Is Humanism a religion?

[McCulloch]

Shoot, what in the word do you think secular humanism is? THAT, I submit, is a religion, where humanity as a whole takes the place of supernatural deity.

Questions for debate:

1. Is Humanism a religion?
2. Is humanity itself in the place of a deity for Humanists?
3. Do Humanists worship?

[DiscipleOfTruth]

a. Yes, according to #2 in this definition:



re·li·gion/riˈlijən/
Noun:
1The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, esp. a personal God or gods.
2Details of belief as taught or discussed.


Which matches #1 of the next definition:


hu·man·ism/ˈ(h)yo͞oməˌnizəm/
Noun:
1.An outlook or system of thought attaching prime importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters.
2.A Renaissance cultural movement that turned away from medieval scholasticism and revived interest in ancient Greek and Roman thought.


b.Maybe some, but probably not all.



c.Maybe some, but probably not all.

[McCulloch]

DiscipleOfTruth, What is it that you believe that humanists worship? Yes, we attach prime importance to human rather than superhuman solutions to our problems, because this is all that truly is available. We don't however belief in or worship a superhuman power, thus do not fit the definition you provide.

[DiscipleOfTruth]

Maybe I've made a mistake on the definition of the word belief on ''2.'' for the definition of religion. It appears to mean general belief to me but it might only mean religious belief. I can't tell which way it's going.

Let me point out though, you can't speak for all humanist, for the sake of argument some humanist can believe that a god does exist but prefer to focus on humanity rather then what they believe is out there for a number of reasons. Some may even conclude that god doesn't exist, this is something that requires just about as much faith as it does to conclude that a god does exist.

I don't have any beliefs on what it is that some humanist worship because I'm not sure. But the word humanist seems way to flexible not to have a million and one sub categories as plenty of other things around here. I wouldn't say that all humanist are religious, but I would say that some are based on what it is they believe that puts them in that category. So I'm going to correct myself on my original post by saying some humanist can be religious but not all of them are.

A very good example can be someone(not everyone) from the A.A.(Alcoholics Anonymous) organization. They learn to make up a higher power so it can become easier to achieve their goes of sobriety to be a better person. If the recovering alcoholic makes up one and pretends that it's real, acts like it's real, worships it and does all the self made up rituals and what not, then you can call them religious. They know that their higher power isn't real and that it isn't supernatural, but they've willing convinced themselves that it is to the extent that they give it the credit of their goals being accomplished, just so they can be a better person in everyway possible. That's what AA is about, not just recovering from addiction of alcoholism but rather becoming the intent to recovery in every area of life.

[McCulloch]

Let me point out though, you can't speak for all humanist, for the sake of argument some humanist can believe that a god does exist but prefer to focus on humanity rather then what they believe is out there for a number of reasons. Some may even conclude that god doesn't exist, this is something that requires just about as much faith as it does to conclude that a god does exist.

The term humanism can be ambiguous, and there has been a persistent confusion between the several, related uses of the term because different intellectual movements have identified with it over time. In recent times, Humanism (capitalized) internationally refers to the life stance otherwise known as secular humanism in the United States. This is the definition I have been using. Humanists believe that the solutions to the world's problems lie in human thought and action rather than divine intervention.

[DiscipleOfTruth]

So are we in agreement that according to the person that humanism can be a religion?

[Dantalion]

So are we in agreement that according to the person that humanism can be a religion?

Only by using definitions that are so broad and vague nearly any outlook on life is to be defined as religion, which would render the term a bit too useless for my taste.

Are you really placing christianity, asatru, islam, hinduism and humanism under the same banner 'religion' ?
What sense does that make ?

[sayak83]

No humanism is not a religion. Its focus on humans comes from the indisputable fact that we are all humans. It does not worship or idealize humanity but simply focuses on those practises that have the promise of making human (i.e. our) life better.

[charles brough]

Is Humanism a religion?

"Religion" is a term used only in reference to old ideologies, ones which include belief in "spirits." We humans have always had ideological systems to give us a sense of community and the unity we need in order to cooperate enough to solve common problems.

Of the three main functioning modern-times ideological systems, all had or have stark weaknesses and serious flaws: Nazism, Faschism, Soviet, Cuban and Chinese Marxism, and Western Cultural Humanism.

People no longer "worship" gods in more modern ideological systems. The advent of science has brought us into the non-theistic age and people no longer need to believe in "spirits" in order to be united by a belief.

[charles brough]

We are trying to unite the world by spreading our Secular Humanism ideology. We achieve world unity (and hence our control over it) by spreading our political ("democracy"), social ("equality") and economic ("free enterprise") doctrines. We laud our "humanism" but use economic sanctions, cyber attacks, farmed-out torture, drone assassinations, and ultimately the military when we feel we need to.