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Religion 102: Secular Humanism [1]
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Date: 2023-01-08
In an entry in The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief, Paul Kurtz writes:
“Succinctly, secular humanism rejects supernatural accounts of reality; but it seeks to optimize the fullness of human life in a naturalistic universe.”
In an article in Free Inquiry, Judy Walker and Tom Flynn write:
“Secular humanism is not a religion. It is in part a worldview, in part a methodology.
In an article in Free Inquiry, Andy Norman puts it this way:
“Humanists have long sought to replace religious ideologies with scientific humility.”
According to the Council for Secular Humanism, Secular Humanism is: (1) a naturalistic philosophy; (2) a cosmic outlook rooted in science; and (3) a consequential ethical system. As a naturalistic philosophy, Secular Humanism holds that reliable knowledge is best obtained through scientifically based investigation. Concerning Secular Humanism, religious studies professor Van Harvey, in an entry in The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief, writes:
“Men and women are said to be responsible for their own destinies and cannot look toward some transcendent being for salvation.”
Judy Walker and Tom Flynn put it this way:
“Secular humanists seek to construct the good life in an undirected universe in which no higher mind observes, much less directs, the blind play of physical forces—a universe in which ‘spiritual’ entities or energies have no place.”
In an article in Free Inquiry, Andy Norman writes:
“At bottom, humanism is a commitment to developing a shared, responsible, reality-based understanding of what matters: a worldview that also happens to immunize its adherents against the worst forms of ideological derangement.”
It is not uncommon for followers of monotheistic religions, such as Christianity, to assume that humans can behave in a moral and ethical manner only if they follow guidelines supposedly dictated by a god and fear the wrath of that god for deviating from them. In an article in Free Inquiry, Paul Fidalgo writes:
“In contrast to those who rely on religious texts, for secular humanists there is no supernatural force keeping score and no supreme authority from beyond to reward us for our successes or punish us for our failures. We meager humans must continuously judge ourselves.”
With regard to ethics, Secular Humanism holds that rational ethics are based on human experience and that ethical choices should be judged by their results. Ethical principles are based on science, reason, and experience. Secular Humanism sees the flourishing of human civilization depending on free intellectual inquiry. It rejects all attempts to restrict this inquiry. It sees the scientific method as the best way of understanding the world.
The goals of ethics are human happiness and social justice. The 2003 Humanist Manifesto states:
“Ethical values are derived from human need and interest as tested by experience. Humanists ground values in human welfare shaped by human circumstances, interests, and concerns and extended to the global ecosystem and beyond.”
The humanistic idea that it is possible for people to be good, for people to have an ethical system, is opposed by those who feel that morality is only possible when dogmatic, rigid ethical rules can be attributed to a deity who will punish people for not following these rules and who can instill fear within people. Atheism and agnosticism do not lead to immorality, as often claimed by theists. Ethics can be separated from religion. In his book The God Argument: The Case Against Religion and for Humanism, A.C. Grayling sums up Humanism this way:
“It is about human life; it requires no belief in an afterlife. It is about this world; it requires no belief in another world.”
Paul Kurtz summarizes Secular Humanism this way:
“The secular humanist paradigm has six main characteristics: (1) it is a method of inquiry; (2) it provides a naturalistic cosmic outlook; (3) it is nontheistic; (4) it is committed to humanistic ethics; (5) it offers a perspective that is democratic; and (6) it is planetary in scope.”
With regard to Secular Humanism as a method of inquiry, Paul Kurtz writes:
“Secular humanism relies on the methods of science to test claims of truth. This is known as metholodogical naturalism, the cornerstone of modern science.”
With regard to the nontheistic nature of Secular Humanism, Paul Kurtz writes:
“Basically, secular humanists are nontheistic; that is, they find insufficient evidence for belief in God, particularly in the monotheistic sense of God as a person.”
Paul Kurtz also writes:
“Secular humanists are dubious of any effort to divide nature into two realms: the natural and the supernatural. They find the classical definition of an omnipotent, omniscient, and beneficent God to be unintelligible, and the problem of reconciling evil with presumptions of divine justice insurmountable.”
More about religion
Religion 102: Naturalism
Religion 102: Agnosticism
Religion 102: Mythology
Religion 102: Creation stories
Religion 102: The concept of the soul
Religion 102: Magic
Religion 101: Freethought and women's rights
Religion 102: Christianity and the flat earth
Note: Religion 102 is a revision of an earlier essay.
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