Fish Stark/TheHumanist: Hope isn't supernatural. It's scientific.

[Alex]

Hope isn't supernatural. It's scientific.
Fish Stark
Executive Director, American Humanist Association
25 April 2025

"I don't ever remember a single day of hopelessness. I knew from the history of the labor movement, especially of the black people, that it was an undertaking of great trial. That, live or die, I had to stick with it, and we had to win." - A. Philip Randolph, American humanist

I want to talk about hope.

Since the inauguration, I’ve given about two dozen different talks to various humanist local groups and conferences around the country.

Everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve talked about hope in the face of tyranny and cruelty. That, yes, profound harms are being done, and our freedoms are under threat - but that humanists have always been a core part of movements that brought this country to a better, fairer, place, and by harnessing the courage that comes from a strong shared values system and leaning into the tradition established not just by humanists like Randolph but Frederick Douglass, Jamie Raskin, Gloria Steinem, and Emma Goldman - we can find our way to something better.

I’ve heard from a lot of people that this makes them feel inspired - not just to believe that better things are possible, but a new sense of pride in humanist identity.

But I’ve also heard the idea that we shouldn’t embrace hope because it’s a “supernatural” concept - to them, it’s faith in something that isn’t yet proven.

I think that’s nonsense.

Hope isn’t supernatural. It’s scientific.

Hope is a belief in the possibility of change. And most problems we’re experiencing today are caused by human behavior. But we know - we have proof - that human behavior can change.

Brains are elastic - they grow not just in childhood but throughout our lives. People can change their minds, be deprogrammed from cults, find their way out of self-destructive cycles - because people have incredible resilience and potential for growth.

That’s the whole premise of research-based, humanist substance abuse treatment programs like SMART Recovery. Change is possible. Humans contain incredible potential. But it doesn’t happen by accident. It takes work.

And this is the value of hope - it gives us motivation to do the work.

In graduate school, I studied expectancy-value theory - the idea that people are motivated to do work based on the extent to which they value the goal they’re working towards and their expectancy it can be achieved.

Low value? No effort. That’s why it’s good to help children understand how they will use things like math and science in the future if we want them to pay attention.

Low expectancy? No effort either. That’s why it’s important to help children believe they can learn things with time and perseverance, even when they struggle at first.

But talking in terms of “expectancy-value theory” is pretty goddamn boring. So we say “hope” instead.

It’s easy to feel like “hope” is just a feel-good idea when we’re surrounded by people who share our beliefs. But there’s plenty of psychological research indicating that hope improves well-being, even when controlling for other factors.

We have to remember that to some people, hope is a literal lifeline.

Harvey Milk - another American humanist hero - famously gave what was called “The Hope Speech” on the steps of San Francisco City Hall.

Many people will remember the closing line “And you, and you, and you, you have to give people hope.”

But just beforehand, he was talking about young gay people in places like Altoona, Pennsylvania and Richmond, Minnesota. Young people who were growing up feeling alone, surrounded by people who misunderstood and mistreated them. Hope, Milk said, was “the only thing they have to look forward to.”

Hope is essential. It keeps us in the fight.

Hope is scientific. It’s based on a belief in things that are proven true by science - that humans are elastic and resilient - and by history, that human problems have human solutions.

And therefore hope is humanist - because humanism is a consequentialist philosophy that demands we embrace the tools that lead us to just ends, not what “feels the least ‘woo’,” and because humanism is ultimately a belief in the power and potential of humanity to better a world that has no other savior but us.

You have to give people hope. I’ll be in Clearwater, Florida doing it this weekend. Hope to see some of you there.

For humanity,

Fish Stark
Executive Director



Alex's comment:

It is often said that the purpose of religions is to give people hope.  The Executive Director of the American Humanist Association explains here how hope is scientific rather than coming from faith or beliefs in the supernatural.