You're not talking about God
Far from living in a moral vacuum, secular humanists â€œwish to encourage wherever possible the growth of moral awareness.â€ (The quote comes from â€œA Secular Humanist Declaration,â€ the Council for Secular Humanismâ€™s founding document, authored by Paul Kurtz.)Secular humanists believe human values should express a commitment to improve human welfare in this world. (Of course, human welfare is understood in the context of our interdependence upon the environment and other living things.) Ethical principles should be evaluated by their consequences for people, not by how well they conform to preconceived ideas of right and wrong.Secular humanism denies that meaning, values, and ethics are imposed from above. In that it echoes simple atheism. But secular humanism goes further, challenging humans to develop their own values. Secular humanism maintains that through a process of value inquiry, reflective men and women can reach rough agreement concerning values, and craft ethical systems that deliver desirable results under most circumstances.Indeed, say secular humanists, the basic components of effective morality are universally recognized. Paul Kurtz has written of the â€œcommon moral decenciesâ€â€”qualities including integrity, trustworthiness, benevolence, and fairness. These qualities are celebrated by almost every human religion, not because God ordained them, but because human beings cannot thrive in communities where these values are ignored.Secular humanism offers a nonreligious template that may one day guide much of humanity in pursuing fulfilling and humane livesâ€”lives that are rich intellectually, ethically, and emotionally, without reliance on religious faith.
That's... kind of the point.
Secular humanism offers a nonreligious template that may one day guide much of humanity in pursuing fulfilling and humane livesâ€”lives that are rich intellectually, ethically, and emotionally, without reliance on religious faith.
Occam's Razor is a thing of beauty, my friend.
And doesn't your statement fly in the face of what the True Believers think about their god, that it can't be explained?
And something to start a discussion: Is "Science Fiction Humanism" a Contradiction in Terms?
O Most Righteous Forum Maven.
I'm sure most humanists (whatever that means), would love to move past talking about god at all. But in a world where the vast majority of people hold supernatural beliefs, that won't happen any time soon.
P.S. You're trying my patience child. You know how we have expectations for threads that start discussion here and this one is looking to me more like a thinly veiled roll-call than anything else. You can either be useful and help develop something worth discussing or you can be a snarky git and I will go ahead and put the thread to bed.
I think any such person who has to spend time in some rural African village somewhere is going to find that in terms of world-view and ethics and perspectives on how the universe works, is going to find they have a lot more in common with the people of their Christian buddies back home than even a fellow atheist from rural Malawi.
They don't rigidly fixate on it the way this tendency towards labeling stuff implies that they must.
My goodness, it's so nice to know that you know what everyone's thinking.
Why must it imply that?
Secular Humanism for the developing world
One basic deception of secular humanism is that humanity is an accident of nature and that there is no plan of salvation. The result of this belief is the propagation of evolutionary theory, support of abortion and euthanasia, and disdain for organized religion. The societal consequences of these ideas include attempts to remove the Bible from public schools, the defamation or ridicule of those who claim to have a relationship with God, loss of a sense of purpose for humanity and abandonment of hope in a future after this life.A second deception is the belief that all religions are equal. Not all humanists are atheists; some believe in some form of Supreme Being. But in the humanistic model, the Bible becomes just another book containing many ethical ideas but also one filled with myths and even promoting evil. This has led to dismissal of the Bible while accepting and propagating many forms and variations of non-Christian beliefs.A third deception of humanism is that each person is his or her own ultimate authority. Frederick Edwords writes in "What Is Humanism?" published on the American Humanist Association Web page:"The Secular Humanist tradition is in part a tradition of defiance, a tradition that dates back to ancient Greece. One can see, even in Greek mythology, humanist themes that are rarely, if ever, manifested in the mythologies of other cultures. And they certainly have not been repeated by modern religions. The best example here is the character Prometheus."Prometheus stands out because he was admired by ancient Greeks as the one who defied Zeus. He stole the fire of the gods and brought it down to earth. For this he was punished. And yet he continued his defiance amid his tortures. This is one source of the Humanist challenge to authority."The next time we see a truly heroic Promethean character in mythology it is Lucifer in John Milton's Paradise Lost. But now he is the Devil. He is evil. Whoever would defy God must be wickedness personified. That seems to be a given of traditional religion. But the ancient Greeks didn't agree. To them, Zeus, for all his power, could still be mistaken."Imagine how shocked a friend of mine was when I told her my view of 'God's moral standards.' I said, 'If there were such a god, and these were indeed his ideal moral principles, I would be tolerant. After all, God is entitled to his own opinions!'"Only a humanist is inclined to speak this way. Only a humanist can suggest that, even if there be a god, it is OK to disagree with him, her, or it."The result of each person becoming his or her own ultimate authority is situation ethics. Institutions like lifelong marriage become merely personal choices on par with purchasing a new car. Homosexuality and divorce become acceptable as long as "no one gets hurt." The societal consequences? Epidemic sexually transmitted diseases, AIDS, mental illness, broken families, poverty, crime, warâ€”the very ills humanists claim to want to change.
Can't win an argument with superstitious fundies here? Go to Africa and you can win over a bunch of people who don't even know how to read. Brilliant!
the point was that humanists should support the independence and economic development of underdeveloped nations.