In 1980, the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism published its Secular Humanist Declaration based on the following ideals:
Education – Advocate transmission of knowledge; encourage moral growth.
Moral Education – Abandon religious indoctrination of minors.
Reason – Cultivate human intelligence through inquiry, logic, and evidence.
Free Inquiry – Oppose tyranny of the mind.
Ideal of Freedom – Make democratic decisions by majority rule.
Science and Technology – Resist unthinking efforts to limit advances.
Evolution – Teach only scientific truths within science classes.
Separate Church and State – Deny legislation of ecclesiastical, insular law.
Religious Skepticism – Necessitate scientific evidence for divine claims.
Critical Intelligence Ethics – Formulate ethics independently of religion.
Christians purport Secular Humanism is a religion based on the use of faith in the Humanist Manifesto, even though faith can mean “complete trust or confidence in something.” Equivocation aside, the manifesto clarifies that divine faith is irrational:
Reason and intelligence are the most effective instruments that humankind possesses. There is no substitute: neither faith nor passion suffices in itself.
Humanists are so threatening that Art Buchwald once satirized:
Some [Secular Humanists] could be your best friends without your knowing they are Humanists. They could come into your house, play with your children, eat your food, and even watch football on television with you, and you’d never know that they have read Catcher in the Rye, Brave New World, and Huckleberry Finn.
