couldn’t just sit idly by as people spread around a whole lot of nonsense. So I instead created this page, Humans for Science, Reason and Humanism.
The goal was always to counter the wide variety of misinformation by actually providing people with legitimate and credible information on the most recent issues and topics in the frontiers of science and matters related to human welfare.
My page has been slowly growing since I first started. As much as I would like to commit myself full-time to the page, there are responsibilities in my personal life though, so it still largely remains a hobby project for me. Hearing from followers who welcome my efforts have always been a motivation to keep it up, though.
Jacobsen: What is its scope of operation?
Chris: Updates on the latest news in the various scientific fields are the usual articles I share in the page. The articles have to be from legitimate scientific sources like museums, universities and colleges, reliable science pages and sites online and the like.
Humanist pages are also part of that. I wish to write more about my thoughts on the articles, and indeed, that was how it used to be, but it was time consuming and I usually lacked the time.
So I started posting the articles with hashtags. It was all well, but I received messages that they couldn’t open the articles using only their phone data. A friend of mine, Ana Swift, recommended that I include the contents of the article itself so that people who can’t open the articles can at least read the contents.
This has been the scope of operations so far. Though I have several other ideas which I hope I could give time to. I am currently eager to have people help me grow the page and its mission to spread awareness – like a science and humanism online newspaper platform.
Jacobsen: What tend to be the demographics of the audience?
Chris: So far, the demographics show a majority of Filipinos following the page along with others from outside the country. The primary language used by the majority of followers are from the English speaking community. But I’ve seen non-English countries too like Russia and Germany and such.
Jacobsen: How is this important in terms of gearing the material for the audience?
Chris: English is the current lingual medium of Science. As such, the articles are all in English. The material has always been my set of interests; like physics, astrophysics, cosmology, space exploration and technological development, archaeology, and more, plus humanism.
Hopefully, if more team-members can be gathered, the scope of material would diversify. But the main thing is that the articles have to be scientifically valid and reliable.
Other than articles, the page is also a good source of informative videos like documentaries, lectures, discussions and debates relevant to the main topics.
Jacobsen: Why science? Why reason? Why humanism?
Chris: Science is the entire scope of human knowledge – to date. It’s what keeps our civilization moving forward. Reason is the human capacity to think and use the knowledge we’ve gathered to improve our survivability and sophistication as a society.
Humanism is the emphasis on the value and agency of human beings. If we are to live together in mutual benefit to each other and grant ourselves the right to spread out across the stars as a species, we first need to live in harmony with ourselves and our environment.
Together, these three major ideas and systems constitute the progressive mission of humanity as a whole. Knowledge guides our understanding, wisdom guides our reasoning and empathy guides our humanity.
Jacobsen: How are these important for a secular and fulfilling life? How do these inform the content of the Facebook page?
Chris: Secularism is the idea that protects the rights, freedoms and liberties of individuals everywhere. It prevents the overarching power of religions from becoming too powerful.
The main problem is the common folk in society nowadays is the inability of the masses to properly vet their news sources. Established mass media has long been infested with propaganda and drama to the point that, established academics as well has been under fire with claims of “hoaxes”, “illuminati”, “fakes”, “propaganda”, etc.
One need only look at the anti-vax, climate change denial and flat-earth movements to see what I mean. Some have even claimed that “education” is unnecessary while, at the same time, uneducated opinions gain more traction due to its ridiculously grandiose claims that catch the imaginations and emotions of the unweary individual.
I find this alarmingly appalling. For me, the attacks on secularism globally can be attributed to these increasingly inept kinds of mentality. I still believe that a proper scientific education can solve the major problems and issues plaguing humanity.
If social media can spread and propagate bad news, it can also be used to spread the truth, and that is what the page is focused on.
Jacobsen: How can people maybe become involved with it? Can they offer any skills to help you out?
Chris: I am open to people volunteering actually. The workload isn’t too difficult, just passion and interest and a preponderance for truth and accuracy. This is all volunteer work though, so if anybody is interested, just send the page a message. It is most appreciated!
Jacobsen: Any final thoughts or feelings and conclusion?
Chris: I’m glad the page has garnered attention. I wish more people would follow or like my page, it really means a lot. Let’s help spread real news about the great achievements and questions that the best of huumanity has to offer.
Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Chris.
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Scott Douglas Jacobsen is the Founder of In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal and In-Sight Publishing. He authored/co-authored some e-books, free or low-cost. If you want to contact Scott: Scott.D.Jacobsen@Gmail.com.
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Do not forget to look into our associates: Godless Mom, Nice Mangoes, Sandwalk, Brainstorm Podcast, Left at the Valley, Life, the Universe & Everything Else, The Reality Check, Bad Science Watch, British Columbia Humanist Association, Dying With Dignity Canada, Canadian Secular Alliance, and Centre for Inquiry Canada.
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“It prevents the overarching power of religions from becoming too powerful.”
People who think they understand science, in many cases, don’t fully appreciate what the scientific method is. There is a great deal of probability theory underlining the practice of ‘The Method’.
‘The Way’ as opposed to the “The Method’ was the Christian idea put forth by the original Christian advocates to replace ‘The Law’ as practiced by the Judeans before the first Jewish/Roman war.
Today, throughout the world, ‘The Law’ as practiced by the Islamic dysphoria, needs something more ‘secular’ to replace it, so we can end the Secular/Islamic wars raging around the globe.
Since secularism isn’t a law or a contrived fictional Way, maybe it should be also referred to as ‘The Method’.