Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site pyuxd.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!pyuxww!pyuxd!rlr From: rlr@pyuxd.UUCP (Rich Rosen) Newsgroups: net.politics,net.religion Subject: Re: "Secular Humanism" banned in the US Schools. Message-ID: <1568@pyuxd.UUCP> Date: Wed, 21-Aug-85 19:54:23 EDT Article-I.D.: pyuxd.1568 Posted: Wed Aug 21 19:54:23 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 24-Aug-85 14:00:41 EDT References: <161@gargoyle.UUCP> <1639@akgua.UUCP> Organization: Whatever we're calling ourselves this week Lines: 18 Xref: watmath net.politics:10566 net.religion:7447 > Richard, > > I can't give you a case title but in a 1961 decision the > Supreme Court ruled that there are religions that have no > deities. Among those they described was secular humanism. [BROWN] In 1961? Anyway, the reason the Supreme Court applied Constitutional rights to belief systems without deities is because they wanted to ensure that the negligence of the founding fathers was not visited on other beliefs: they wanted to ensure rights for all belief systems, even though the Constitution spoke of "freedom of religion" (I believe they wanted it for all such systems). Thus they labelled such beliefs as religions for such purposes. (What other purposes, other than legal purposes, could they define?) Another example of succumbing to human laziness and carelessness with the words we use. -- Popular consensus says that reality is based on popular consensus. Rich Rosen pyuxd!rlr