Monday, February 9, 2009
Humanism a religion?
the Richard Norman reading, "On Humanism" was great, but i was confused by the fact that he kept pushing humanism in comparison to religion, even as he told us that many humanists wished to make it quite separate. In watching the news, I also found that modern day atheism is treated by the country as a religion, which seems to defeat the purpose of the whole idealism, since religion is classified in the reading as a belief in a higher power, especially a god, goddess or gods. My beleif is that if movements like this wish to be taken seriously, they should take a unique stance and ally themselves with science and the modern world, rather than trying to look like a religion in order to attract the religous. Leave the religious alone, and seek out those who will more likly join the humanist cause. then once the movement is strong enough, others will come at their own accord. What do you think? Is appealing to the religous a good idea for the humanist movement?
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Well, I don't have an "answer" but I also feel that you are talking about 2 things that may overlap within a certain context but may also just be distinct. Atheism and humanism are not the same thing. Not all humanists are atheists by any means--Norman wants us to be clear that his is an atheist perspective, but he also says that there are many different forms/manifestations of humanism. Many are religious. Atheism is believing that they is NO GOD, so although not a religion, it can be a dogma and create a polemic--or not.
ReplyDeleteSo here is an example of an overlap between the two--it's pretty funny:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/world/europe/07london.html
I believe that appealing to both the religious and non religious is the best idea for the humanist movement.It allows people from a religious stand point to get involved and those from a non religious background as well. If we appealed mostly to the religious than those who are not religious would most likely not be willing to participate in this humanist movement. When values and interests of religious and non religious people clash, is when I believe the humanist movement will be the strongest.
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