Secular Humanism and Humanity: What are they?

[Jenny A]

What is a homo sapiens according to the secular humanist anthropology?

You might phrase the same question this way: What (if anything), besides genetic code and genetic expression, distinguishes a thing as human?

This seems to me a fundamental question for which someone who ascribes to secularhumanism to have a robust answer, or at least a question which occupies a central aspect of the worldview. Thanks in advance for your input!

There isn't such a thing as secular humanist anthropology. There is such a thing as anthropology which is the scientific study of the human species. It is necessarily secular in the sense that like all science it does not have a religious viewpoint though I'm sure there are anthropologists who are religious. Anthropologists would, I presume use the same definition of humans as biologists which would be DNA and body structure.

Secular humanism is a philosophy which rejects god as the source of morality, but presumes that humans are capable of being moral and ethical and should strive to be moral and ethical. Humanists might extend the definition of human to any self aware intelligent being, but I doubt there's any humanist definition of a human being.

Atheists simply do not have a belief in god. That does not necessarily make them either anthropologists or humanists. I am not an anthropologist (I'm not sure we have an anthropologist member on the site), nor do I adhere to any formal set of humanist dogma. I do not call myself a humanist. I do believe that morals are biological and cultural not god given.

That said there is tons of philosophy on the question of what makes humans different from the rest of the animals. I do not have a robust answer. I think its a matter of degree. But generally, I'd say what makes us human is: self awareness; and a capacity for rational thought, empathy, self awareness, and language.

Since Christianity is about man's relationship with god, wouldn't that imply a robust definition of both humans and god? If so, how would your definition of man be different than mine?