Secular Humanist means good person, not atheist

When religious people are asked about what guidance they use to be a good person, commonly they’ll refer to religious beliefs, faith, and scripture. What about when atheists are asked the same question? Often, they’ll reply with secular humanism, but that is not exclusive to atheists. Secularism first and foremost is separation of church and state. No religious test for holding public office. Civil law is above religious law. The government doesn’t dictate how you pray or what you pray to. No persecution and no special privileges based on religious faith. Being secular doesn’t mean being an atheist. In fact, the origin of secularism in the United States had nothing to do with atheism. It was to protect certain Christian sects from being persecuted by other Christian sects in certain colonies. Today the application of secularism has extended beyond Christian sects vs. other Christian sects to all religions and no religion. The application of “all men are created equal” has extended beyond white men who owned land to all men and all women. Humanism means human solutions for human problems. Ex. Lightning rods and tornado shelters are valued higher than reliance on divine intervention. Preparation always comes before prayer. But if God is watching over us, why do we need to reply on human intervention? “God helps those who help themselves” or “God gave us brains to figure things out on our own” is often used by religious people to rationalize that despite a God, humans must directly intervene to control human destiny. Besides human solutions for human problems, humanism also means caring about the safety and wellbeing of people. This applies to people today and future generations. Believing in secular and humanist values doesn’t make someone an atheist or religious. It simply means that they have the philosophical foundation to be a good person. A great example of secular humanism is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which has been translated into over 500 languages. http://www.un.org/en/universal-declar...