What is Secular Humanism?

What is Secular Humanism? PDF Author: Paul Kurtz
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781591024996
Category : Humanism
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Philosopher Paul Kurtz describes the many ways in which secular humanism's scientific, philosophical, and ethical outlook has exerted a profound influence on civilization from the ancient world to the present.

What is Secular Humanism?

What is Secular Humanism? PDF Author: Paul Kurtz
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781591024996
Category : Humanism
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Philosopher Paul Kurtz describes the many ways in which secular humanism's scientific, philosophical, and ethical outlook has exerted a profound influence on civilization from the ancient world to the present.

Life After Faith

Life After Faith PDF Author: Philip Kitcher
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300210345
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
Although there is no shortage of recent books arguing against religion, few offer a positive alternative—how anyone might live a fulfilling life without the support of religious beliefs. This enlightening book fills the gap. Philip Kitcher constructs an original and persuasive secular perspective, one that answers human needs, recognizes the objectivity of values, and provides for the universal desire for meaningfulness. Kitcher thoughtfully and sensitively considers how secularism can respond to the worries and challenges that all people confront, including the issue of mortality. He investigates how secular lives compare with those of people who adopt religious doctrines as literal truth, as well as those who embrace less literalistic versions of religion. Whereas religious belief has been important in past times, Kitcher concludes that evolution away from religion is now essential. He envisions the successors to religious life, when the senses of identity and community traditionally fostered by religion will instead draw on a broader range of cultural items—those provided by poets, filmmakers, musicians, artists, scientists, and others. With clarity and deep insight, Kitcher reveals the power of secular humanism to encourage fulfilling human lives built on ethical truth.

In Defense of Secular Humanism

In Defense of Secular Humanism PDF Author: Paul Kurtz
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1615926402
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
A spirited defense of secular humanism against fundamentalist critics.

Clergy in the Classroom

Clergy in the Classroom PDF Author: David A. Noebel
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780936163307
Category : Humanism
Languages : en
Pages : 174

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Book Description
Secular Humanism is a real and well-developed worldview embraced by many educators, intellectuals and leaders throughout our nation. This program examines the crushing weight of evidence supporting the fact that Secular Humanism is a religion, and the the dominant worldview taught in public schools today.

When the Secular becomes Sacred

When the Secular becomes Sacred PDF Author: Ernest J. Zarra
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 147585854X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 219

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Book Description
When the Secular Becomes Sacred: Religious Secular Humanism and its Effects Upon America’s Public Learning Institutionsis an analysis of American K-16 public learning institutions from a unique perspective. Secular teachings, such as social-emotional learning, and sexual and identity philosophies, are behind movements to capture the minds and hearts of America’s students. Contemporary learning institutions resemble places of worship in several ways. This book will explain how this is the case. From educational philosophy to classroom practices, this book exposes tactical intersections between secular humanism and religion. In today’s secular culture there is strong evidence to support the notion that worship of the self, the individual, has usurped the historically sacred place reserved for a transcendent deity. The fact is that this worship of the individual is certainly more fashionable and attractive than traditional orthodoxy or evangelical theology, in a today’s society. Bolstering this self-worship are mandated programs, such as those found in states’ controversial History-Social Science Frameworks, English-Language Arts Frameworks, and new sex education programs. The intention of this book is to provide the reader a realistic look into the effects of religious humanism upon America’s schools and students. Readers will be challenged with the notion that separation of church and state is being ignored for the political advantage of some. Furthermore, the reader will be presented with the argument that self-worship has become more attractive than traditional Judeo-Christian religious teachings, leading to the individual becoming both the worshipper and the object of such self-worship.

