What is Atheism, Secularism, Humanism

Academy for Lifelong Learning

Fall 2019

David Eller

1. Talking about Religion and Non-Religion: Getting the Terms Straight

Religion is still a powerful force in American society, but it is becoming more diverse and less popular

• Pew research study in 2014:

• 46.5% Protestant (down from 51.3% in 2007)

• 20.8% Catholic (down from 23.9%)

• 5.9% non-Christian (up from 4.7%)

• 22.8% unaffiliated or “none” (up from 16.1%)

• Specifically, 15.8% identified with “nothing in particular,” 4% as agnostic, and 3.1% as atheist (up from 1.6%)

According to the General Social Survey, “nones” were the single largest category in 2018

• None = 23.1%

• Catholic = 23%

• Evangelical = 22.8%

• In the 1970s, 63% of Americans were certain about the existence of God, now only 54% are

But there is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding about who these “nones” are, why they are increasing,

and how they relate to American society—including among the “nones” themselves

• There are many complex, overlapping but non-synonymous names for positions and groups

• There is much misunderstanding about the relation between nones and God and religion in general

• All of the discussion in the U.S. is seen through a Christian lens, using Christian terms and assuming that Christianity and its god are typical of religion

• “speaking Christian”

Before we can understand non-religion, we need a better understanding of what religion is

• Theism (theos = god) is one kind or component of religion, but not all religions have gods, and theism is not equivalent to religion

It is not clear what the word “god” means

• How is a god different from other kinds of supernatural/spiritual beings?

• Cultures and religions have very different concepts of god(s)—or no concept at all

• Richard Swinburne: god = “a person without a body (i.e., a spirit) present everywhere, the creator and sustainer of the universe, able to do everything (i.e., omnipotent), knowing all things, perfectly good, a source of moral obligation, immutable, eternal, a necessary being, holy and worthy of worship”

• But that is not a definition of god but a description of one particular god

• When I write or utter the word “god” I will always intend the lower-case “g”. If I mean the Christian god, I will say “the Christian god”

Technically, atheism (a- “no/without” + theos) only means the absence or rejection of god-beliefs, not

necessarily non-religion and not merely non-Christianity

“Atheism” is one of the most abused terms in the vocabulary of non-religion

• Atheism is not a “belief” but the absence of a belief

• In the same way that not-smoking is not a habit and not-collecting-stamps is not a hobby

• Atheism is not a “belief system” because it is neither a belief nor a system (a system has more than one part)

• Atheism is not a religion but a position or conclusion on one religious question (the existence of god[s])

• Atheism does not necessarily mean certainty that there is no such thing as god(s) but the lack or dismissal of god-belief

• Not all atheists are virulently anti-religion

There are different kinds of atheism, depending on the source

• George Smith: “implicit atheism” = the absence of theistic belief without a conscious rejection of it; “explicit atheism” = the absence of theistic belief due to a conscious rejection of it

• Michael Martin: positive vs. negative atheism

• Positive/negative are not “types” but tactics of atheism and of debate in general

• “negative” challenges the evidence for a claim

• “positive” provides evidence against the claim

• Jeanine Diller: local vs. global atheism

• Muelhauser proposed 17 kinds of atheism, including closet atheism, open atheism, passive atheism, evangelical atheism, militant atheism, etc. are not types at all but simply styles

There are essentially three “elementary forms” of atheism

• Default/anthropological atheism = the absence of god-belief because the individual has never heard such a concept and/or because the society lacks such a concept

• John Wesley, founder of Wesleyan tradition, wrote that humans are “natural atheists”

• Derogatory/accusatory atheism = the label of non-belief used against people who do not show piety to god(s) or believe in the wrong god(s)

• Defensive/argumentative atheism = the rejection of god-belief by individuals living in societies where god-belief exists and is even culturally dominant

According to Christopher Silver et al., there are six subtypes of modern atheist

• Intellectual = seeks out information, draws an educated conclusion on god(s), enjoys discussing philosophical problems

• Activist = joins groups, participates in religious and other social issues

• Seeker-agnostic = do not hold a firm position but are constantly in search of knowledge and experience

• Anti-theist = sees religion as an outdated and dangerous worldview

• Non-theist = apathetic/disinterested about religion

• Ritual = hold no personal god-beliefs but find usefulness in some aspects of religious tradition

The “New Atheism” since 2004 is a form of anti-theism

• Particularly aggressive and condescending attitude towards religion and religious believers

• “delusion,” “irrational,” “ruins everything”

• None of the major works were written by experts in religion

• Tended to conflate god, the Christian god, and religion in general

• Often shared the popular and right-wing abhorrence of Islam

At least as confused is the term “agnostic” or “agnosticism”

• From a- + gnosis (knowledge)

• Agnosticism does not mean “undecided,” and it does not mean “it is impossible to know”

• Thomas Huxley coined the term in the late 1800s

• In an 1889 article, he explained:

• “Agnosticism, in fact, is not a creed, but a method, the essence of which lies in the rigorous application of a single principle…. Positively the principle may be expressed: In matters of the intellect, follow your reason as far as it will take you, without regard to any other consideration. And negatively: In matters of the intellect do not pretend that conclusions are certain which are not demonstrated or demonstrable. “

Agnosticism is NOT a position “in between” theism and atheism

• Huxley was clear that agnosticism is not a position or a “creed” (something to believe) but a method

• To be agnostic, to think agnostically, is to refrain from claiming to know when you do not have the facts and logic to support your claim

• Not exclusively related to religion or the question of god(s)

• Knowing and believing are two different things

• No one has any knowledge of god(s), so the question is, if you think agnostically about god(s), should have believe in it/them (claim that there is such a thing as god[s])?

