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