Humanist Life Stories

Humanist Life Stories II

We are looking at compiling more stories for another booklet, called “Humanist Life Stories II,” in 2009. For this particular issue, we would like to ask that you share a real life story about a time where you were confronted with an ethical or moral dilemma and had to make a difficult decision. Since humanists don’t rely on prayer or a holy book to help them with such decisions, sharing the process through which they make these decisions could provide an important insight on how humanists deal with ethical and moral dilemmas, and where their values come from.

Guidelines for submission:

1. The story should be based on either a personal experience or an event that you experienced with others.

2. Write about a challenging decision that you had to make, which involved an ethical or moral dilemma.

You may like to use the following suggested elements as a guide:

1. Your personal feelings.
2. The consequences of your decision and if or how it changed you or those around you.
3. What was the basis for your decision?
4. Was this a value based or a pragmatic decision?
5. Did you make this decision by yourself or by consulting others?
6. How did your experience turn out?
7. What have you learned and what could you tell others as a result of this experience?
8. How were your Humanist principles involved, if at all, in helping you through your experience?
9. What were the positive or negative aspects of your humanist life stance?

3. The length of your story should not be more than 5000 words. Shorter stories are welcome.

4. All submitted stories will be subject to editing, with your permission.

5. Submit your story online to humanist-stories@live.com, either as an attachment in Microsoft Word or as text within the email. Or, if you prefer to use regular mail, send your story to: The Humanist Community in Silicon Valley, Humanist Stories, P.O. Box 60069, Palo Alto, CA 94306-0069.

6. If your story is selected, you will be notified. Please provide your name, mailing address, email address, and phone number.

7. Please send submissions by August 31, 2009 if possible.

If you have a story to share, we would love to hear from you. If you could pass this along to other humanists whom you might know, we would greatly appreciate it.

If you have any questions or would like further information, please feel free to contact us at humanist-stories@live.com.