the brights (NY times op-ed)

[Bob Fitzke]

Define "religion".

Bob


----- Original Message -----
From: "Geoffrey Nunberg" <nunberg at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, July 12, 2003 7:04 PM
Subject: Re: the brights (NY times op-ed)


> This seems right to me -- and the caps on "Secular Humanism" are
> instructive. In fact it's hard to see how this sense could have
> emerged before the late 1950's, with the first stirrings of what were
> to become the culture wars. I found an unambiguously polemical use in
> a letter to the WSJ in 1970 from a professor of Biblical theology:
>
> The radical transition in the public schools over the past couple of
> generations has not been toward "neutrality." It has been rather a
> shift from the value system of Protestant Christianity toward that of
> an increasinly dominant secular humanism. .. Although in the public
> school pro forma all religions are equal, in fact the religion of
> secular humanism is more equal than others.
>
> Geoff Nunberg
>
>
> >---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >-----------------------
> >Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >Poster:       Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> >Subject:      Re: the brights (NY times op-ed)
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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> >
> >On Sat, 12 Jul 2003, Geoffrey Nunberg wrote:
> >
> >>  JSTOR has instances of "secular humanism" from the 1938 and 1939, and
> >>  one for "secular humanist" from 1935. But these citations all suggest
> >>  a purely compositional reading of the phrase -- as, e.g., in "the
> >>  love of man for God, foreign alike to Greek moral philososphy and the
> >>  secular humanism of the present day." I feel sure that that David is
> >>  right as regards the polemical use of the phrase to signify what MW
> >>  defines as " humanistic philosophy viewed as a nontheistic religion
> >>  antagonistic to traditional religion." That was a much later
> >>  invention, though you'd need a lot of context to sort out just when
> >
> >The earliest citation that has been found, as far as I know, is from
> >William G. Peck, The Social Implications of the Oxford Movement (1933),
> >but this is what Geoffrey calls a "compositional" usage.  The term in its
> >"polemical" usage traces to Justice Hugo Black's opinion in the U.S.
> >Supreme Court case, Torcaso v. Watkins (1961), in which Black wrote:
> >"Among religions in this country, however, which do not teach what
> >would generally be considered belief in the existence of God are
Buddhism,
> >Taoism, Ethical Culture, Secular Humanism and others."  Black picked this
> >up from an amicus curiae brief in the case by Columbia religion professor
> >Joseph L. Blau.
> >
> >Fred Shapiro
> >
> >
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
> >Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
> >   Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
> >Yale Law School                             forthcoming
> >e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu
http://quotationdictionary.com
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------