Humanism: A Very Short Introduction

Humanism: A Very Short Introduction PDF Author: Stephen Law
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191614009
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
Religion is currently gaining a much higher profile. The number of faith schools is increasingly, and religious points of view are being aired more frequently in the media. As religion's profile rises, those who reject religion, including humanists, often find themselves misunderstood, and occasionally misrepresented. Stephen Law explores how humanism uses science and reason to make sense of the world, looking at how it encourages individual moral responsibility and shows that life can have meaning without religion. Challenging some of the common misconceptions, he seeks to dispute the claims that atheism and humanism are 'faith positions' and that without God there can be no morality and our lives are left without purpose. Looking at the history of humanism and its development as a philosophical alternative, he examines the arguments for and against the existence of God, and explores the role humanism plays in moral and secular societies, as well as in moral and religious education. Using humanism to determine the meaning of life, he shows that there is a positive alternative to traditional religious belief. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

A Secular Humanist Declaration

A Secular Humanist Declaration PDF Author: Paul Kurtz
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780879751494
Category : Humanism
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
No Marketing Blurb

Bioethics and Secular Humanism

Bioethics and Secular Humanism PDF Author: H. Tristram Engelhardt
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1620320711
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Bioethics is vitally important in our day because it represents the critical expression of interest in the proper use of medical science to provide health care. Secular humanism is important because it is a central factor in constructing a common morality that does not make special appeal to such things as religious assumptions. The argument of this book, therefore, will be of profound interest to all who are concerned for the well-being of humanity in today's world. Imagine, the author says, Roman Catholics and committed atheists disputing over proper abortion policies. Imagine individuals who wish to organize a for-profit surrogate mother service, confronting individuals who view such endeavors as exploitation of women. To what moral premise do they appeal? Are power and influence the deciding factors, or is it possible to establish certain principles to which all may appeal? In answer, Professor Engelhardt examines the various meanings of secularity and humanism, clearly showing how complex they are. Alongside this he demonstrates the diversity of bioethics and the problems of laying a foundation for it. Based on these considerations, he identifies which ways forward are the most promising. The urgency of the task is clear. New biomedical possibilities are surfacing at the very time that demands to contain health care costs pose difficult ethical problems.

God Created Humanism

God Created Humanism PDF Author: Theo Hobson
Publisher: SPCK
ISBN: 0281077444
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
Gloriously maddening though this book will be to those who want humanism to have no connection to religion whatever, its purpose is both generous and hopeful: to demonstrate, to both Christians and post-Christians alike, how much better we understand each other than we think we do. - Francis Spufford Theo Hobson is an exceptionally acute observer of the difficulties and opportunities created by our largely secular age. He can see the self-deceptions we are engaged in as regards our debts to religion – and, in this beautiful book, charts a wise course to a saner world. - Alain de Botton With his usual crisp and rigorous analysis, Theo Hobson invites us to recognise that the core moral values of liberal modernity did not fall ready-made from a secular heaven but are the deposit of a long theological tradition. But – just as typically – he makes it clear that this is a challenge to contemporary religious complacency at least as much as to a smug and patronising secularity. A fine, provocative book. - Rowan Williams In this compelling account of the origins and evolution of our secular worldview, Theo Hobson shows how Christian values continue to underpin our public morality, how faith remains indispensable to Western humanism, and how atheistic humanism represents a dead end. At the same time, he offers a timely warning against the dangers of a religious-secular culture war, given the radically politicized and destructive forms of religion endemic in the world today Here is a fresh and provocative argument about religion and politics – but one that doesn’t fit into the normal boxes. It suggests that although the public creed of the West is best described as ‘secular humanism’ we can only really understand and affirm secular humanism if we see how firmly it is based on Christian norms and values. If we don’t, the West is divided: mired in a stagnant stand-off between fundamentalist atheism and an equally hard-line Christian theism. This book offers a more nuanced and historically more persuasive way forward, showing just how much our secular morality owes to Christianity, and how it can only find coherence through a new and positive view of its origins.

Becoming Atheist

Becoming Atheist PDF Author: Callum G. Brown
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1474224555
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
The Western World is becoming atheist. In the space of three generations churchgoing and religious belief have become alien to millions. We are in the midst of one of humankind's great cultural changes. How has this happened? Becoming Atheist explores how people of the sixties' generation have come to live their lives as if there is no God. It tells the life narratives of those from Britain, Western Europe, the United States and Canada who came from Christian, Jewish and other backgrounds to be without faith. Based on interviews with 85 people born in 18 countries, Callum Brown shows how gender, ethnicity and childhood shape how individuals lose religion. This book moves from statistical and broad cultural analysis to use frank, humorous and sometimes harrowing personal testimony. Becoming Atheist exposes people's role in renegotiating their own identities, and fashioning a secular and humanist culture for the Western world.