About Secular Humanism

[multigraincracker]

A comprehensive, nonreligious lifestance
Secular humanism is comprehensive, touching every aspect of life including issues of values, meaning, and identity. Thus it is broader than atheism, which concerns only the nonexistence of god or the supernatural. Important as that may be, there’s a lot more to life … and secular humanism addresses it.

Secular humanism is nonreligious, espousing no belief in a realm or beings imagined to transcend ordinary experience.

Secular humanism is a lifestance, or what Council for Secular Humanism founder Paul Kurtz has termed a eupraxsophy: a body of principles suitable for orienting a complete human life. As a secular lifestance, secular humanism incorporates the Enlightenment principle of individualism, which celebrates emancipating the individual from traditional controls by family, church, and state, increasingly empowering each of us to set the terms of his or her own life.

A naturalistic philosophy
Secular humanism is philosophically naturalistic. It holds that nature (the world of everyday physical experience) is all there is, and that reliable knowledge is best obtained when we query nature using the scientific method. Naturalism asserts that supernatural entities like God do not exist, and warns us that knowledge gained without appeal to the natural world and without impartial review by multiple observers is unreliable.

Secular. “Pertaining to the world or things not spiritual or sacred.”

Humanism. “Any system of thought or action concerned with the interests or ideals of people … the intellectual and cultural movement … characterized by an emphasis on human interests rather than … religion.”
— Webster’s Dictionary

A cosmic outlook rooted in science
Secular humanism provides a cosmic outlook—a world-view in the broadest sense, grounding our lives in the context of our universe and relying on methods demonstrated by science. Secular humanists see themselves as undesigned, unintended beings who arose through evolution, possessing unique attributes of self-awareness and moral agency.

A consequentialist ethical system
Secular humanists hold that ethics is consequential, to be judged by results. This is in contrast to so-called command ethics, in which right and wrong are defined in advance and attributed to divine authority. “No god will save us,” declared Humanist Manifesto II (1973), “we must save ourselves.” Secular humanists seek to develop and improve their ethical principles by examining the results they yield in the lives of real men and women.
read on at https://secularhumanism.org

[lastlib]

1. This describes me.

Thanks for posting!

[multigraincracker]

2. For me, I specifically identify as a

Democratic Secular Humanist.

[Basic LA]

3. They used this as an "insult" against us.

The Evangelicals used to "tar" the left as Secular Humanists all the time, as though it was a terrible thing that they had to Bible-thump out of us.

[tanyev]

7. Yes. I still remember visiting the Dallas area in the early 80s,

going out to eat with a college friend and hearing the lady at the table next to us go on and on about the evils of Secular Humanism. I grew up heavily involved in a mainstream denomination and was going to a small Christian college of the same denomination in Austin. This was the first time I heard the phrase Secular Humanism and it was jarring to hear it discussed with such malice.

Anytime I'd heard humanism mentioned in college it was in connection with history, art, or music and was always presented as a positive development. Also, Jesus was a humanist. My search to understand what the heck she was so mad about is one of the things that led me completely into liberal politics.

[Basic LA]

12. They were so threatened by it.

And yes, the 80's. I couldn't quite remember when this began to appear. Interesting account of how it affected you!

[sanatanadharma]

4. I have trouble with naturalistic philosophy even as I acknowledge it

What follows has nothing to do with secular humanism and everything to do with the nature of the one who says "I" am a (whatever).
(my bold emphasis)

"Secular humanism is philosophically naturalistic. It holds that nature (the world of everyday physical experience) is all there is, ..."
(I say) Thus a non-physical self or sense of self must be non-existent (not there).

"... and that reliable knowledge is best obtained when we query nature using the scientific method...."
(I say) This "self" can not be revealed, refuted, or confirmed by science. Are we all deluded by a non-existent illusion?

"... Naturalism asserts that supernatural entities like God do not exist, and warns us that knowledge gained without appeal to the natural world and without impartial review by multiple observers is unreliable."
(I say) My obvious internal, self-evident (needs no outside verification), and non-negate-able knowledge of "I am", though unseen by others, does not need proof or verification.

"I am" is a priori fact. That anything else exists needs to be demonstrated, verified. The knowledge of the world needs to gained.
I have never known myself to be non-existent but did exist as conscious-being before I first saw or knew the world (sounds heard within the womb)? Lack of memory is not demonstration of non-existence during that memory lapse period.
The question to be answered is not when did the universe begin?, but when did "consciousness" begin?
The unanswerable question is "Explain the world in the absence of consciousness?"

