Humanism: A Very Short IntroductionReligion is currently gaining a much higher profile. The number of faith schools is increasingly, and religious points of view are being aired more frequently in the media. As religion's profile rises, those who reject religion, including humanists, often find themselves misunderstood, and occasionally misrepresented. Stephen Law explores how humanism uses science and reason to make sense of the world, looking at how it encourages individual moral responsibility and shows that life can have meaning without religion. Challenging some of the common misconceptions, he seeks to dispute the claims that atheism and humanism are 'faith positions' and that without God there can be no morality and our lives are left without purpose. Looking at the history of humanism and its development as a philosophical alternative, he examines the arguments for and against the existence of God, and explores the role humanism plays in moral and secular societies, as well as in moral and religious education. Using humanism to determine the meaning of life, he shows that there is a positive alternative to traditional religious belief. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable. |
Contents
what is humanism? | 1 |
1 History of humanism | 8 |
2 Arguments for the existence of God | 29 |
3 An argument against the existence of God | 49 |
4 Humanism and morality | 71 |
5 Humanism and secularism | 93 |
6 Humanism and moral and religious education | 108 |
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accept activity actually agent allow answer appear argument atheist authority belief British capital Catholic cause challenge Chapter Christian Church claim commands commitment consider course created critical developed divine encourage Enlightenment entirely ethical evidence evil example existence experiences explain express fact faith follow freedom funerals further give given gods History human humanist ideas important individual intelligent involves issues John justification kind laws lead least less lives look matter meaning meaningful merely moral natural objective obvious offer organizations particular perhaps person philosopher political position possible powerful problem questions quote rational reason recognize reject religion religious religious beliefs requires responsibility result right or wrong schools scientific secular seems selection sense social society someone sometimes sort suffering suggestion suppose surely theodicies theory things thought traditional true truth universe values