Richard Dawkins speaking at the British Humanist Association Annual Conference

The Happy Human is an icon that has been adopted as an international symbol of

secular humanism Secular humanism is a philosophy, belief system or life stance that embraces human reason, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, and superstition as the basis of morality an ...

. Created by Dennis Barrington, the figure was the winning design in a competition arranged by

Humanists UK Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent "people who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious be ...

(formerly the British Humanist Association) in 1965. Various forms of it are now used across the world by humanist organisations of all sizes including Humanists UK,

Humanists International Humanists International (known as the International Humanist and Ethical Union, or IHEU, from 1952–2019) is an international non-governmental organisation championing secularism and human rights, motivated by secular humanist values. Found ...

and The

American Humanist Association The American Humanist Association (AHA) is a non-profit organization in the United States that advances secular humanism. The American Humanist Association was founded in 1941 and currently provides legal assistance to defend the constitutiona ...

(AHA). The trademark is still held by Humanists UK, which freely licenses use of the symbol by

bona fide In human interactions, good faith ( la, bona fides) is a sincere intention to be fair, open, and honest, regardless of the outcome of the interaction. Some Latin phrases have lost their literal meaning over centuries, but that is not the case ...

Humanist organisations worldwide.

Origins

The Happy Human was created in response to a Humanists UK competition in 1965, after many years of discussion as to what a logo should look like. After some time without progress, radio presenter Margaret Knight backed a popular movement among Humanists UK's membership to commission such a logo, triggering publicity officer

Tom Vernon Tom Vernon (23 April 1939 – 11 September 2013) was a British broadcaster and writer, best known as the titular "Fat Man" of a number of popular travelogues. Early life Thomas Bowater Vernon was born on 23 April 1939 in Stepney, London, ...

to announce the competition. Of the several hundred designs from a number of countries that were considered, Dennis Barrington's simple design was favoured for its perceived universalism. Within the space of a few years, the logo had emerged as a symbol of Humanism, not just of Humanists UK and was adopted by humanist organisations around the world. Since the 1990s, humanist groups have taken on looser, more figurative versions of the Happy Human logo, such as the logos used by Humanisterna (Sweden),

Humanistischer Verband Deutschlands The Humanistischer Verband Deutschlands (English: ''Humanist Association of Germany'') is an organisation to promote and spread a secular humanist worldview and an advocate for the rights of nonreligious people. It was founded 1993 in Berlin and co ...

(Germany),

Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics The Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics (Unione degli Atei e degli Agnostici Razionalisti, UAAR) is the only nationwide association of atheists and agnostics in Italy. It is independent from political parties or lobbies and numbers around ...

(Italy), and the

European Humanist Federation The European Humanist Federation (EHF, french: Fédération Humaniste Européenne, FHE), officially abbreviated as EHF-FHE, is an umbrella of more than 60 humanist and secularist organisations from 25 European countries. Founded in Prague in July ...

. In 2017, the British Humanist Association, which originated the Happy Human, debuted a new, single line-drawing style Happy Human when it renamed as Humanists UK.

Variations of the Happy Human symbol

File:Happyman.svg, Original Happy Human symbol File:Official AHA logo.jpg,

logo File:EuropeanHumanistFederation.jpg,

logo File:Wikipedia HC logo.gif,

Humanist Canada Humanist Canada (also known as the Humanist Association of Canada, or HAC or HC) is a national not-for-profit charitable organization promoting the separation of religion from public policy and fostering the development of reason, compassion and ...

logo File:Humanistisch Verbond logo.gif, Former Humanistisch Verbond logo File:IHEYO logo.png, IHEYO logo (International Humanist Ethical Youth Organization)

Organisations using the Happy Human

(US) *

(England, Wales and Northern Ireland) *

Council of Australian Humanist Societies The Council of Australian Humanist Societies (CAHS) is an umbrella organisation for Australian humanist societies. It was founded in 1965. It is affiliated with Humanists International. The official symbol of CAHS (and all member organisations ...

