Secular Humanism: The Best Post-Christian Alternative
Brian Worley
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1)
Your future (heaven) 2)
Your lifestyle (living
/acting like Christ would) 3)
Your authority and
otherwise the rules of life (the
Bible) Leaving Christianity isn’t for the faint of heart; the Christian’s security (although false) provided a comforting life of faith when shielded from free inquiry. In essence, you realized that the sheriff was corrupt and that a higher manifestation of ethics didn’t need to wear an ecclesiastical robe. You took those noble inner character traits that define you as a person and ceased to inflate or promote the God of the Bible and “his” enormous ego. Some folks may not be able to understand the new you, but I do, and so do others that have preceded you in your journey from faith! The
Materialistic & Hedonistic
Alternatives What
now? You don’t have to do
anything after your leave the
faith. You can do what many
Christian’s had suspected were
behind your ulterior motives for
leaving Christianity and go on
to live a self centered,
hedonistic or materialistic way
of life. That is, if you want
to! Great thing about this is
that there is going to be no
post-life encounter with the
“God of the Bible” that you
abandoned. No “judgment seat
of Christ” or no “casting of
your being into the Lake of
Fire”.
Whatever you do from the
moment you leave Christianity is
going to be your choice. The
things that you do will now will
be a reflection of the real you
(“from your heart”).
Your motivation isn’t
going to be credited to either
Jesus or Lucifer by thinking
people. It
may take you some time to
reflect upon what is the “real
you” as opposed to the
“Christian identity” that
you adopted when you accepted
Christianity. In my case, I took
some time to reflect what
aspects were truly mine, and
separated them from the subtle
but pervasive remnants taken
from Christianity. I would urge
you to commit these to paper
(your principles) to help
organize your own thought
processes. Furthermore, you
might discover that some of
those old Christian beliefs
might still unnecessarily cling
to your decision making process
as things become clearer to you
when you get further away from
Christianity! Not
everyone who leaves the faith is
a humanist. If you want to live
a materialistic or hedonistic
life this is your choice. You
will get no post-Christian
“Christian” judgment from
me. One difference between the
materialist or hedonist and the
humanist is taking
responsibility for the
consequences of our actions. The
materialists might make their
gains on the back of others
without any consideration of the
interests of others. While the
hedonist’s lifestyle of
pleasure can create problems
that they might evade
responsibility for. Both the
hedonist and the materialist can
take or pillage and “dust
their hands” as if to say this
doesn’t concern themselves, a
humanist is different. A
humanist takes responsibility
for their actions and is
genuinely concerned about
others. This is quite a contrast
from the materialist or
hedonist. The
Atheist Alternative Another
common post-Christian
alternative is atheism. Some
might not go as far as atheism
but would rather say that they
are unsure of things or that
they are content to be an
agnostic. Agnosticism and
atheism are neutral towards
ethical systems, for they only
address one’s position on
supernatural deities. Atheism
& agnosticism are not
lifestyle choices, but merely
replies to supernatural
enquiries. I had learned this
lesson well within the last year
while discussing the best ways
to reach Christian believers
with other atheists. My approach to reaching others still in Christianity, in short, is to use reason and talk with them as you would a friend. But I was taken to the ‘woodshed” by an atheist post-Christian blogger whom I will call “Boom” for my seeking to treat Christians with common courtesy. Read the unedited quote for yourself: (Boom's quote) Frankly, I just left the "one-size-fits-all" mentality, so whenever non-believers, former ministers, agnostics, "soft" Atheists, or what-have-you, come along and tell me how to handle believers, they are implicitly, if not explicitly, reminding me of one of the things that I despise about Christianity.... i.e.. Telling other people how to act, and using their worldview as the "authority". For those who can't seem to remember, "Atheism" means one thing---I don't have a belief in "God"/gods. The end. Aside from that, people are people are people.
Yes,
some non-believers come out
swinging and make it a point to
get personal, that is, before
giving the benefit of the doubt.
Well, in a couple of words....tough
shit. Again,
"Atheism" is lack of
belief in deities---it doesn't
now, and it never will, claim to
be a "trend-setter"
for outstanding diplomacy
skills. In other words, human
behavior has zero relevance to
whether "Gods" exist,
or not. I
hate to admit this, but
"Boom" was correct
with most everything that he
stated here. An atheist can say
what "Boom" stated
herein, but a humanist
couldn’t. It wasn’t too long
after this that I knew that
atheism just wasn’t for me!
Now let me say that most
atheists are fine moral and
ethical examples and treat
others with respect, just as a
humanist would. But the fact
remains that atheism lacks an
ethical code or stated more
clearly that it is neutral
towards ethics. Atheism’s
worldview lacks belief in God
and doesn’t address ethical
issues. This is why you can have
ethical, positive atheists in
one corner and have the dogmatic
crude atheist holding the same
atheist viewpoint. If you leave
Christianity and want atheism
you are accepting a lack of god
belief without any attached
moral or ethical systems. Let me
make this clear, many atheists
are outstanding ethical
examples. Most of them could
also rightfully claim humanism
as well. If you want to identify
yourself as an atheist your
worldview would have to be
inclusive of individuals such as
“Boom”.
