Humanist Perspectives – Practical Humanism: Empathy

**This month, we will be discussing Empathy, one of the AHA Ten Commitments with Matthew Elisha.**

**Practical Humanism is a semi-regular program of Humanist Perspectives, which is a combined event with the Hub and Jefferson Humanists.**

As humanists, we should work to make individual changes that help improve ourselves and advocate for policies that can make for a better world. It can be difficult to always know what practices we can change to make us better persons and what steps we can take to affect changes to improve our world. It helps to learn from others, so we invite you to come to Humanist Perspectives for a discussion we call Practical Humanism.

We take one tenant from the American Humanist Association’s Ten Commitments and the group will share ideas for ways we can make individual changes to become better humanists. When we are done, we should have a list of ideas and methods we can apply in the real world to be more committed to a better life and a better world.

This month, Matthew will lead a discussion of the Commitment Empathy. The AHA’s Center for Education describes it this way:

**“I will consider other people’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences.”**

Empathy means entering imaginatively into another’s situation in an attempt to understand their experience as though we are experiencing it ourselves. Empathy requires us to step outside of our own perspective to consider someone else’s thoughts, feelings, or circumstance from that person’s point of view. In many ways, empathy is the first step to ethical behavior as it allows us to respond compassionately to the suffering of others and exercise good judgment when our actions may affect someone else. Understanding another’s perspective is not only critical to building better relationships, but also makes us better citizens in our local and global communities. Empathy promotes tolerance, consideration, and compassion amongst us all.

Come to the meeting prepared to discuss ways we can be more empathetic, in thought and action.

**We will enjoy a lively discussion, beverages, and appetizers. Feel free to BYOB (beer and wine are OK) or an appetizer to share.**
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The Hub, Jefferson Humanists, and Humanists of Colorado Chapters of the American Humanist Association are very pleased to offer a regular exploration series on the 3rd Saturdays, 4:00 to 6:00 pm., inspired by the Jefferson Humanists. Each session will be slightly different and include several segments to showcase aspects of Humanism through a presentation, videos, movies, forums, and explorations, followed by discussions. We will include time for participants to socialize and get acquainted, in keeping with the chapters’ goals of building community.