A Humanist God? On the troubled Relationship Between Humanism and Religion Today
The relationship between humanism and religion has always been difficult, since the Renaissance. If we look at the Humanist Associations active today in the world, we find that the relationship has become almost a declared war. Religion appears to be the greatest enemy of humanism, i.e., of the huma...
| Published in: | Cultural and religious studies |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
David Publishing Company
2017
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| In: |
Cultural and religious studies
Year: 2017, Volume: 5, Issue: 4, Pages: 190-195 |
| Further subjects: | B
secularization complexity
B Transcendence B Religion B Humanist Associations B Existence B Humanism B Secularism |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The relationship between humanism and religion has always been difficult, since the Renaissance. If we look at the Humanist Associations active today in the world, we find that the relationship has become almost a declared war. Religion appears to be the greatest enemy of humanism, i.e., of the humanity. Authentic humanism seems to be exclusively secular and atheistic: you can do good only if there is no God. In this contribution I look at some programmatic documents of Humanist Associations to understand the reasons for this contrast, in the background of secularization. The result is that some criticisms of religion — its potential for violence and obscurantism — are historically and theoretically justifiable but partial. Indeed, they show a poor and narrow vision of religion that leads to a narrow view of the human experience. A more complex vision of man requires a more complex vision of religion. A complex vision of man includes the most "irrational" and enigmatic aspects of our being, as love, death, pain, desire, imagination and even freedom and creativity. On this basis we can appropriately understand the historical and existential role of religion. Otherwise, if God is the one painted by humanists, God would not be good, let alone a good humanist. |
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| ISSN: | 2328-2177 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Cultural and religious studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.17265/2328-2177/2017.04.002 |