As the administrator of an atheist/secular humanist group, I am often asked to define the term secular humanism. It is, after all, a foggy concept for religious people, as well as for thoughtful, caring nonreligious people who aren’t aware that there is a term for the type of ethical lives they are leading.
I have two “stock” definitions: one for those who truly want to understand the concept of secular humanism (and to explore how they might agree or disagree with some aspects of it); the other for those who think that their fealty to an imaginary friend makes them superior to nonbelievers.
In response to the sincere question, I simply say that secular humanists are nonbelievers who follow the Golden Rule. This “principle of reciprocity,” in fact, is not only touted (but not consistently adhered to) by most religions in the world, it actually preceded religion as the cement that coalesced individuals and tribes into communities, societies and civilizations.
In response to a rhetorical question, such as “How can one be good without God?,” I proffer an equally contentious definition: Unlike the religious, secular humanists do not have a list of people they are supposed to hate — homosexuals, people of other faiths, women, outsiders, and so forth.
Admittedly, both these definitions are oversimplifications. However, the former usually initiates a constructive conversation about the nature of morality. And the later is a quick conversation stopper. (I don’t like to spend a lot of time arguing with believers — people immune to reason).
The Council for Secular Humanism publishes a lengthy list of secular humanist principles that go “Beyond atheism” and “Beyond agnosticism” (https://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php/12). Besides citing how people should treat each other, the list includes respect for science and education, protecting the environment, working toward world peace ― and what was once America’s flagship principle, the separation of church and state.
In 1973, the American Humanist Association published the Humanist Manifesto II (https://americanhumanist.org/what-is-humanism/manifesto2/) — an exhaustive list of principles covering even more behaviors and goals deemed to be beneficial to the advancement of the human race. The most straightforward of these is the statement that “moral values derive their source from human experience” — i.e., practicing the Golden Rule.
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According to studies conducted by the Pew Research Center for Religion & Public Life, between 2007 and 2014 the proportion of “Nones” in America (people who don’t go to church, subscribe to a particular religious doctrine, or even believe in a supreme being) increased from 16.1 to 22.8 percent of the population (http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/). The number of Nones now exceeds that of Roman Catholics and mainline Protestants (20.8 and 14.7 percent respectively in 2014), and is second only to evangelical Christians (at 25.4 percent in 2014). And the increase in the number of unfaithful has increased over all age groups.
Pew surveyors attribute the declining share of Christians and increasing share of Nones to generational replacement: “As the Millennial generation enters adulthood, its members display much lower levels of religious affiliation, including less connection with Christian churches, than older generations. ... In addition, people in older generations are increasingly disavowing association with organized religion. About a third of older Millennials (adults currently in their late 20s and early 30s) now say they have no religion, up 9 percentage points among this cohort since 2007.”
A study by Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) published in September 2016 (http://www.prri.org/research/prri-rns-poll-nones-atheist-leaving-religion/) identifies specific causes for disaffiliation with religion:
“[A] lack of belief in teaching of religion was the most commonly cited reason for disaffiliation. Among the reasons Americans identified as important motivations in leaving their childhood religion are: they stopped believing in the religion’s teachings (60%), their family was never that religious when they were growing up (32%), and their experience of negative religious teachings about or treatment of gay and lesbian people (29%).
“Fewer than one in five Americans who left their childhood religion point to the clergy sexual-abuse scandal (19%), a traumatic event in their life (18%), or their congregation becoming too focused on politics (16%) as an important reason for disaffiliating.”
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Accompanying the “rise of the Nones” (as the phenomenon has come to be called) has been greater angst on the part of evangelical Christians as they watch their market share dwindle. While mainline Christians and other religious groups seem to be more accepting of the unfaithful (many of whom are just one nudge away from becoming Nones themselves), evangelicals like to depict the rise of the unaffiliated as a war against Christianity.
In his May 2015 essay “Secular Humanism: The Religion of the ‘Man-God’” for the Fundamental Evangelistic Association (http://feasite.org/node/1957), Matt Costella, wastes more than 5,400 words claiming that secular humanism is a “man-centered religion.” He analyzes various humanist manifestos, then goes on to spin conspiracy theories about an atheist-led new world order and how it threatens fundamentalist and capitalistic values, and the very sovereignty of the Christian United States.
True to evangelistic form, Costella includes a section pooh-poohing the theory of evolution, supported with cherry-picked Bible verses. And to emphasize the point that evangelical Christians are special he writes, “It must be noted that religious liberalism is accepted by the humanist, whereas fundamentalism and evangelicalism are not.” Apparently, religious moderates as well are personae non gratae to evangelical Christians.
As a practical matter, I doubt that people who call themselves secular humanists subscribe to all of the pie-in-the-sky tenets of any humanist manifesto. Nor are they part of a conspiracy to establish a new world order. Simply, they are nonbelievers who recognize the need to treat others as they want to be treated themselves.
Meanwhile, hardcore theists like to portray atheism and secular humanism as competing religions that need to be stamped out — along with Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, et al. Also, they are desperate to show that religious belief has the same epistemological status as reason — that is, having an imaginary friend in the sky is the intellectual equivalent of reaching the inescapable conclusion that there is no god.
While I agree with Pew and PRRI researchers’ overall explanations of why people are abandoning religion, I think there’s more. I think the behavior of the very religious is driving this sea change in America. Just as supporters of Donald Trump and Mike Pence during the 2016 election referred to Hillary Clinton as the Antichrist, I and other secular humanists view Trump, Pence and company as anti-American because of their obsession with transmogrifying the multicultural United States into a Christian theocracy.
The real war is between Trump & Co. and reason, multiculturalism and religious tolerance ― values that made America great long before Trump was inexplicably elected president.
Richard E. Wackrow is author of the book Beginner’s Guide to Blasphemy.
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