“Modernization is brought about by taking seriously (1) the cognitive claims of scientific knowledge and the scientific method, and (2) the moral claims of secular life and its quality. It is because traditional religions are often inimical to these claims that they need to be combated and their authority circumscribed or rejected. There are reassuring signs that this negative and critical work that is essential for preparing the minds of men for genuine modernization will be pursued in the future with the vigor and dedication it demands. This is a duty that no Indian who is concerned with the quality of human life can neglect. And there is every hope that it will not be neglected.”

—M. P. Rege, “Religious Belief in Contemporary Indian Society,”

Free Inquiry, Volume 6, no. 3 (Summer 1986)

Editor’s Note: Professor M. P. Rege was then–vice president of the Indian Secular Society. He was a former principal of Kirti College and has taught philosophy at Bombay University. Clearly the optimism for India’s secular future that he expressed here has been tragically reversed by developments in our own time.

“… [I]t is true that I did once hold that humanism could be interpreted as a religious point of view (not a religion). By ‘religious’ I meant a moral commitment to a set of ideals. But I have long since changed my views and have made my new position abundantly clear, arguing for almost two decades now that it was an error to consider humanism ‘religious.’ That is why I adopted the term secular humanism, so as to make it clear that this form of humanism was not religious. … Today, a preponderant number of secular humanists reject the view that they are religious.

In any case, I submit that secular humanism is not a religion, nor is it religious. It does not contain a theology, but bases its views of reality on scientific evidence. It does not have a ministry or chaplains. It emphasizes secularity, the autonomous character of humanistic ethics, and the need for human beings to solve their own problems by using the best methods of reason and science.”

—Paul Kurtz, “Beyond Religion,”

Free Inquiry, Volume 16, no. 4 (Fall 1996)

Paul Kurtz (1925–2012) was the founding editor of Free Inquiry and founder of the Council for Secular Humanism and the Center for Inquiry. In this editorial, he rebutted Christian conservatives such as author David Noebel, who contended that Kurtz himself regarded humanism as religious. Kurtz had held such views years earlier; here he objects to critics cherry-picking his earlier writings to misrepresent his current views when he had so abundantly documented that, beginning in the late 1970s, his views conclusively changed; he now viewed humanism as a wholly secular movement.