[multigraincracker]

8. At birth we experience the world without

language, we have the Universal experience. That is it is all one. As we pick up language or words that are symbols that divide what we see like chair, table, room, house, street, town, state, country and on and on.
We tend to confuse the word with the thing. Existence and nonexistent are polar opposites. They define each other. That is you can’t have one without the other or there would be no need for the word. There is no good without bad. No up without down. Words are not the thing, only symbols. Taoism is interesting, according to the Tao Te Ching “ the Tao that is spoken of is not the Eternal Tao, to make it simple words cannot explain words.
Symbols are pretty fluid. They change almost every day. Humans have wars, fight and disagreements over those symbols, like flag, country and Gods.

[Basic LA]

11. Heard a discussion of Pansychism on BBC.

It's the fairly new branch of philosophy that says Consciousness is present in all things. Pansychism is apparently a third way between the dualism of Descartes and the purely material world of Physics.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. I'm a humanist, atheist, freethinker, and

ethical culturalist.

[multigraincracker]

6. Ethical Culture and UU are

Philosophies that are acceptable to me, even though they can be labeled religions. Many Eastern Philosophies deal with ideas that don’t need a higher being, other than one’s self.

[Karadeniz]

9. Look up research into verifiable out of body reports....

[multigraincracker]

10. I did and they are rare and very few.

They are still researching them. Too bad they can’t ask insects and animals.
When I was in college I sat with a student from India and ask how he could eat that hamburger. He said his mother told him cows in other countries are not Holy Cows.
It may be like the study that looked at prayers effect on medical outcomes. It was quoted many times by religious folks. A closer look, using modern statistics, proved a “sample bias”. So we don’t hear much about it now.
I’m open to reincarnation, but still question it and it doesn’t prove a God or that the world is not based on random events. But I’m open.
So, do you identify as an Asian Indian?

[Karadeniz]

15. Lots of dissenting opinions! Its funny: I had a nonNDE. as a teen before all the

OBE and NDE experiences were publicized, so I had no context whatsoever nor any support for what I experienced. But there's one thing about those who have interacted with another dimension. We're convinced of that reality, to the point that it takes a while to concede that the other reports that are different from one's own might also be real! What I've come to think is that knowledge of Immensity doesn't occur all at once to one person. Instead, I see the experiences as mosaic tiles of a much larger picture. Also, we've learned to shut up about the details due to the negative reactions. For me, I try to work the messages I received into the parables in the gospels, but if anything, challenging the Orthodox interpretations is an even more unpopular move! Like Jesus said, his messages of truth, hidden in parables to protect them from abuse, will be wasted on 75% of recipients, being ignored, rejected or perverted. Sadly, I bet his prediction can probably be compared to American politics. Republicans, MAGAs and haters in general reject tolerance, love, generosity, empathy. I won't go on and on. But Jesus called them out way before we did!

It might be a good idea to find one or a few writers that one can trust. A book pretty well respected by everyone is Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian Weiss. The great thing about him is his history of positions in the psychiatry field and his history of using drugs to open up the psyche. Also, he entered spirituality completely by accident, so he wasn't out to pursue an agenda.

For reincarnation, I think Ian Stevenson's research is conclusive.

Sorry, not Asian Indian, but I wouldn't mind since they're so pretty !!!!

[multigraincracker]

16. Check out RedletterBible org.

I like the Friends Church, very NT.
come in and sit down no talking or chewing gum. The Friends service has begun. The Amish are very NT and practice forgiveness. When I lived in Ohio a person came into an Amish school, shot and killed a bunch girls and then himself. The only people that went to his funeral were the parents of those girls.
Everything in the world is gray. There is no black and white.

[Karadeniz]

19. I love the Friends way of having meetings. All denominations should operate

that way!!! I'll look at your suggestion!

[edhopper]

13. I have

And there are no studies worth a wood nickle to confirm such a thing.
That is why the scientific method is so important.

Show me the double blind, peer reviewed study, then we can talk.

[DavidDvorkin]

14. OBEs are subjective experiences that can be induced by drugs, brain injury, and electrical jolts to the brain

They prove nothing about the existence of consciousness separate from the body.

[multigraincracker]

17. In 1969 I took acid and saw God.

He was a lizard.

[DavidDvorkin]

18. That one was real.

[multigraincracker]

21. I just need facts and proof

before I buy into something.
I don’t think anything is planned by any higher power that requires a belief. I’m more of a, stuff happens randomly. The only control I have is how I deal with the random stuff.
That’s just me.

[GP6971]

22. Hi!!!

You seem familiar...have we met before?

[KS Toronado]

23. .