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Secular "Beliefs"?

Is there such a thing as a secular "belief"? I might have a beef with the naming of this forum! Because there are no religious "beliefs" when one is secular. Perhaps this forum should be named secular NONbelief?
 

Yes Man

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Secularist: I believe church and state should be kept separate.

There you go. :eek:
 
Some would say that an athiest has a belief in the non-existance of a "God".

Agnostics, me anyways, have a belief that it is possible that a "God" exists, but that it is also possible that a "God" does not exist... Either way I believe it can not be proven...

Both believe in something, so I can understand the naming of the forum. None are without "belief"
 

BucephalusBB

ABACABB
My disbelief in god comes from my beliefs of how this world works. Not all based upon full proof.
So even if you do not want to call it a belief, it comes from beliefs..
 
I am making a distinction here between religious beliefs and other kinds of beliefs.

I believe that DNA is the information molecule for life, and that it exists within all living cells. This is not a belief based on faith, but on countless experiments and enormous amounts of evidence, and without this framework biology as we know it would cease to exist. Nature would have a LOT of explaining to do if DNA were suddenly found to not be the information molecule for life.

This is a belief. But its not a religious belief, it has nothing to do with faith.

Contrary to what has been said, atheists do not "believe" there is/are no god(s). An atheist simply doesn't have any belief in any supernatural deity. (Agnostics are also atheists by this definition - I think "agnostic" is just a word for people who want to straddle some sort of middle ground, when there really is none - but I guess that can be a seperate post).

All I am saying is that secularists dont have any RELIGIOUS beliefs, supernatural beliefs. Therefore there is no such thing as secular religious belief.
 
As an atheist, what kind of proof are you looking for from me that I don't believe in the existence of god(s)?

Well, that's the point. I am not looking for proof from an atheist, I don't believe it is possible to do so. But, if I am wrong and I am presented with proof of a "gods" non-existance, then I too will become an atheist. And vice versa. My point was that I don't understand how one can be an atheist without proof, and that is why I consider myself an agnostic. It sounds like I may be wrong in my assumptions though. I always thought that athiests = no god(s) while theists = yes god(s), and agnostics = maybe god(s). Is that not the gist of it?

Edit: I just read the athiest description, it seems there are various levels of athiesm... my apologies. I can see now how an agnostic could be considered an athiest by the definition of a "soft" athiest.
 
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Jayhawker Soule

-- untitled --
Premium Member
... then there's the squishy atheist,
the spongy agnostic,
the ...​
< -- the map is not the territory -- >
 

Alceste

Vagabond
Secularism =/= atheism.

There are millions of secular religious people. Though it may be hard to believe, not all religious people think that the state should impose a specific religion on the public, or base their policies on their religious beliefs.
 

linwood

Well-Known Member
All I am saying is that secularists dont have any RELIGIOUS beliefs, supernatural beliefs. Therefore there is no such thing as secular religious belief.

I know many theistic secularists.

They simply believe that theism shouldn`t have any influence on public or civil policy.
 
I know many theistic secularists.

They simply believe that theism shouldn`t have any influence on public or civil policy.

Is such a person still secular? One who is religious but keeps it to himself....is still religious (i.e., not secular)
 

linwood

Well-Known Member
Is such a person still secular? One who is religious but keeps it to himself....is still religious (i.e., not secular)

Someone once made a very good argument around here that secularism arose from religius roots.
Religious people who wished for the government to stay the hell out of their religion and visa versa.


The Jewish people is generally considered to be an ethnoreligious community rather than solely a religious grouping; Judaism guides its adherents in both practice and belief, so that it has been called not only a religion, but also a "way of life". This makes it difficult to draw a clear distinction between the cultural production of members of the Jewish people, and culture that is specifically Jewish. Furthermore, not all individuals or all cultural phenomena can be easily classified as either "secular" or "religious", a distinction native to European Enlightenment thinking and foreign to most of the history of non-European Jews.
Secular Jewish culture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
Well, if secularism does indeed mean something akin to believing in seperation of church and state but has no bearing on that individuals belief...then I guess I stand corrected on that

:D
 
Is there such a thing as a secular "belief"?

What about justice? Honesty? Empowerment? Compassion?

Basically the question boils down to whether you consider these beliefs to be religious in nature or not. It's the classic "Is Secular Humanism a religion or not?" debate.
 

dust1n

Zindīq
I guarantee you that me as an atheist still have radically different beliefs in most other realms. There is nothing concrete about atheism other than the disbelief of God.
 

dust1n

Zindīq
I am just waiting for an atheist or any religious person to prove it to me... The only logical position, IMO.;)

And I am waiting for you to disprove the magic invisible bunny that flies through the air, spreading karma and good cheer. Until you prove it to me, I am going to be 'bunny agnostic' until someone can show me clear decisive evidence of it's existent or lack there of.
 

Gabethewiking

Active Member
I am just waiting for an atheist or any religious person to prove it to me... The only logical position, IMO.;)

Question is, why would you believe in a human made god? (You know we evolved so why, how and uh? would this come come from), would also know about human psychology and the evolution of our god beliefs (in general).

I think perhaps it could be that you wish there was a god?
 
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