Secular Humanism and Humanity: What are they?

[watchamadoodle]

I'll just bump this up again as I'm still interested in why some people don't like the idea of "humanist". I'm not criticising, just curious.

I think it is the "secular" in "secular humanism" that bothers Christians. They perceive humanists to be people who are plotting against God - a Luciferian conspiracy

[robvalue]

Haha yeah. I think secular also bothers them because they often don't know what it means, and assume it just means atheist/communist/science/nazi/anti-theist. But most enlightened christians agree secular is the way to go, as far as I know.

[watchamadoodle]

Haha yeah. I think secular also bothers them because they often don't know what it means, and assume it just means atheist/communist/science/nazi/anti-theist. But most enlightened christians agree secular is the way to go, as far as I know.

It's interesting, because maybe secular humanism is misusing or at least extending the definition of "secular". Here is the wikipedia definition:

Secularism is the principle of the separation of government institutions and persons mandated to represent the state from religious institutions and religious dignitaries.

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

The "secular" in secular humanism is saying that God and religion are not necessary for morality and ethics. Probably secular humanism goes further to say that God and religion should not be a consideration in morality and ethics? This would mean that an individual should not consider religion when making moral or ethical decisions - i.e. separation of the individual from religion. If that is the case, then I can see how Christians would see secular humanism as a part of that vast Luciferian conspiracy.

[robvalue]

I guess it is kind of saying that, but not directly. You can have a secular government and everyone be a theist, and they can all claim to be getting their morality from their own religion. It does highlight the glaring inconsistency in their view that you can't be a decent member of society without religion, but not explicitly. The fact that there is more than one religion already highlights the stupidity of it all.

The thing that confused me more is I noticed some atheists on here don't like the humanist part. Not saying they should, just I think I've missed a point somewhere.

[Angrboda]

I'll just bump this up again as I'm still interested in why some people don't like the idea of "humanist". I'm not criticising, just curious.

Two other reasons. One, they see separation of church and state to be a bad thing and a falsely imposed principle. The second is that they see this as saying society should be human centered when they think it should be God centered.

I personally have a problem with some variants of secular humanism in that they arbitrarily posit certain values without sound justification.

[The Grand Nudger]

Like? -and suppose there were...why would that be a problem?
(I'm not aware of a single arbitrary human value -even the ones I don't agree with-....so some crowdsourcing would be great.)

[Angrboda]

The only one I can think of off the top of my head is that ecological conservation should be a priority for every humanist.

[Whateverist]

The thing that confused me more is I noticed some atheists on here don't like the humanist part. Not saying they should, just I think I've missed a point somewhere.

For me, I shy away from 'humanism' because I don't trust it not to become political correctness, unwarranted should'ing and unthinking. Want to talk values great. But lets not anyone start with "as any humanist would, I think..".

[Pizza]

The thing that confused me more is I noticed some atheists on here don't like the humanist part. Not saying they should, just I think I've missed a point somewhere.

For me, I shy away from 'humanism' because I don't trust it not to become political correctness, unwarranted should'ing and unthinking. Want to talk values great. But lets not anyone start with "as any humanist would, I think..".

Getting attached to a label is not good. This is why I don't care if people call me atheist or agnostic or apatheist or an ignostic. I don't want to start thinking, "I'm a x therefor I believe y."

[Mudhammam]

For me, I shy away from 'humanism' because I don't trust it not to become political correctness, unwarranted should'ing and unthinking. Want to talk values great. But lets not anyone start with "as any humanist would, I think..".

Getting attached to a label is not good. This is why I don't care if people call me atheist or agnostic or apatheist or an ignostic. I don't want to start thinking, "I'm a x therefor I believe y."

Although I agree, I want everyone to know: I am an anti-theist! Don't you think you're going to drag that dirt around me and it not get noted!