Posted on 09/14/2007 12:27:56 PM PDT by pabianice
Humanists Linda Antoun Miller and Rev. David J. Miller, minister emeritus of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester. (ED COLLIER) Enlarge photo
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WORCESTER, MA -
Humanists, for decades content to meet and talk among themselves about rationalism and regarded as 98-pound godless weaklings by the muscle-bound religious right, have emerged from the shadows of irrelevance and joined the battle for secular reason in Washington, on the Web and even in Worcester.
For the first time in its 66-year history, the American Humanist Association has joined forces with a lobbying group — the Secular Coalition for America — and last year launched its own legal center — Appignani — a collection of pro bono lawyers who will keep the American Civil Liberties Union company in taking on church-state separation cases.
Greater Worcester Humanists — this is what the organization started as and then became a society — loosely formed in 2002 with about 15 people and has grown to about 100 members, according to David A. Niose. It has become an official AHA chapter.
“There is a sense that we’re gaining momentum,” said Mr. Niose, a founder of the group, now known as the Greater Worcester Humanist Society, and treasurer of the national parent organization, the American Humanist Association. “We want a place at the public table in the American dialogue.”
In the past, humanists kept a low profile and enjoyed the conversation with fellow humanists. But while the humanists were revisiting the Enlightenment, the religious right was marshaling forces, raising money, gaining popular support and electing candidates, mostly conservative Republicans.
Humanists and assorted secularists have been emboldened in recent years by the rising popularity of such unapologetic, non-theist writers as Sam Harris, author of “The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason”; Richard Dawkins, who wrote “The God Delusion”; and Christopher Hitchens, who penned “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.”
They have been spurred to come out of the non-theist closet by what they see as a chipping away by the Bush Administration at the wall separating church and state.
“That’s an encroachment of our freedom of conscience to believe and practice what we want,” said Mr. Niose, a Fitchburg lawyer. “It was time to stand up and be activists as humanists.”
Not an easy task when polls have consistently shown that 90 percent of Americans believe in God. Those same polls show that from 45 percent to 55 percent say they regularly attend religious service.
“Religious identity and actual religious beliefs are two different things,” Mr. Niose said. “Only about half of Americans go to church. Why are half of us not attending religious services? We think about 10 (percent) to 25 percent of Americans share the humanistic world view without necessarily rejecting the idea of a divinity.” Humanists believe there are many millions of Americans who may reflexively identify themselves with the religion they were raised in even if they no longer have any binding ties to it or strong convictions about its precepts.
“We’re not evangelical about humanism. We don’t try to convert people,” said Mr. Niose, who was raised in a Irish-Italian Catholic home but drifted away from Catholicism as a young adult, and found the humanist positions about great life questions often coalesced with his own. “People have to come to humanism by their own reason, but we believe there are a lot of people walking around out there who are humanists and don’t know it.”
Atheists, or non-theists, do not believe in God. Agnostics question the existence of God. Humanists welcome both and even those who believe in God number among their ranks.
With apologies to Alexander Dubcek, the Czech leader who created socialism with a human face that brought in the Soviet tanks, this is Mr. Niose’s idea of humanism with a human face.
“Uncle Hank there on the end of the sofa hasn’t been to church in 20 years and doesn’t believe a bit in any dogma, but ask him what religion he is and he’ll say Catholic,” Mr. Niose said.
In addition to helping the Uncle Hanks identify with humanism, AHA is making a concerted effort to introduce itself to American youth. The group recently sponsored a contest on YouTube for short videos promoting humanism, and the organization’s publication, “The Humanist,” is sponsoring a 2008 essay contest for high school students on “issues important to humanists.”
Rev. David J. Miller served as minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (where the local humanists meet) from 1970 to 1990. Being a humanist and minister is not contradictory to Rev. Miller, who was raised in a humanist home. He believes he provided a ministry as reliant on moral values as any God-based ministry.Rev. Miller and Mr. Niose said one of the great misconceptions about humanism is its equation with an absence of moral grounding. Humanists believe that the ability to discern right from wrong is innate in human nature, easily developed with or without faith in a deity.
“Doing good doesn’t require a religious foundation,” said Mr. Niose.
Rev. Robert S. Batchelder, minister for mission and service at the Worcester Area Mission Society of the United Church of Christ, agrees. “The proof is in the life lived,” he said.Humanists and liberal progressive denominations such as the UCC are more philosophical cousins than adversaries, Rev. Batchelder said, more engaged in a conversation than an argument. He cited gay marriage as an issue that humanists and members of his denomination would support, while arriving at their positions from different perspectives.
“The humanist would use the human rights argument that comes out of the Enlightenment to defend gay marriage,” he said. “The mainstream Protestant would say, ‘Yes, that’s very true,’ but go on to say that sex is a gift from God that should be channeled and guided into a covenant relationship that is marriage. Heterosexuals and gays and lesbians should have the same opportunity for such a relationship.”
Rev. Clifford Gerber, pastor of Mount Olivet Lutheran Church in Shrewsbury and a former president of the now defunct Central Massachusetts Council of Churches, said many mainstream denominations identify with humanism, if not the secular aspect of it.
“I believe Jesus was a humanist,” Rev. Gerber said. “He held extremely human values, even putting human values ahead of religious values at times. Healing someone of dropsy on the Sabbath may not seem like a big deal now but it was then. He crossed a religious line to do it.”
While fundamentalist Christian groups have been openly hostile to humanism, Orthodox Jews tend to be merely wary of an ethical philosophy that is not God-centered.
“Humanism has merit,” said Rabbi Hershel Fogelman of the Congregation Tifereth Israel Sons of Jacob in Worcester. “When things are good humanism works … but when society breaks down, people act out of self-interest. There is jealousy and hatred and humanism falls apart because there is no higher authority to look to. Humanists are good people but humanism has no lasting value.”
How does a non-theist, humanist accept death as the end of life rather than the beginning of an afterlife?
“I’m in my 65th year,” said Rev. Miller, a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and a minister emeritus, “and I can say it’s been a helluva life. I’ve been in relationships of love and friendship. I value truth very highly and I know the truth is that death is final. Those who believe in the hereafter grieve very strenuously over death. They’re as afraid of death as I am.”
His wife, Linda Antoun Miller, said being a humanist to her means “that we alone have responsibility for our world and that we should try to increase the good, the true and the beautiful. We make our own heaven and hell on earth. Being good because you will be rewarded in the hereafter is less than doing good for purely generous reasons.”
Contact reporter Mark Melady by e-mail at mmelady@telegram.com.
Humanism...just another name for bestiality and animalism.
Isn’t it enough they own the universities?
I suppose humanists are better than the misanthropic transhumanists, but not by much.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.