{"id":2781,"date":"2012-04-17T17:08:00","date_gmt":"2012-04-17T21:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=2781"},"modified":"2012-12-30T01:41:00","modified_gmt":"2012-12-30T06:41:00","slug":"more-beating-up-on-lazy-humanism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/04\/more-beating-up-on-lazy-humanism.html","title":{"rendered":"More Beating Up on Lazy Humanism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

There was a link to the definition from Webster\u2019s<\/em> that the Council for Secular Humanism highlights at the top of their \u201cWhat is Secular Humanism?<\/a>\u201d page (ellipses theirs):<\/p>\n

Secular<\/strong>. \u201cPertaining to the world or things not spiritual or sacred.\u201d<\/p>\n

Humanism<\/strong>. \u201cAny system of thought or action concerned with the interests or ideals of people \u2026 the intellectual and cultural movement \u2026 characterized by an emphasis on human interests rather than \u2026 religion.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Holy False Dichotomy, Batman!<\/p>\n

I would never accuse religion of not being concerned with the interests or ideals of people (except probably Cthulhu-placation<\/a>). \u00a0What we\u2019re really accusing them of is being wrong<\/em> about what is in the interest of people. \u00a0The people who are totally unconcerned about human interests are nihilists<\/em>, and I\u2019m all for ganging up with religious people to beat up on them<\/em>.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t need an airtight, comprehensive philosophy to be allowed to complain about other people\u2019s ideas. \u00a0We can dismiss the child-beating philosophy of Michael Pearl<\/a> without having an answer to the First Mover problem because it looks<\/em> savage and cruel, and the Pearl clan hasn\u2019t come up with a good reason why we should override our anti-infant-beating intuitions. \u00a0But if we\u2019re arguing with more sophisticated interlocutors, we need to be able to say more than \u201cWe like humans! \u00a0And things that are good for humans!\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking over the \u201cWhat is Secular Humanism?<\/a>\u201d page, I don\u2019t see anything that goes beyond pablum. \u00a0I\u2019ve excerpted the blockquote below, so double check the page to see if I missed something meaningful:<\/p>\n

Secular humanism is comprehensive, touching every aspect of life including issues of values, meaning, and identity. Thus it is broader than atheism, which concerns only the nonexistence of god or the supernatural. Important as that may be, there\u2019s a lot more to life \u2026 and secular humanism addresses it.<\/p>\n

Secular humanism is philosophically naturalistic. It holds that nature (the world of everyday physical experience) is all there is, and that reliable knowledge is best obtained when we query nature using the scientific method. Naturalism asserts that supernatural entities like God do not exist, and warns us that knowledge gained without appeal to the natural world and without impartial review by multiple observers is unreliable\u2026. Secular humanists see themselves as undesigned, unintended beings who arose through evolution, possessing unique attributes of self-awareness and moral agency.<\/p>\n

Secular humanists hold that ethics is consequential, to be judged by results. This is in contrast to so-called command ethics, in which right and wrong are defined in advance and attributed to divine authority. \u201cNo god will save us,\u201d declared Humanist Manifesto II (1973), \u201cwe must save ourselves.\u201d Secular humanists seek to develop and improve their ethical principles by examining the results they yield in the lives of real men and women.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Being a consequentialist isn\u2019t a get-out-of-metaphysics-free card.<\/p>\n

I have very little patience for people who waive aside philosophizing and say, \u201cI\u2019m just practical. \u00a0I just act according to expected outcomes.\u201d \u00a0For one thing, they tend to spend less time studying bias and probability than necessary to\u00a0forestall\u00a0charges of\u00a0negligence. \u00a0But, more to the point, preferring certain outcomes to others still requires an answer to the question: What is a human and what ends fulfill its nature?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There was a link to the definition from Webster\u2019s that the Council for Secular Humanism highlights at the top of their \u201cWhat is Secular Humanism?\u201d page (ellipses theirs): Secular. \u201cPertaining to the world or things not spiritual or sacred.\u201d Humanism. \u201cAny system of thought or action concerned with the interests or ideals of people \u2026 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[54],"class_list":["post-2781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheism","tag-atheism-is-boring"],"yoast_head":"\nMore Beating Up on Lazy Humanism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There was a link to the definition from Webster's that the Council for Secular Humanism highlights at the top of their "What is Secular Humanism?" page\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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