Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84 exptools; site iham1.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!iham1!cbd From: cbd@iham1.UUCP (deitrick) Newsgroups: net.politics,net.religion Subject: Humanism, Catholicism, and Walter Lippmann Message-ID: <444@iham1.UUCP> Date: Mon, 16-Sep-85 09:41:06 EDT Article-I.D.: iham1.444 Posted: Mon Sep 16 09:41:06 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 17-Sep-85 05:42:46 EDT Distribution: net Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 86 Xref: watmath net.politics:11015 net.religion:7655 >> Wrong! Thats not what secular humanism teaches. It teaches little children >> how to think about suicide. It teaches them that some people's lives are >> worth less than others. It teaches them that homosexuality and premarital >> sex are choices for them to consider. It also teaches them to ignore any >> values they may be learning in the home and that values are purely subjective >> and how to make their own values. (if any!) >> >> Come on! No more BS! Secular humanism is designed to eliminate God from >> our society and its central target is the YOUNG! >> And its working just fine! Because most parents don't have the slightest >> idea what is going on in the public school systems. I apologize to the original posters of the quoted articles for not including your names. I don't know who you are. The term "secular humanism" is a redundancy. "Secular" means "not overtly or specifically religious". "Humanism" is "a philosophy that asserts the dignity and worth of man and his capacity for self-realization through reason and that often rejects *supernaturalism*" (my emphasis). It's a sure bet that anything that rejects supernaturalism (i.e. spirits, gods, phenomena not explainable by physical laws) is not overtly or specifically religious. The subject of this debate, then, is just "humanism". In his book "A Preface to Morals", Walter Lippman writes "Insofar as men have now lost their belief in a heavenly king, they have to find some other ground for their moral choices than the revelation of his will. It follows necessarily that they must find the tests of righteousness wholly within human experience. The difference between good and evil must be a difference which men themselves recognize and understand. Happiness cannot be the reward of virtue; it must be the intelligible consequence of it. It follows, too, that virtue cannot be commanded; it must be willed out of personal conviction and desire. Such a morality may properly be called humanism, for it is centered not in superhuman but in human nature. When men can no longer be theists, they must, if they are civilized, become humanists. They must live by the premise that whatever is righteous is inherently desirable because experience will demonstrate its desirability. They must live, therefore, in the belief that the duty of man is not to make his will conform to the will of God but to the surest knowledge of the conditions of human happiness." Later in the book, he explains human happiness is the result of virtues such as courage, honor, faithfulness, veracity, justice, temperance, magnanimity, and love. That, sports fans, is humanism. Humanism is not designed to eliminate God from anything. It is an alternative to organized religion for people who (like me) can't take seriously the whole panoply of an anthropomorphic God, saints, angels, redemption from sin and guilt by a bloody ritual in an ancient desert, purgatory, hell, original sin, heaven, Satan, devils, and the army of Christ. Seen from a distance, those things makes no more sense than the gods of Greek or Norse mythology. Humanism follows after one loses the capacity to believe. It does not cause that loss. For the life of me, I don't see how anyone can claim that humanism teaches one to think about suicide, or encourages premarital sex or homosexuality. And to claim that young people are the "target" of humanism is transcendentally stupid. That makes it sound like a conspiracy, kind of like the Trilateral Commission . People who make accusations like that lose all credibility. ***FLAME ON*** I was baptized and raised as a Roman Catholic. I went through a Catholic grade school and got some Catholic religious instruction when I was in high school. I 'heard between the lines', if you will, and learned the three basic lessons of the Catholic Church: 1) The individual is worthless. You have duties and responsibilities but no rights or privileges. 2) You're going to hell and there's nothing you can do about it. It is not possible to live in a way that will get you to heaven. 3) Unless you're going to make babies, sex is a sin. Period. The real threat is a not a philosophy that emphasizes the dignity and worth of people, but rather a church that would teach this kind of poison. When faced with principles like this, it's no wonder people reject organized religion. Humanism is a welcome refuge after enduring that lunacy. ***FLAME OFF*** Carl Deitrick ihnp4!iham1!cbd Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com