What exactly is a “humanist?
A humanist is someone who is preoccupied with men and women and their happiness in the here and now, and not in some shadowy after life. In other words, I can hardly tolerate the thought of St. Augustine or Pope Gregory IX and consider Petrarch and Boccacio to be heroes of human thought. Q: Why is it that you loathe St. Augustine? So much of his writing just seems to make good common sense if a person is interested in leading a life filled with meaning. A: I dislike Augustine and his followers like the Bernard of Clairvaux with their severe and doctrinaire view of religion and utter rejection of the joys of this world in favor of the contemplation of the supposed rewards in the next through faith and faith alone. If you want to hear the detailed explanation, check this out. I have always thought the practice by hairshirt-types of whipping themselves to mortify the earthly flesh so as to purify the heavenly soul as nothing less than barbarism. Bernard of Clairvaux lived a life of such s
