Secular Humanism

Dawkins - My preferred Evolutionary Biologist

As you can see from yesterdays remarks, this future President has a new preferred evolutionary biologist. You may have even run out and secured your own copy of the God Delusion and feverishly read it overnight. Whether that’s true or not, I still think its worthwhile to clarify how atheism fits into society and perhaps more importantly how it affects this Administrations policies, and politics in general. The basis for my comments below is largely paraphrased from Dawkins’ book, where you could find more details (and a more eloquent discussion).

Regular readers will note that for the life of this campaign I have objected to our (and other) government setting policy on religious grounds. Examples are numerous of course, but bans on gay marriage, restrictions on stem cell research and anti-abortion advocacy are the popular ones. Topically, Americans are currently debating the sense of funding abstinence only sex education programs for teens – not only because they have been shown to be woefully ineffective, but because they omit the sensible teaching of safe sex and contraception. It’s a clear case of religious conviction trumping reason and science – and where people are suffering as a result. You can see that this phenomenon is not only common, but spreading.

So, I'm primarily advocating leadership and law-making using reason and science as a base. People should be free to pursue religion as a personal freedom – but religion should be treated as such. It should no longer be a sacred, discussion-free zone, or an excuse for unsound policy making. We should acknowledge that Christianity is one of many religious faiths, and that’s its holy book – the Bible – is as fallible and contrived as any other work of fiction (For example, a brief history lesson will tell you that the new testament was chosen from amongst some 40 books, multiply translated from Hebrew and Greek, and tarnished by the personal feelings of generations of theologians. In addition, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John almost certainly never met Jesus, and wrote their accounts years after his death using old testament prophecy as their basis.) In its place, I believe our society would be better served by taking our moral direction from a secular humanist philosophy.

Wikipedia, as always says it better than I could: “Secular humanism is a humanist philosophy that upholds reason, ethics, and justice, and specifically rejects the supernatural and the spiritual as warrants of moral reflection and decision-making.” In short, we strip away the prejudices of our millennia old holy book and use the well being of our fellow humans as a guide to right and wrong. For example, we might decide that we value faithfulness and monogamy in our society (articulating a popular call to ‘protect the family’) and this standard could be applied to straight and gay couples equally. It’s a key difference to our current way of thinking.

Equally, the Ten Commandments need no longer be the basis for our ethical direction (granting for a minute that, as many religious apologists insist, they are). Such edicts as “I am your Lord and God”, “You shall have no other gods before Me” and “You shall not make for yourself an idol” – let alone the oft remembered “You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife” arguably need updating. Dawkins suggests the following (from p264 of the God Delusion):

1. Enjoy your own life (so long as it damages nobody else) and leave others to enjoy theirs in private, whatever their inclinations, which are none of your business.

2. Do not discriminate or oppress on the basis of sex, race or (as far as possible) species.

3. Do not indoctrinate your children. Teach them how to think for themselves, how to evaluate evidence, and how to disagree with you.

4. Value the future on a timescale longer than your own.

These are by no means definitive, as far as Dawkins, or I am concerned. They serve merely to stimulate you to think about the way you would ideally like your society to be governed, free from religious bias. Hopefully this taste of reason will get you to read the God Delusion, but I’m not finished hammering this point just yet, so stay tuned if you need some convincing yet.