the brights (NY times op-ed)

[sagehen]

There is a strong evocation of the Looking-glass world in this discusssion
of secular humanism.  To assert that those who hold to  belief in a god and
those  who simply don't come equally under the rubric of "religion" sounds
a lot like Humpty Dumpty telling Alice, "When /I/ use a word, it means just
what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less."
It could be said that some manifestations of  atheism  or secular humanism
are doctrinaire, and those equated with religion, just as politics might
be: i.e., in a figurative sense.  But simply to say that secular humanism
is a religion strikes me as a contradiction in terms.
A. Murie

A&M Murie
N. Bangor NY
sagehen at westelcom.com