Secular Humanism and Humanity: What are they?

[Jenny A]

Ignorant:

I think you are almost willfully refusing to grasp what humanism is and is not. It is not a branch of biology or anthropology. Nor is it a necessary part and parcel of being an atheist. Nor is it a static well defined philosophy. This little Think Humanism's Are You a Humanist Quiz should give you some idea of the diverse views of humanists. Hint: look at the answer key first.

Wikapedia's broad definition of humanism is not too bad:

Humanism is a philosophical and ethical stance that emphasizes the value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively, and generally prefers critical thinking and evidence (rationalism, empiricism) over established doctrine or faith (fideism). The meaning of the term humanism has fluctuated, according to the successive intellectual movements which have identified with it. Generally, however, humanism refers to a perspective that affirms some notion of a "human nature" (sometimes contrasted with antihumanism).

In modern times, humanist movements are typically aligned with secularism, and today "Humanism" typically refers to a non-theistic life stance centred on human agency, and looking to science instead of religious dogma in order to understand the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanism

You might take a moment to read the Wikipedia entry. Notice that what humanism means has changed over time and that there is such a thing a theistic humanism. You might also read the entry on Secular Humanism

Fundamental to the concept of secular humanism is the strongly held viewpoint that ideology—be it religious or political—must be thoroughly examined by each individual and not simply accepted or rejected on faith. Along with this, an essential part of secular humanism is a continually adapting search for truth, primarily through science and philosophy. Many Humanists derive their moral codes from a philosophy of utilitarianism, ethical naturalism, or evolutionary ethics, and some, such as Sam Harris, advocate a science of morality.

ID.

Should you want to engage with humanists, there are better forums than this one. I'd be interested to know how many members here consider themselves humanists. There are many humanist websites.

If what you really want to know is how my definition of human differs from most theists I know, the answer is really very simple: their definition includes a soul and mine does not. But it's possible to be an atheist and believe in a soul, just not a god given one. Some theists, particularly those in the Judeo-Christian tradition would add that humans are created "in the image of god," whatever that might mean and it is generally hard to pin down what exactly they mean by that and harder yet to get them to define god (I noticed that you let that question fall by the wayside). Obviously atheists do not include created in the image of god in their definition of human.