Secular Humanist
From the British Columbia Humanists website: Humanism is a naturalistic philosophy that affirms the value of humanity without the need for supernatural explanations or dogma.
From Wikipedia: The philosophy or life stance secular humanism embraces human reason, ethics, social justice and philosophical naturalism, whilst specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, pseudoscience or superstition as the basis of morality and decision making.
I have known atheists who classify themselves as skeptics who are also secular humanists but don’ t employ the“ agnostic” modifier. I have known skeptics who consider themselves agnostics without the“ atheist” modifier... You get the idea.
The Human Factor
I know some of you are going to contribute your passionate arguments against labels or you’ re going to take umbrage with the way I have defined or used mine. That’ s ok. But it might help to keep in mind that labels are intended to be self-identifiers. It’ s not helpful to push labels on others or take issue with how people describe themselves. Words have meaning, labels have meaning, and it’ s certainly possible for someone to misappropriate a label onto themselves but ultimately, individuals label themselves and those labels are part of their story.
Ultimately, I believe this is about human connections. I believe human connections matter. I believe relationships have value, both implicit and explicit. And I believe human beings want to be understood and truly known by their fellows. When we have a greater understanding of one another, we are able to connect on a deeper level and it is through those connections that we are able to communicate, journey, discover, grow and develop.
Developing atheist communities is important to me because I believe most human beings thrive in them. What those communities look like and how
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