The November 2003 issue of Dialogue, a publication of the American Ethical Union, contains an article by Joe Chuman, the Ethical Culture leader of Bergen, NJ, discussing humanism and religion. I want to share with you some of his comments.

"In the modern era, religion no longer requires an affirmation of a transcendental realm. If values and ideals serve to focus life, lift individuals beyond their self-interest and animate life with meaning and purpose, such beliefs may be construed as religious ones."

"It is a long-standing canard that people must believe in God, especially a God that rewards and punishes, in order to be moral, with the implication that humanists, agnostics and atheists are immoral. We see no empirical evidence for this. An absence of belief in a God would not inhibit people from giving to charity or loving their children, nor would it transform warm-hearted individuals into misanthropes."

"Humanism doesn't worship human beings. It reverences ethical ideals, which we human beings yearn for but recognize we can never reach."

"The supreme importance of recognizing, respecting, and eliciting the dignity of human beings is the most important idea in the world."

Joe Chuman teaches philosophy at Columbia University and was my mentor when I was a student at the Humanist Institute.

Information about the American Ethical Union is available on the internet at www.aeu.org.

--Flo Wineriter