Where “Boom” was
incorrect was his stating that
this worldview was masquerading
as an “authority.” I
disagree; atheism and humanism
are both non-authoritative
choices. With the
“authority” god out of the
picture, we are left with
CHOICES. This is the essence of
this article. I firmly believe
that Secular Humanism is the
best Post-Christian alternative
for me personally and most
Post-Christian infidels as well! It
seems that the positive &
ethical atheists always have to
defend themselves against what
are often false claims of
unethical behavior. While
diplomacy skills and ethics
aren’t important to atheists
like “Boom”, other atheist
have to defend their honor as
atheists due to some following
“Boom’s” crude atheist
example. Atheism has room for
both types of personalities,
humanists don’t! Atheism
tolerates the duality on ethics,
humanism doesn’t. Why should
an ethical atheist have to
defend themselves on the account
of such folks as “Boom”?
This is because ”Boom”
properly resides between the
guidelines of atheism.
“Boom” doesn’t qualify to
be a humanist with his distain
for diplomacy and ethical
behavior. Secular Humanism
rejects the supernatural and has
the ethical concerns as well!
Secular Humanists have already
addressed their rejection of the
supernatural and don’t need
the entanglements that the
atheist continues to struggle
with! Dissatisfied atheists
might want to consider dropping
the atheism identity altogether
and join the secular humanists!
It just depends on what crowd
you want to be associated with! The
Religious Humanist Alternative
Several
have asked me to consider the
religious humanist viewpoint as
a lifestyle. This would be
understood to mean the Unitarian
viewpoint. The Unitarians
haven’t asked me, nor have I
approached them. Those that had
asked me to consider this were
not affiliated with the
Unitarians, but they reasoned
that a former minister might
find room to dwell in underneath
the Unitarian umbrella since
they are so inclusive. Maybe
they are correct, but I have no
desire for a churchy atmosphere.
My “off and on” button works
on cue,
I’m not turning back
lest I turn to stone (laughs)! I
had gotten well acquainted with
the Unitarians while working for
the picture company Olan Mills
years ago. They were nice
people, but just not for me.
Beyond the churchy atmosphere, I
personally think that they are
too inclusive. I am somewhat
opinionated and feel more
comfortable in a secular
humanist group, rather than a
religious humanist setting. This
doesn’t make me more
“correct” or better than my
fellow humanists; once again
this is just one of the options
that a humanist has to choose
from. Should
you decide and choose religious
humanism, many Christians would
probably confuse you with a
religious liberal that had
switched churches due to some
type of “church split”. You
remember all of those church
splits from your church days,
don’t you? We as de-converted
Christians have come out of the
church, no need to return to the
scene. I remember something that
I was once taught while in
“preacher's classes”. That
is: “when you are so much
like the others, you are not
different enough to command
others to come your way”. Think
about it! Many folks have the tendency towards a Phlegmatic personality and have a tough time making a decision. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but one needs to look within and determine which is the best of the Post-Christian choices available for you and then make a decision. For you the de-converted Christian, there is no need for you to stall or to fritter your time away, a good secular humanist organization already has the structure in place and is a great place to join with likeminded individuals whom desire to build humanity. It is better than being a loner! Secular
Humanism: The Best
Post-Christian Alternative If
you choose atheism and maintain
your ethical values, you will
always have to apologize for
“Boom” types of atheists. Is
this what you want? I am not
going to carry that flag! I see
very little hope for mankind in
atheism because of the crude
atheists like “Boom” that
neutralize the good that the
positive and ethical atheists
do. What atheism lacks, secular
humanism has in abundance.
Secular Humanism offers
realistic hope and deserves your
support. Atheism is somewhat of
a landing spot for many of those
that are not yet familiar with
humanism. I
think the unbalanced repetitive
“killing of the straw man”
activity leads to burnout. Many
of you have that special
post-Christian passion, I urge
you to re-invest that energy and
use it to build humanity! I can
tell you that I don’t want the
epitaph of my tombstone to read,
“Brian sought to destroy
religion”. I would rather have
people remember me as a guy whom
sought to build humanity. I
think that this is the cure for
burnout that some experience
after repetitively “killing
the straw man”! Perhaps you are currently blogging or have your own website, great! But ask yourself, are you only tearing down something (religion)? Are you seeking to build something beyond your own internet creation? These are tough questions to ask of one’s self! I’ve asked myself these questions and this is why I have decided to re-group and to build a post-Christian bridge to Secular Humanism! Can we build this bridge together? It would not offend me at all to see others express the same desire. If you think that this is an attempt to "replace" or to fill something else in the place of religion then you have misunderstood my intentions. I think it to be a wonderful alternative, not the only one. The
best article (in my opinion)
outlining the humanistic options
that are available to people was
written by Fred
Edwords and this has been
posted on the Ex-minister.org
website. The essay is entitled “What
Is Humanism?” I read this
with sheer enjoyment and came to
realize that many of us
de-converted Christians were
already humanists although we
didn’t know it at the time.
Secular Humanism is the best of
the post-Christian alternatives
that we have. I urge those of
you in America to consider the American
Humanist Association . To
those outside of the US, you
should browse the International
Humanist and Ethical Union’s
website to find where the
closest humanist organization
is. I have been very
impressed with the
professionalism of both the AMA
and the IHEU and I heartily
recommend them! Brian
Worley
Ex-minister.org
January 31, 2009
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