Humanism

• Humanists are not necessarily atheists

• Humanism is not exclusively concerned with religion

• Humanism maintains that humans must find their own solutions to their problems, and that human life—and the life of the planet—is the highest value

• According to the American Humanist Association, humanism is “a rational philosophy informed by science, inspired by art, and motivated by compassion. Affirming the dignity of each human being, it supports the maximization of individual liberty and opportunity consonant with social and planetary responsibility.”

AHA continues:

• Humanism “advocates the extension of participatory democracy and the expansion of the open society, standing for human rights and social justice. Free of supernaturalism, it recognizes human beings as a part of nature and holds that values—be they religious, ethical, social, or political—have their source in human nature, experience, and culture. Humanism thus derives the goals of life from human need and interest rather than from theological or ideological abstractions and asserts that humanity must take responsibility for its own destiny.”

Skepticism

• From skepsis, inquiry/doubt

• An ancient Greek philosophical tradition that held that much or all of human knowledge is uncertain (not necessarily that it is impossible to know)

• Again, “skeptic” is not something to be but something to do: a person who thinks skeptically asks questions, makes inquiries, and comes to careful and modest conclusions

• Contemporary skepticism, e.g. The Skeptics Society (https://skeptic.com) is primarily concerned with science and challenging pseudo-scientific claims, not particularly with religion

According to the Skeptic Society:

• skepticism is “a provisional approach to claims. It is the application of reason to any and all ideas—no sacred cows allowed. In other words, skepticism is a method, not a position. Ideally, skeptics do not go into an investigation closed to the possibility that a phenomenon might be real or that a claim might be true. When we say we are ‘skeptical,’ we mean that we must see compelling evidence before we believe….

• “the pure position [that knowledge is impossible] is sterile and unproductive and held by virtually no one”

Among scholars, the most contested and debated term is “secular” or “secularism”

• From Latin saeculum (age/generation) and saecularis (relating to an age or period)

• Originally did not refer to “worldly” as opposed to “spiritual/otherworldly”

• Was more about time than place: the “secular” meant “related/adapted to the current time or era”

• Originally did not imply non-religion or anti-religion: Catholic church recognized “secular priests” who worked in parishes among the laity vs. monks who detached themselves from the everyday

In the 1800s, “secularization theory” appeared

• Karl Marx: religion would wither away when humanity’s practical needs were met

• Sigmund Freud: religion was a product of unfulfilled infantile desires and the projection of a father figure—a psychological illusion that would fade when mankind was mentally healthy

• Max Weber: modern society—urban, rationalistic, bureaucratic—is inhospitable to religion (“disenchantment”)

“Secularization theory” came to predict the demise of religion

• Religion might disappear completely (Marx)

• Religion might be permanently detached from politics and “the public square”

• Religion might become more private

• Religion might become a less important of individual lives

• Many observers insist that we are in a “post-secular” age where religion has returned to individual, social, and political importance

• Religion remains an individual choice and one option among many

The term “secularism” was introduced by George Holyoake in 1846

• “Secularism is that which seeks the development of the physical, moral, and intellectual nature of man to the highest possible point, as the immediate duty of life — which inculcates the practical sufficiency of natural morality apart from Atheism, Theism or the Bible — which selects as its methods of procedure the promotion of human improvement by material means, and proposes these positive agreements as the common bond of union, to all who would regulate life by reason and ennoble it by service” (Principles of Secularism, 17)

Freethought

• Originally, freethought referred to a movement within Christianity, allowing people to have orthodox beliefs or interpretations of religious doctrine

• In England in 1600s, a “free thinker” was a person who opposed the institutionalized church and orthodox or literal belief in the Bible

• The Freethinker magazine was first published in 1881: “The Freethinker is an anti-Christian organ, and must therefore be chiefly aggressive. It will wage relentless war against superstition in general, and against Christian superstition in particular. It will do its best to employ the resources of Science, Scholarship, Philosophy and Ethics against the claims of the Bible as a Divine Revelation”

• “Freethought” has become a virtual synonym or euphemism for atheism or irreligion

Rationalism

• Originally, a philosophical school which taught that knowledge could (or should) arise from the mind itself, independent of sensory experience

• In contemporary usage, it means the practice of reasoning (collecting valid evidence without bias and applying sound logic) to answer questions of fact

• Drawing conclusions without interference of “irrational” factors such as emotion, tradition, or supernaturalism

• At the extreme, the claim that all problems can be solved by reason

Naturalism

• A philosophical position that only natural phenomena exist and that everything can be explained by natural (as opposed to supernatural) causes

• More precisely, philosophical or ontological naturalism excludes the very idea and possibility of non-natural or super-natural

• Methodological naturalism:

• Science does not assume that only natural phenomena exist, but it finds that only natural phenomena can be observed, quantified, predicted, and thus “known“ with any degree of confidence

• Not all religions are supernaturalistic!

In recent years, religious non-believers have floated a number of terms for themselves or their position

• Universist

• Bright

• Irreligion

• Infidel (e.g. Internet Infidels)

• Unbelief

• Nickolas Conrad: “the position of not holding orthodox beliefs or traditional opinions—on religious matters—and the rejection of authority and norms concerning spiritual practices” which includes heresy, blasphemy, rejection of belief, atheism, agnosticism, humanism, and rationalism

• Meanwhile, religionists sometimes dub them “unchurched”