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Secular Humanism is now a "religion"
November 4, 2014 at 4:55 pm
Quote:In a landmark decision last week, a federal judge in Oregon declared ‘secular humanism’ to be a religion, opining that those who profess to be atheists and secular humanists should be afforded equal protection rights under the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution and be allowed to enjoy the same liberties to practice religion that religious groups are able to enjoy.
http://christiannews.net/2014/11/04/fede...-atheists/
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RE: Secular Humanism is now a "religion"
November 4, 2014 at 4:58 pm
While I don't agree with it being entitled a religion, I understand the need to put it under a heading to give people equal protection.
When I used to post at ST.com, there was a religious nut who used a similar decision by a judge to reinforce his argument that atheism is a religion.
Playing Cluedo with my mum while I was at Uni:
"You did WHAT? With WHO? WHERE???"
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RE: Secular Humanism is now a "religion"
November 4, 2014 at 5:13 pm
I can see where the decision has merit. Where there is a freedom to be religious, there necessarily needs to be a freedom to be unreligious. As confusing as that is to then call it a religion. :-) They were suing for the same assembly rights within the prison as is afforded religious groups.
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RE: Secular Humanism is now a "religion"
November 5, 2014 at 1:18 am
(November 4, 2014 at 4:58 pm)Beccs Wrote: While I don't agree with it being entitled a religion, I understand the need to put it under a heading to give people equal protection.
Well, technically speaking:
wikipedia Wrote:A religion is an organized collection of beliefs, cultural systems, and world views that relate humanity to an order of existence.
By certain broader definitions of religion, secular humanism could be considered one.
(November 4, 2014 at 4:58 pm)Beccs Wrote: When I used to post at ST.com, there was a religious nut who used a similar decision by a judge to reinforce his argument that atheism is a religion.
Atheism, on the other hand, still wouldn't be classified as one.
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RE: Secular Humanism is now a "religion"
November 5, 2014 at 6:25 am
It's a religion, depending on your definition of it.
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RE: Secular Humanism is now a "religion"
November 5, 2014 at 7:02 am
It's a small green frog, depending on your definition of it.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
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RE: Secular Humanism is now a "religion"
November 5, 2014 at 8:55 am
It's great news for US humanists. In the UK (and most other European countries), we've had that level of recognition for many years now. Why the headline refers to 'atheists', I'm unsure. The Federal Court was reviewing humanism, not atheism. If it had been, it could never have reached that decision because atheism could never be classified as a religion under any accurate definition.
Sum ergo sum
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RE: Secular Humanism is now a "religion"
November 5, 2014 at 9:23 am
(November 5, 2014 at 8:55 am)Ben Davis Wrote: It's great news for US humanists. In the UK (and most other European countries), we've had that level of recognition for many years now. Why the headline refers to 'atheists', I'm unsure. The Federal Court was reviewing humanism, not atheism. If it had been, it could never have reached that decision because atheism could never be classified as a religion under any accurate definition.
NO it is not. This short term well intended tactic misses long term human behavior. It is easy to focus on the compassion of today in one group, but that misses the point that anything that forms a group IN ANY ASPECT of a society, be it political party, business, nationalism OR RELIGION, can in the future go on to become abusive.
Religion is poison and anything can be a religion, meaning being married to an idea. We are NOT a separate species and we have always been capable of the same range of cruelty and compassion.
Our behavior is not dictated by the labels we invent or the ideas we come up with. It isn't that we should never have ideas or form groups, but that we as a species fail to see the bigger evolutionary picture.
I do NOT have everything in common with other atheists, or even everything in common with liberals, even if I agree with many of the compassionate ideas they have.
There still are other atheists who do not share the same economic views such as Ayn Rand atheists. And I also do not agree with political correctness as a tactic to keep the peace.
We will always be a diverse species even within the same camps. We are still individuals. We can have our labels and clubs and form groups without elevating it to the dogmatic level of the word "religion".
Nothing in life should ever be set up to a dogmatic level and "religion" is the worst way humans group. It allows us to focus too much on our differences and not enough on our common existence.
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RE: Secular Humanism is now a "religion"
November 5, 2014 at 1:55 pm
Not playing football is a sport
The meek shall inherit the Earth, the rest of us will fly to the stars.
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RE: Secular Humanism is now a "religion"
November 5, 2014 at 7:05 pm
(November 5, 2014 at 9:23 am)Brian37 Wrote:
Interesting. So you're saying that the principle of mass association (the ready ability of humans to form large groups with common themes) is ultimately self-defeating due to the nature of individuality and the way that some people express it?
But what of groups like the humanists who aren't dogmatic? They have a set of shared principles and common beliefs at the high-level, yes (which is why the court granted them this case) but there's no humanist rulebook, no tenets of faith, no indoctrinal rote learning. I'd also suggest that as humanity develops further, the shared principles to which humanism subscribes would be subject to change.
Sum ergo sum
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