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It is a good thing to try to have a simple word and symbol for an idea which can be understood worldwide. In English we
therefore accept the wish of the IHEU always to use the term Humanism for our common life stance and call ourselves
"humanists".
Doing so is not possible in every language. In Swedish, for example, the term Humanism is used since centuries as a
common noun in many theoretic-educational fields, such as history, language, literature, and so on.
University students who attend those study-courses as well as priests, theologians and so on correctly call themselves
humanists in Swedish.
We know that those humanists who actually have an atheistic, non-confessional (and so on) life stance (as understood in
the IHEU sense) have been criticized for indistinction and trying to confuse the public when they call themselves
humanists.
Therefore we use the terms "ethical humanism" and "secular humanism" (in Swedish: "etisk humanism" and "sekulär
humanism") which in our opinion is the best translation to Swedish of the English word Humanism. See also:
Humanism.
As to our (really) Happy Man symbol in yellow and with a smiley-face on a black background we consider this a better
expression of the idea of the HAPPY MAN.
