Online Humanist Courses: there’s a site for that!

NOTE: This is a post was originally posted February 9, 2012 on the Humanist Community Project — HarvardHumanist.org

We humanists tend to be a bookish bunch in my experience and perhaps now we are becoming an eBookish bunch! One of the defining characteristics I’ve found within humanist, freethought, and atheist groups is our penchant for learning. Whether I am in an Assembly on Sunday morning about Louisa May Alcott at my humanist congregation First Unitarian Society, reading an interview with humanistic therapist Leon F. Seltzer in the latest issue of the Humanist magazine, or reading Nonsense on Stilts by Massimo Pigliucci, I’ve found that being among humanists is synonymous with lifelong learning.

Along with being learners, I’ve appreciated that we are also huge fans of technology and what it can do in our lives. One of the biggest effects I’ve witnessed as a part of Generation Y is the connective power of the Internet. Never before has so much information been as readily available to so many. What do you get when you combine humanist thought with a community of learners and a website? Well you get the newly relaunched COHE courses!

The Continuum of Online Humanist Education (COHE) is the first website offering interactive courses in humanist thought. COHE is a service of The Humanist Institute, a non-profit U.S. organization with a mission to educate leaders and potential leaders to shape and deliver the message of Humanism.

There are currently two introductory courses about humanism broadly and six topical courses available. Through the rest of the year expanded courses on each of these topics will be released as well as new topic areas. It has been exciting to be a part of this work, and this is just the beginning!

Find the courses here: http://cohe.humanistinstitute.org

Current topic areas:

  • Humanist Activism & Organization
  • Science
  • Psychology
  • Law & Politics
  • Religion
  • Ethics

Visit the COHE site to discover what is already there and stay tuned as it is expanded!

To learn more about the Humanist Institute, visitwww.HumanistInstitute.org