thread: 2005-06-06 : Happenings
On 2005-06-06, Brand Robins wrote:
Xenopulse: You said, "But those people who question and who live in uncertainty, and who refute that such certainty is possible, are in a wholly different situation. That's why secular humanism is not a religion. It does not give you comfort. It does not give you easy answers. It says instead, hell if I know what's true, but that stuff you're believing in just doesn't rhyme with the way the world works."
Well, I have some Buddhist friends that believe very similar things—and all the while are trying to negate themselves. Does that make Buddhism not a religion? (Actually, I did once attend a conference in which three PhDs in Religious Studies said just that: Buddhism isn't a religion, it's a philosophy. That was the day I started collapsing my own definitions of the words, finding that the divisions between the two can become so close as to be meaningless.)
Certainly you've demonstrated a difference between secular humanists and some Christian Fundementalists: but not between our good friends and all religious stripes. There are many people who see religion as a way to learn and find the way to truth, not claim divine right for everything, and just as many religious people who admit to uncertainty as there are among those who shun traditional religions.
I think the problem is closer to "those who are willing to learn" and "those who are not" ? and I still maintain that no side has a lock on either aspect.
