Reader HaggisForBrains informs me that the British Humanist Association has just launched a YouTube campaign, “that’s humanism,” featuring animated videos narrated by Stephen Fry. HaggisfB adds that there will also be a Facebook and Twi**er campaign.

There are currently four short animated videos, each 2-3 minutes long. And I love Stephen Fry; he’s witty, eloquent, funny as hell, thoroughly atheistic, and has sporadically (and successfully) battled a form of bipolar disorder, about which he’s very open about (as he is about being gay). Plus he loves science and doesn’t put up with woo or crap. What’s not to like?

Here are the four short videos, put up today. It will take you only ten minutes to watch them, and this is a Professor Ceiling Cat recommendation.

“How do we know what is true?” (I like the emphasis on evidence as the only way to know what is true.)



“What should we think about death?” (“Wanting something to be true is not the same is being true”.) I sort of disagree with the notion that life is better when finite than if it were eternal. I’ve always said that yes, I’d like to live forever. And I can’t help but think that most people agree with me; after all, people don’t want to die. If we stuck around forever, we’d get to see what happened—until, that is, the Sun began burning us up in a few billion years. This video, like much of humanist discussion of death, tries mightily to make a virtue of necessity.

“What makes something right or wrong?” (Here Fry espouses a solid, rationalistic morality.)



“How can I be happy?” (“Meaning is not something out there waiting to be discovered, but something we create in our own lives.”)



I have to say that these videos are just so damn—sensible, especially compared to the made-up stuff promulgated by faiths. Notice that food, wine, and cake are mentioned as helping give meaning to our lives, something with which I heartily agree.

Credits:

Written & produced by the British Humanist Association in conjunction with SkeptiSketch, and narrated by Stephen Fry.

Contributing artist: Roberto Gomez – EvolutionBiologia.

Thank you to Alom Shaha, Craig Duncan, Andrew Copson, and Sara Passmore

That’s Humanism logo design by Nick Cousins http://www.nickcousins.co.uk