(CAHS) (Australia) *

Romanian Secular-Humanist Association The Romanian Secular-Humanist Association (Romanian: Asociația Secular-Umanistă din România, abbreviated as ASUR) is a non-governmental organization established in March 2010 to promote secular humanist values in Romania. The organization's a ...

(ASUR) (Romania) *

LGBT Humanists UK LGBT Humanists UK, founded in 1979, is a special interest section of Humanists UK which campaigns for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality and human rights in the United Kingdom. It also organises social events for LGBT humanist ...

Humanist Association of Ireland The Humanist Association of Ireland (HAI) is a Republic of Ireland secular humanist organisation that was founded in 1993 to promote Humanism, which they describe as: an ethical philosophy of life, based on a concern for humanity in general, and ...

(Ireland) *Humanist Alliance Philippines International (HAPI) *

(Canada) *

Humanist Society of New Zealand The Humanist Society of New Zealand (Inc.) is a New Zealand organisation that promotes secular humanist philosophy and ideals. The Society meets in Wellington with members throughout New Zealand. It is affiliated internationally to the Internat ...

(New Zealand) *

Humanist Society Scotland Humanist Society Scotland is a Scottish Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, registered charity that promotes humanism, humanist views and offers Humanist Celebrant, humanist wedding, funeral, and baby-naming ceremonies. It is a member of ...

(Scotland) *

Humanistisch Verbond The Humanistisch Verbond (HV, sometimes translated as ''Humanistic Association Netherlands'', ''Dutch Humanist Association'' or ''Dutch Humanist League'') is a Dutch association based on secular humanist principles. Basics The foundation of the ...

(Netherlands) * Indian Humanist Union (India) *

Mumbai Rationalist Association Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...

(India) *

Institute for Humanist Studies The Institute for Humanist Studies (IHS) is a think tank based in Washington, DC, USA, that says it is "committed to information and practices meant to address the sociopolitical, economic and cultural challenges facing communities within the Uni ...

International Humanist and Ethical Union Humanists International (known as the International Humanist and Ethical Union, or IHEU, from 1952–2019) is an international non-governmental organisation championing secularism and human rights, motivated by secular humanist values. Found ...

Norwegian Humanist Association The Norwegian Humanist Association ( no, Human-Etisk Forbund; HEF) is one of the largest secular humanist associations in the world, with over 130,000 members. Those members constitute 2.3% of the national population of 5.47 million, making HEF b ...

(Norway) *

Primera Iglesia Humanista de Puerto Rico Primera may refer to * Nissan Primera, a car * Primera Air, a former airline * Primera división (disambiguation), multiple top division football leagues * Primera, Texas, a town in Cameron County, Texas * Alí Primera, Venezuelan musician, compos ...

(Puerto Rico) *

Siðmennt The Icelandic Ethical Humanist Association () is a humanist lifestance organization in Iceland, that promotes secularism, offers celebrancy services and contributes to the spreading of humanism in Iceland and abroad. It is a member of the European ...

(Iceland) *

Swedish Humanist Association Humanists Sweden ( sv, Humanisterna) is the largest humanist/ rationalist organisation in Sweden with about 4,500 members. It is a member organisation of Humanists International (HI) and the European Humanist Federation (EHF). Humanists Swed ...

(Sweden) *

(Italy)
Cyprus Humanist Association
(Cyprus)

Organisations using similar symbols

Council for Secular Humanism The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a US nonprofit organization that works to mitigate belief in pseudoscience and the paranormal, as well as to fight the influence of religion in government. History The Center for Inquiry was established in 199 ...

Institute for Humane Studies The Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) is a non-profit organization that promotes the teaching and research of classical liberalism in higher education in the United States. IHS offers funding opportunities, programs, and events for faculty and g ...

Party of Humanists The Party of Humanists () is a minor political party in Germany that first participated in the 2017 federal election. Party platform The underlying ideology is evolutionary humanism. The core themes of the Humanist Party are science and edu ...

References

{{Reflist Humanism Pictograms Symbols introduced in 1965