Review of 'Becoming Atheist: Humanism and the Secular West'

Secular humanism and "scientific psychiatry"

The Council for Secular Humanism identifies Secular Humanism as a "way of thinking and living" committed to rejecting authoritarian beliefs and embracing "individual freedom and responsibility ... and cooperation." The paradigmatic practices of psychiatry are civil commitment and insanity defense, that is, depriving innocent persons of liberty and excusing guilty persons of their crimes: the co...

The Fictive Origins Of Secular Humanism

Secular humanism and atheism beyond progressive secularism

"Freethinkers," including both atheists and secular humanists, have always been a minority in American society--and not a very popular one. There are still laws in several states preventing non-theists from holding office. Just as evangelical Protestants up until one hundred years ago held a largely optimistic view of the future and the end times (known as postmillennialism), secular humanists ...

Secular authority reduces atheist distrust 1 RUNNING HEADER: SECULAR AUTHORITY REDUCES ATHEIST DISTRUST Secular Rule of Law Erodes Believers’ Political Intolerance of Atheists

Atheists are distrusted in societies with religious majorities. However, relatively little is known about the underlying reasons for this phenomenon. Previous evidence suggests that distrust of atheists is in part the result of believers thinking that being under supernatural surveillance by a watchful God underlies moral behavior. However, secular rule of law, including institutions such as po...

Soviet Secular Ritual: Atheist Propaganda or Spiritual Consumerism?