mikec (03/11/83)
Democratic Secular Humanism is :
1. Committed to free inquiry and opposed to any efforts by
ecclesiastical, political, ideological, or social institutions
to shackle free thought. Truth is more likely to be discovered
if the opportunity exists for the free exchange of any opposing
opinions.
2. Committed to the separation of church and state. Clerical
authorities should not be permitted to legislate their parochial
views for the rest of society. Church properties should not be
exempt from taxation. Tax revenues should not be used for the
benefit of sectarian religious institutions. Any compulsory
religious oaths and prayers in public institutions should not
be permitted.
3. Committed to the ideal of freedom and opposed to any form
of totalitarianism. This ideal includes freedom of conscience
and belief, majority rule, and respect for minority rights.
4. Committed to ethics based on critical intelligence and
opposed to Absolutist morality. We deny that morality needs
to be deduced from religious belief or that those who do not
espouse a religious doctrine are immoral. No church should be
permitted to impose its views of moral virtue and sin, sexual
conduct, marriage, divorce, birth control, or abortion, or
legislate them for the rest of society.
5. Committed to moral education. Moral development should be
cultivated in children and young adults. No particular sect can
claim important values as their exclusive property. Young minds
should not be indoctrinated in a faith before they are mature
enough to evaluate the merits for themselves.
6. Skeptical of any supernatural claims. We deny that religious
experiences have anything to do with the supernatural. Symbolic
and mythological interpretations of religion often serve as mere
rationalizations for a sophisticated minority. The universe is a
dynamic scene of natural forces that are best understood by using
scientific inquiry. Secular humanists may be agnostics, atheists,
rationalists, or skeptics. We reject the idea that any god has
worked miracles or revealed himself to a chosen few. We reject
the divinity of Jesus, the divine mission of Moses, Mohammed, and
other prophets and saints of the various sects and denominations.
We do not accept the literal interpretation of the Bible, Koran,
or any other allegedly sacred religious documents. No evidence
for a separable "soul" that exists before birth, during life, or
after death has ever been demonstrated.
7. Concerned about the current attacks by nonsecularists on
reason and science. We are committed to the uses of the rational
methods of inquiry, logic, and evidence in developing knowledge
and testing claims to truth.
8. Committed to using the scientific method to understand the
world. We are opposed to the abuses of misapplied technology and
the unthinking efforts to limit scientific advances. We support
cultural explorations in art, music, and literature.
9. Against the efforts of fundamentalists to invade the science
classrooms by requiring that creationist theory be taught. This
is a serious threat to academic freedom and a sham to mask an
article of religious faith as a scientific truth.
10. Committed to using education to build humane, free, and
democratic societies. We are against the pro-religious bias of
the mass media. Preachers, faith healers, and religious hucksters
promote their views without any challenge and the secular outlook
is not given an opportunity for a fair hearing.
The above ten points have been excerpted from :
"A SECULAR HUMANIST DECLARATION"
Prometheus Books cost 1.95
This has been endorsed by 58 leaders of thought including :
* Isaac Asimov * Sir Francis Crick * Sidney Hook * Paul Kurtz
* B.F. Skinner * Barbara Wootton * George Abell * Ernest Nagel
* Gordon Stein * Dora (Mrs. Bertrand) Russell * Paul Beattie
Micheal D. Cranford
Tektronix
Teklabsplw (03/12/83)
A NEW RELIGION HAS BEEN FORMED Name: Secular Humanism God: Science Priests: Scientists Temples: Laboratories Seminaries: Public Schools Revelations: Only given to those priests who have rigorously studied the creed and have done many years service in the temples Creed: The Scientific Method Availability: All are required to follow the tenets established by the priests; temples are not open to the general public nor is the working of miracles available to everyone; the priests give to the general populace the revelations of the god Tolerance: None - children are required to be taught the tenets from a very young age so as not to be 'corrupted' by other beliefs. No separation of church and state is permitted. The state is used to enforce the teaching of this religion and no others. Flame on acolytes and priests of this new religion, Pete Wilson lime!we13!plw
mjs (03/13/83)
Well, this "new religion" doesn't look any worse than any other I've come in contact with. Lacking a deity is probably a step in the right direction, though that will undoubtedly cause some mere human to attempt to take on that role. Sigh. Martin J. Shannon, Jr. Bell Labs MH Rm 5F-120 Phone: (201) 582-3199
tim (03/14/83)
The "Secular Humanist Manifesto" (or whatever it was called)
was a very interesting, not to mention well-written,
document, and I find myself in agreement with most of its
statements. However, there were also some big problems.
(1) It supported taxation of church property, but denied churches
any benefit from tax revenues. This rather gives the churches
the short end of the stick, don't you think? Everyone else who
pays taxes gets something back for it. A very good case
could be made that this is repression of religion, which I
feel is immoral. Just don't charge them taxes, and don't give
them any benefits.
(2) The very existence of the document is a contradiction. It doesn't
seem that the secular humanist movement should require any such
dogmatic literature.
(3) Throughout, a fundamental misunderstanding of the aims of true
religion is betrayed. Of course it has nothing to do with
the supernatural! The existence of miracles and anthropomorphic
deities is entirely irrelevant to belonging to a religion (or it
should be). A religion should not provide answers to questions
when the answers come from a "divine" source and the questions can
be answered by reason, because then the religion will interfere with
the proper functioning of the individual's reason. A religion is
a paradigm for self-exploration and -expansion (for want of better
terms -- in fact, the lack of good terms for such things in normal
English is one of the major motivations for having a religion), and a set
of tools for accomplishing this. The fact that no major religion admits
this is not grounds for a blanket condemnation; the major religions
got where they are by pandering to the lowest common denominator.
Summarizing this point, religion should only be criticized where
it interferes with reason, not as a thing in itself.
Overall, though, I liked the document a great deal, and my thanks to
the person who posted it.
Tim Maroneyhenry (03/15/83)
This "new religion" has such a following for one simple reason: unlike all other religions, Secular Humanism's miracles work. Reliably. As Asimov put it many years ago, in "Foundation" (exact fidelity of quote not guaranteed...): ...for it is a characteristic of the religion of science that it works, and its curses really are deadly... Sounds like as good a reason as any for adopting a religion. (And much better than the reasons usually advanced...) Most religions claim to have the inside scoop on how the universe works; Secular Humanism is the only one that not only claims to know but can prove it, by getting real results.
faustus (03/15/83)
Secular humanism is not (or should not be) a religon, or a system of beliefs, any more than science is or should be. It is a system of investigation, a collection of rules that one uses to investigate reality. And they do work, which is why secular humanism and science have become the foremost intellectual force in the world today. To compare science with the beliefs of any particular group of people is like trying to compare a builder's tools with a house that he builds in that science should be the tool by which the validity of all ideas are judged. And this of course includes religous ideas: if there were good scientific evidence for any religous phenomenon (which there isn't) then we would be obligated to give it the same credit that we give to physics and such 'sciences'. But I challenge any of those who are opposed to secular humanism to give me a better means of investigating the world than the scientific method of careful experimentation and locical thought. (Divine revelation, perhaps?) Wayne Christopher