Category: Secular Humanism Is…

In the October/November 2010 issue, I offered a one-word definition of secular humanism-I suggested that it was emancipatory-and I challenged readers to offer their own one-word completion of the sentence “Secular humanism is…” backed by a brief essay setting forth the rationale. Not everyone embraced the challenge. An e-mail correspondent we know only as Transient …

Secular humanism is one of the major “evangelistic” worldviews vying for the hearts and minds of the world. It is a religious worldview (like all other worldviews) because it has a theology-atheism. Its religious symbol is the Darwinian fish with feet. The fish is sold through the pages of Free Inquiry and advertised as “a …

Secular humanism is GE. True, General Electric hasn’t come up with one super-appliance that does everything, but combine its products and you’ll get an idea of what I mean. Secular humanism reduces the heat under my simmering annoyance at organized religion. It chops into manageable pieces the chunks of anxiety inherent in being human. It …

This statement may seem too simplistic, especially to humanist philosophers, but in contrast to the fraud and deception of religion as taught from pulpits worldwide, secular humanism is truth. My handy Webster’s says truth is “the property of being in accord with fact or reality.” My reasons for choosing this word above all others directly …

Salvation has a religious connotation, but I choose that word deliberately and with irony to describe what secular humanism has the capacity to do. Secular humanism has the capacity to not only “save” us individually but also to “save” the human race and allow for an unprecedented quality of existence. I grew up in a …

During my adolescence, I misspent several years as a devout Christian. I attended a church that relied solely on the Bible for answers to all questions but did not adhere to a literal interpretation of the text . This required a series of closed-door scripture interpretation meetings of our three male pastors before any decision …

Secular defines my narrative as based on my own reasoning, experience, and knowledge of science rather than someone else’s faith. Humanism defines the basis for my own beliefs. My narrative goes like this: Earth formed about four and a half billion years ago. Life began about a half billion years later, apparently as soon as …

Secular humanism is hope for the realization that within us-not in any of the many gods we’ve believed in throughout history-lies the key to meaning, purpose, better lives, and a better world. Within secular humanism lies hope that we can create doubt and actively begin to question what we’ve all been taught to believe about …

I used to call myself the world’s worst atheist. It seemed that whenever I would get comfortable with disbelief, the rationale for believing would begin stalking me again. “Life is pointless,” whispered my pursuer, “without a supernatural context to endow it with meaning and value, and to provide objective standards for right and wrong.” So …

Toward the end of a recent phone visit with my youngest brother, I asked him (totally out of context and with this essay in mind), “What is a secular humanist?” Now, he is an articulate and experienced man of the world with a very broad background, but he was at a loss for words for …