Editor’s introduction

In 1971, New Humanist published Philip Larkin’s unforgettable poem This Be The Verse. Its darkly comic view of family life, with its famous opening line, “They fuck you up, your mum and dad”, struck a chord with a generation increasingly sceptical of traditional institutions. Since then, criticism of the family has come from many directions. Yet despite all its imperfections, the family remains the place where most of us first encounter love, trust, care, responsibility and belonging. Perhaps it is time for humanists to rediscover the positive case for family life.

Our contributors have taken the theme in a variety of directions and together they begin an important conversation. Sophy Robinson examines the politics of declining birth rates and modern pronatalism. Richard Warden reflects on the significance of parenthood itself, while Cathy Silman explores the tension between family loyalty and universal human concern. John Hubbard and Kate Domaille consider how family history and upbringing shape our identities, Wendy Goddard draws on Adlerian psychology to explore compassionate parenting, and Harmeet Kaur and Leo Igwe remind us that families begin the story, but education continues it. David McKnight takes the argument a stage further, asking how we cultivate the habits of mind that enable us to keep learning, questioning and changing throughout our lives. Taken together, these articles suggest that we are formed through relationships, families and culture, while remaining capable of reflection and growth.

Elsewhere, we explore the climate change emergency, the ethics of eating, advice on ageing, the evidence for miracles, journeys from faith to scepticism, whether criticism of Islam is racist, and a major new volume of essays about humanism. We've even included a humanist version of the shipping forecast and a poem about washing machines.

Living on the south coast of England, it was a pleasure to meet many of you at Humanists UK's Festival of Humanism in Bournemouth. As this issue goes live, attention is turning to the World Humanist Congress in Ottawa, and we look forward to reporting on it in our autumn issue.

The swirling image on our front page, Riding The Vapours (2015), is a piece of digital artwork by an American humanist living in Poole, UK. It seems to capture the sense of how we are coping with this summer's heatwaves.

Please share articles that you enjoy. They may be republished with attribution under our Creative Commons licence.

Thank you, as ever, for your encouragement and support. If you’d like to contribute an article or news report to our autumn issue to be published on 1 November 2026, do let me know.

David Warden