User Tag List

+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 2 of 2

Thread: Is Secular Humanism a Religion?

  1. #1
    Points: 665,213, Level: 100
    Level completed: 0%, Points required for next Level: 0
    Overall activity: 90.0%
    Achievements:
    SocialRecommendation Second ClassYour first GroupOverdrive50000 Experience PointsTagger First ClassVeteran
    Awards:
    Discussion Ender
    Chris's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    433307
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Posts
    197,542
    Points
    665,213
    Level
    100
    Thanks Given
    31,981
    Thanked 80,896x in 54,714 Posts
    Mentioned
    2011 Post(s)
    Tagged
    2 Thread(s)

    Is Secular Humanism a Religion?

    Is Secular Humanism a Religion? looks at the similarities of secular humanism and religion. The main similarity is its motivations to action. Its difference is secular humanism claims to rely on the reality of scientific facts, yet scientific claims about those facts rely on faith in the scientific method of observation and discovery and, at one time, reasoning based on induction, which Hume found problematic and Popper replaced with falsification. Is it then really so different?

    ...What is religion? All religions have three elements, although the relative emphasis differs from one religion to another—Buddhists are light on the supernatural, for example.

    The first is the belief in invisible or hidden beings, worlds and processes—like God, heaven, miracles, reincarnation, and the soul. All these are unverifiable, or unseen and unseeable, except by mystics under special and generally unrepeatable conditions. Since absence of evidence is not, logically, evidence of absence, these features of religion are neither true nor false, but simply unprovable. They have no implications for action, hence no bearing on legal matters.

    The second element are claims about the real world: every religion, especially in its primordial version, makes claims that are essentially scientific—assertions of fact that are potentially verifiable. These claims are of two kinds. The first we might call timeless: e.g., claims about physical properties—the four elementary humors, for example, the Hindu turtle that supports the world, properties of foods, the doctrine of literal transubstantiation. The second are claims about history: Noah’s flood, the age of the earth, the resurrection—all “myths of origin.” Some of these claims are unverifiable; as for the rest, there is now a consensus that science usually wins—in law and elsewhere. In any case, few of these claims have any bearing on action.

    The third property of a religion are its rules for action—prohibitions and requirements—its morality. All religions have a code, a set of moral and behavioral prescriptions, matters of belief —usually, but not necessarily—said to flow from God, that provide guides to action in a wide range of situations. The 10 Commandments, the principles of Sharia, the Five Precepts of Buddhism, etc.

    Secular humanism lacks any reference to the supernatural and defers matters of fact to science. But it is as rich in moral rules, in dogma, as any religion. Its rules come not from God but from texts like Mill’s On Liberty, and the works of philosophers like Peter Singer, Dan Dennett and Bertrand Russell, psychologists B. F. Skinner and Sigmund Freud, public intellectuals like Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins, and “humanist chaplains” everywhere.

    In terms of moral rules, secular humanism is indistinguishable from a religion....
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

  2. #2
    Points: 17,291, Level: 31
    Level completed: 85%, Points required for next Level: 159
    Overall activity: 0.1%
    Achievements:
    VeteranTagger Second Class10000 Experience Points
    Sergeant Gleed's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    2046
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Right Now? The Planet Gand
    Posts
    4,872
    Points
    17,291
    Level
    31
    Thanks Given
    492
    Thanked 2,038x in 1,586 Posts
    Mentioned
    14 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    A religion can be broadly defined as a belief system that embraces the impossible and treats it as reality.

    I contend the believe in Magic Sky Pixies and other imaginary beings is helpful in spotting a religion...if a belief system has those, it's definitely a religion, but that such ornaments are not required of a religion.

    What is required are miracles and impossible events.

    The Genesis Myth of the Bible.

    The animal of primitives who believe thst trees and stones have awareness and can influence human fate.

    The modern nonsense of Gaia Worship.

    And Secular Humanism, a cult that denies the reality of human nature and believes human nature can be commanded by the Central Commisariat. They believe in miracles.
    Freedom Requires Obstinance.

    We the People DID NOT vote in a majority Rodent Congress, they stole it via election fraud.

+ Reply to Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts