Some years ago I had a discussion with a fellow student, who happened to be  a devout Christian. We were chatting about my non religious view of life. He thought for several moments about what I was saying, then said, “there is revelation in what you say, but there can be no Salvation”. In the sense that I do not believe in the same concept of salvation as he did, he was quite correct. In other senses however, he was quite wrong. 

I take the view, as I have stated on the 'philosophy' page, that our consciousness is embodied in our physical existence. There is no meaningful evidence for the existence of a transcendent soul or an afterlife. This embodied earthbound life is therefore all that we can say with any certainty that we have.

Being biologically reductionist to the extreme, we could say that our purpose, in common with other animals, is a given; to pass our genes on to the next generation, ensure their survival, then die. Thankfully, being a human can be much richer than this rather depressing formula suggests.

If we are lucky enough to live without the terrible shadow of poverty, starvation and disease cast over us, we can take this one life and choose to give it some kind of meaning. We can even choose the type and nature of that meaning. We can choose more than one. Failure to grasp the opportunities this provides us with, can be seen as a terrible waste.

If we choose not to waste our life in this way. If, rather, we choose to live authentically and to the full, then we have literally 'saved a life'. That is I believe true salvation, and it is available to all humans no matter what belief system they follow. This is, as I have suggested elsewhere, our burden. It is hard work taking responsibility for yourself. It is also our source of freedom. Our chance to literally make something of ourselves. Since that early conversation, my non religious life view has continued to grow and develop, and from this, the idea for the Lifelinking Project began to take shape.

The seed which grew into that idea was a belief that it would be useful to have a 'vehicle' to promote and develop understanding of the positive nature of humanism. A useful counterbalance to the tired and unfounded cliches, for example that atheists 'believe in nothing', that are often trotted out by the less enlightened. Not surprisingly, as I have worked on what has now become the foundation for a book, the aims and objectives for Lifelinking have become more comprehensive.

As well as providing such a vehicle, it is my earnest hope that it may also provide a means to encourage and help humans to think for themselves and about themselves in the course of living a reflective, well balanced life; a philosophy of the person, if you will. By highlighting the positive experiences of humanists, it will be possible to demonstrate that such a philosophy can be liberating, comprehensive, coherent and compelling.  (It can in fact be a revelation!).

While researching the project I have been delving more and more into the areas of critical and creative thought, and how humans may best develop and deploy these powerful tools. This has inevitably taken me into the field, or perhaps into the minefield, of education. If this project goes some way to challenge the voices of irrationality and extremism, and to promote humanism to educators and policy makers, I shall be unashamedly pleased.

Lifelinking is not a prescription for how to live your life. In common with many humanists, I would find such a prescription an anathema. Yet while offering no prescription, it may offer ideas which inspire or energise. It is intended to be, with your help, a work of ongoing and continual progress. As the work goes on I hope to update this website with new material. A big thank you to the good folk over at Think Humanism and at the Heathen Hangout (if you go to the 'Lifelinks' page you will find links to both sites and many others) for their support, encouragement and critical feedback.

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