What the %&^$# is a Secular Humanist?
Part of my profile/manifesto states that I am a secular humanist. So what's that? The religious right tends to use the word "secular humanist" as a bad word, as in "Secular humanism is not human at all. It is beastly diabolical"
It's not a religion. It is a philosophy, a worldview, and an affirmation of the fact that the human animal is capable of leading an ethical and moral life entirely through naturalism - that is, without any appeals to the supernatural. We encourage people to live life rationally, thoughtfully, compassionately, and informed by experience and empirical knowledge.
We acknowledge that that knowledge about the universe is best derived via observation, experimentation, and rational analysis. It is not enough to use just one of these systems to arrive at knowledge: we must use all three, repeatedly.
We affirm that nature is the result of unguided evolutionary change.
We are drawn to explore the unknown, and see reality as it is, rather than as we want it to be. We do not accept supernatural ideas because they are comforting. We know that comforting ideas are not always true ideas, and that reality may be reality even if we cannot stand it.
We derive our ethical ideas and values from human need and interest and treat all humans as having inherent worth and dignity. We find wonder and awe in each individual, the existence of humanity in all of it's tragedies and triumphs. We rejoice in the fact that we are lucky to be alive, to experience life and death, yet we acknowledge our impermanence. In times of spiritual crisis, we turn to ourselves, other humans, the earth and the universe to find meaning and purpose within our lives.
We place high value on relationships with others, and seek to form intense bonds with fellow humans. It is in these bonds that we find meaning and connectedness. We are encouraged to enrich the lives of others through ourselves and understand that each human has a story to tell and an intrinsic value.
We support benefits to society and seek to justly distribute resources. We are committed to individual freedoms and civil liberties. We serve ourselves and we serve humanity. Our duty is to each other.
Some people like to throw around the word "secular humanism" in the same way people throw around words like "commie" and "fascist" and "nationalist" or even "Fundy". It is a common tactic, especially of Intelligent Design proponents, to call secular humanism a "religion". This is done in order to claim that the American government's official religion is Secular Humanism, or that the "religion of Secular humanism" is being taught in schools. Secular humanism is based on the idea that truth about the world comes from observable phenomena instead of appeals to mysticism and supernaturalism and holds that our duty is to fellow humans and the world instead of a supernatural entity. This is not a religion any more than is the idea that the sun does not pass through the sky on the trundholm chariot. It is a worldview based on observation, experimentation, and rational analysis. We will not put science aside in favor of an ideology.
It's not a religion. It is a philosophy, a worldview, and an affirmation of the fact that the human animal is capable of leading an ethical and moral life entirely through naturalism - that is, without any appeals to the supernatural. We encourage people to live life rationally, thoughtfully, compassionately, and informed by experience and empirical knowledge.We acknowledge that that knowledge about the universe is best derived via observation, experimentation, and rational analysis. It is not enough to use just one of these systems to arrive at knowledge: we must use all three, repeatedly.
We affirm that nature is the result of unguided evolutionary change.
We are drawn to explore the unknown, and see reality as it is, rather than as we want it to be. We do not accept supernatural ideas because they are comforting. We know that comforting ideas are not always true ideas, and that reality may be reality even if we cannot stand it.
We derive our ethical ideas and values from human need and interest and treat all humans as having inherent worth and dignity. We find wonder and awe in each individual, the existence of humanity in all of it's tragedies and triumphs. We rejoice in the fact that we are lucky to be alive, to experience life and death, yet we acknowledge our impermanence. In times of spiritual crisis, we turn to ourselves, other humans, the earth and the universe to find meaning and purpose within our lives.
We place high value on relationships with others, and seek to form intense bonds with fellow humans. It is in these bonds that we find meaning and connectedness. We are encouraged to enrich the lives of others through ourselves and understand that each human has a story to tell and an intrinsic value.
We support benefits to society and seek to justly distribute resources. We are committed to individual freedoms and civil liberties. We serve ourselves and we serve humanity. Our duty is to each other.
Some people like to throw around the word "secular humanism" in the same way people throw around words like "commie" and "fascist" and "nationalist" or even "Fundy". It is a common tactic, especially of Intelligent Design proponents, to call secular humanism a "religion". This is done in order to claim that the American government's official religion is Secular Humanism, or that the "religion of Secular humanism" is being taught in schools. Secular humanism is based on the idea that truth about the world comes from observable phenomena instead of appeals to mysticism and supernaturalism and holds that our duty is to fellow humans and the world instead of a supernatural entity. This is not a religion any more than is the idea that the sun does not pass through the sky on the trundholm chariot. It is a worldview based on observation, experimentation, and rational analysis. We will not put science aside in favor of an ideology.
Labels: atheism, definitions, science
posted by Ziztur
at
8:00 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
I will never delete a comment because I disagree with you, but if you're posting anonymously, at least give us a name so that if you make multiple comments we can tell you apart from the other anonymous people.
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home