Bronze-level articleSecular humanism

From RationalWiki
(Redirected from Secular Humanism)
Jump to: navigation, search
The Atheist's Guide To


Icon atheism.svg
Key concepts
More about atheism
Notable atheists




[edit] Common beliefs


[edit] Religious right

Unsurprisingly, the endeavours associated with secular humanist morality aren't too popular with the religious right as it directly and rather convincingly contradicts one of their favourite arguments against atheism: the idea that there can be no morality without religious faith. Indeed, many of the recent secular humanist campaigns that became fashionable following the atheist bus campaign in the UK focus on "being good without God".

The radical religious right like to use the term "humanist" or even plain "secularist" as a snarl word to denote any of a variety of Things They Don't Like. It is usually used to imply that somebody denies the Bible or Christianity, and hence is a liberal, and is a practising atheist, and sometimes implies worse. One of the more laughable arguments against secular humanism is that it is also a religion, and so should not be supported by the government or textbooks either. This was actually, if briefly, formally expressed in American law by William Brevard Hand, a judge in Alabama. His decision was very quickly overturned.

Further, conspiracy theorists on the religious right allege that the so-called "secularists" have gained control over many spheres of society, including the education system, media, etc. The theory involving secular humanists did not explicitly appear until the 1970s and 1980s, but had a direct precursor in similar theories on the far right proliferating during the Cold War. The brand of United Nations alarmism peddled by the John Birch Society often involved plots to "secularize" society, which the godless commies at the UN were always no doubt behind (cf. Newt Gingrich's "secular-socialist machine" in current day America). The explicitly "secular humanist" brand of these conspiracy theories gained more traction after the 1973 reprinting of the Humanist Manifesto.[5]

[edit] Organizations

The Council for Secular Humanism is a North American organization that advocates a nonreligious life stance,[6] along the lines of the principles outlined above, by working together with many local groups in most parts of the USA, as well as some in Canada. The International Humanist and Ethical Union serves as a worldwide umbrella for national groups dedicated to furthering humanist ideals and human rights (it is not exclusively secular humanist).[7]

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Footnotes

  3. What Is Secular Humanism?, alternative version, Council for Secular Humanism
  4. What Is Secular Humanism?, Council for Secular Humanism
  6. Council for Secular Humanism website
  7. International Humanist and Ethical Union website
Personal tools