‘What humanism unquestionably rejects is religion in the narrow and more usual connotation. This is a form of dualism, a two-world theory. Behind the visible, tangible world of Nature there is said to be an intangible, invisible world.’
Hector Hawton (1901-1975), The Humanist Revolution
Our previous article explored whether it was possible to be both religious and humanist. Here we’ll take a look at an alternative way of addressing the problem and ask whether humanism is itself a religion.
A significant majority of humanists in the UK describe themselves as ‘non-religious’ and humanism is typically described as a ‘non-religious worldview’ (it’s often the primary example given in much of the literature relating to religious education). But is there any sense in which it could be considered to be a religion?
Different definitions
Some people adopt an essentialist definition of religion. They look for the essential attributes of religion, often highlighting beliefs in supernatural or spiritual entities, realms, and influences over our lives. The anthropologist E. B. Tyler (1832-1917) defined religion this way as simply ‘belief in supernatural beings’ – a view still shared by many humanists today.
‘Only if an outlook has as its premise the existence of one or more supernatural beings from which flow requirements about how we should live can it claim to be a religion.’
A C Grayling, Handbook of Humanism
Religions typically locate, underpin, or justify at least some of their beliefs about values and the meaning of human life through reference to these supernatural or divine beings or forces. For many people, then, what makes a worldview non-religious is that it locates the causes of all events, and the sources of knowledge, meaning, and value, within the natural world, with no reliance on anything beyond it.
This view is also shared in the most significant legal definition of what constitutes a religion. This can be found in the 2014 Supreme Court case Hodkin v Registrar General, which established that Scientology is a religion, and therefore that the Church of Scientology can register places of worship for the purposes of marrying people. In the judgment, Lord Toulson defined, with majority agreement, religion as:
‘a spiritual or non-secular belief system, held by a group of adherents, which claims to explain mankind’s place in the universe and relationship with the infinite, and to teach its adherents how they are to live their lives in conformity with the spiritual understanding associated with the belief system. By spiritual or non-secular I mean a belief system which goes beyond that which can be perceived by the senses or ascertained by the application of science. I prefer not to use the word ‘supernatural’ to express this element, because it is a loaded word which can carry a variety of connotations. Such a belief system may or may not involve belief in a supreme being, but it does involve a belief that there is more to be understood about mankind’s nature and relationship to the universe than can be gained from the senses or from science. I emphasise that this is intended to be a description and not a definitive formula.
As Hector Hawton indicates above, on this definition, humanism cannot easily be defined as a religion.
Others, however, adopt a more functional definition of religion, asking what purpose religion plays in somebody’s life, in particular, the satisfaction of certain personal and social needs. Different forms of functionalism highlight the way religion can provide solidarity and community through shared beliefs and practices, or provide support in times of crisis or uncertainty, or provide moral guidelines and social stability. For people with such an understanding of religion, humanism might be identified as playing the same role in a person’s life as a religion and so there is nothing controversial about defining it as such.
The American humanist Anthony Pinn says that while humanism is non-theistic, it need not be thought of as non-religious and it can be easier for some communities to frame their humanism as a religion:
‘Religion is a binding together, an approach, or system for attempting to make life meaningful. It is a framing of human experience so as to answer the large ontological and existential questions of our existence, who, what, when, where, and why are we? It is a way to theorise and a method for sifting through human experience in search of something that will render meaningful human encounters with the world.’
Some humanist thinkers in the past were more comfortable with thinking about humanism this way, describing what we might now consider to be non-religious worldviews as religions ‘of nature’ or ‘of humanity.’ However, this may also have been motivated by the need to make such views appear more palatable in a world still hostile to the non-religious.
Both definitions, unfortunately, have their limitations. Essentialist definitions can be overly simplified and fail to do justice to what religion means to many people. While functional definitions can become so broad that almost any belief or practice can potentially be defined as a religion. Some might therefore prefer to simply ignore the question altogether, claiming that the most satisfactory answer is to say that it merely depends on how you personally define religion: ‘Is humanism a religion? Well, it’s up to you.’
How does humanism differ from religion?
What might be of greater interest to many people, then, is whether there lie clear differences between humanism and the world’s major religions. Humanism may attempt to answer many of the same questions that religions tackle – existential questions about identity, reality, meaning, and ethics – and its answers may, like religion, lead to a set of beliefs and values for human beings to live by. However, as mentioned above, humanists believe the answers to such questions can be found through the resources of the natural (including human) world alone without the need to posit the existence of anything above, outside, or beyond it. They also recognise that answers to these questions are provisional. Reason, evidence, and our understanding of the human experience and natural world may shed further light on them in the future. Nothing is set in stone.
Unlike many religions, no one invented or founded humanism. Nor is it a tradition in the sense of an unbroken handing on of ideas down the generations. Humanist thinking and approaches to life arose in different societies quite separate from each other in time and space. It picks its wisdom from many diverse sources rather than believing it originates from a single text or authority figure. For humanists, things are not true or good because a particular individual said them; instead, good ideas are those that have stood the test of experience, wherever they come from.
Others have drawn further distinctions between humanism and many religions: reliance on scientifically produced, rather than revelatory, knowledge; evidence-orientated, rather than faith-orientated; promoting a negotiated social order, rather than an ordained social order; valuing human freedom and meaning, rather than the following of some ultimate plan; human-centred ethics, rather than divine will. Of course, not everyone would agree with these divisions and distinctions, and many would reject such a framing. There are plenty of religious people who claim that their religion shares those features valued by humanists. But it might reasonably be argued that it is perhaps rarer for religious people to outright reject the alternatives in the manner that humanists do.
It is for these reasons that many humanists in the UK today find it difficult to think about their worldview as a religion. They feel the need for there to be some clear water between humanism and religion to emphasise what it is that makes their worldview distinct. While accepting that, on some definitions, humanism fits the criteria of a religion, they believe there is practical value in describing humanism as a ‘non-religious worldview’.
If not a religion, what is humanism?
Humanism has been defined variously as a ‘philosophy’, a ‘worldview’, a ‘lifestance’, or a ‘meaning frame’. Each of these phrases has aspects to recommend it. However, for some humanists, these words feel clumsy or cumbersome, and none of them satisfies everyone.
Some humanists prefer to describe humanism as an ‘approach to life’, an ‘attitude’, or a ‘way of life’. It does not provide a set of clearly defined instructions, but is an approach to tackling the different demands we face as we move through life. Humanism is not a source of specific answers to our questions, but is rather a way of approaching them: more of a method than a conclusion. Although many humanists will reach similar answers to questions about their beliefs and how we ought to live, humanism allows for a breadth of opinion and embodies and embraces the possibility of disagreement.
The law: where definitions matter
One thing worth being aware of is that, while the legal definition of ‘religion’, identified in the Supreme Court case Hodkin v Registrar General above, excludes humanism, human rights law requires that references to ‘religion’ elsewhere in the law or government policy must be read to include non-religious worldviews such as humanism. This has happened in cases successfully arguing for the right to a legally recognised humanist marriages in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and for equal inclusion of humanism within religious education in England and Wales.
This is not to say that the law recognises humanism as a religion, rather that non-religious worldviews with the requisite cogency, seriousness, and cohesion must be considered as analogous to religion in ways that ensure equal treatment. In addition, the Equality Act defines the phrase ‘religion’ as follows: ‘Religion means any religion and a reference to religion includes a reference to a lack of religion.’
Therefore, while humanists consider themselves to be non-religious, references to ‘religion’ in the law must not be treated as excluding them.
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