From: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!CAD:tektronix!teklabs!mikec Newsgroups: net.misc Title: Secular Humanism Article-I.D.: teklabs.1815 Posted: Thu Mar 10 19:45:22 1983 Received: Sat Mar 12 07:03:49 1983 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 Teklabs