Atheism, Humanism and Secular Ethics, USA

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ZeffD's picture
Atheism, Humanism and Secular Ethics, USA

“I’m trying to eliminate discrimination against atheists,” said Mr. Appignani, who is 83 and lives in Florida. “So this is a step in that direction, to make atheism legitimate.” Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/21/us/university-of-miami-establishes-cha...

Good news, but I think he makes a mistake in choosing a theological term for the title of the chair. I think it would not only be more appropriate but be better to use a secular term for a secular position. Humanist, Freethinker, Skeptic or Non-believer would have demonstrated no need for the language of religious faith instead of falling back into it.

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Pitar's picture
I believe the title is needed

I believe the title is needed.

"Just think of how stupid the average person is and then imagine half of them are even stupider than that." - George Carlin

Currently the word atheism is the elephant in the room that most people acknowledge familiarity with. By any other name, they probably would not draw the association to atheism (being "stupider than that") and that would be counter-intuitive to making a claim for secularism in an in-your-face manner. I have no pride in being atheist so I place no importance in a name and dismiss it as I do all insignificant fleeting thought.

The chair of the program, though, needs to be under a banner that misses no mark of understanding of its intent and "atheism" kinda-sorta hits the nail on the head. Those who catch 1st glimpse of the word either bind to it or eschew it depending upon their positions. But, it will get immediate attention because of its familiarity across the board.

I do think that the nature of it will attract the militants who do not understand that they are not atheists but rather anti-theists. From there, unless there's some very early grooming of the program and its intent, it will digress into the failure all anti-theism suffers in its anachronous stance. Should that occur, the program will slink out of the university's back door as a laughing stock that didn't even understand its own mission, much less teach it, thereby setting atheism back for the unforseeable future.

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