Secular humanism is a philosophy, belief system, or life stance that embraces human reason, logic, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism, while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, and superstition as the basis of morality and decision-making.
Religious humanism or ethical humanism is an integration of nontheistic humanist philosophy with congregational rites and community activity that center on human needs, interests, and abilities. Religious humanists set themselves apart from secular humanists by characterizing the nontheistic humanist life stance as a non-supernatural "religion" and structuring their organization around a congregational model.
The American Humanist Association (AHA) is a non-profit organization in the United States that advances secular humanism.
The Ethical movement is an ethical, educational, and religious movement established in 1877 by the academic Felix Adler (1851–1933). In an effort to develop humanist codes of behavior, the Ethical movement emerged from the moral traditions of the secular societies of Europe and the secular society of the 19th-century United States. In practice, the Ethical movement organized themselves as two types of organization: (i) a secular humanist movement and (ii) a predominantly moral movement with a religious approach.
Humanists International is an international non-governmental organisation championing secularism and human rights, motivated by secular humanist values. Founded in Amsterdam in 1952, it is an umbrella organisation made up of more than 160 secular humanist, atheist, rationalist, agnostic, skeptic, freethought and Ethical Culture organisations from over 80 countries.
The Secular Coalition for America is an advocacy group located in Washington D.C. It describes itself as "protecting the equal rights of nonreligious Americans."
A church tax is a tax collected by the state from members of some religious denominations to provide financial support of churches, such as the salaries of its clergy and to pay the operating cost of the church. Not all countries have such a tax. In some countries that do, people who are not members of a religious community are exempt from the tax; in others it is always levied, with the payer often entitled to choose who receives it, typically the state or an activity of social interest.
The Icelandic Ethical Humanist Association is a humanist lifestance organization in Iceland, that promotes secularism, offers celebrancy services and contributes to the spreading of humanism in Iceland and abroad. It is a member of the European Humanist Federation and Humanists International.
A marriage officiant or marriage celebrant is a person who officiates at a wedding ceremony.
The European Humanist Federation, officially abbreviated as EHF-FHE, was an umbrella of more than 60 humanist and secularist organisations from 25 European countries.
Walter Arthur Berendsohn was a German literary scholar. He was an active member of the Deutsche Liga fur Menschenrechte, a spinoff of the pacifist Bund Neues Vaterland, until 1933 when he fled for Sweden when the group was dissolved by Nazis.
Secular coming-of-age ceremonies, sometimes called civil confirmations, are ceremonies arranged by organizations that are secular, which is to say, not aligned to any religion. Their purpose is to prepare adolescents for their life as adults. Secular coming of age ceremonies originated in the 19th century, when non-religious people wanted a rite of passage comparable to the Christian confirmation. Nowadays, non-religious coming-of-age ceremonies are organized in several European countries; in almost every case these are connected with humanist organisations.
Burkhard Hirsch was a German politician and civil liberties advocate. A member of the Free Democratic Party (FDP), Hirsch spent 21 years in the Bundestag. He also served five years as Minister of the Interior of North Rhine-Westphalia (1975–1980).
In Belgium, organized secularism is the local associations and organizations which provide moral support for naturalist, atheist, agnostic, secular humanist, freethinking, Bright, or irreligious and non-confessional citizens. A person who subscribes to such entities or ideologies, or at least espouses an interest in "free inquiry" apart from religious traditions is described as a "secular" or "free-thinker".
HUMAN is a special broadcaster on the Netherlands Public Broadcasting system, which is allowed to broadcast on radio and television because of their spiritual background. It was one of the "2.42 broadcasters". However, HUMAN has been attempting to obtain a regular public broadcasting license, and attained the minimum number of members to be eligible to become an aspirant broadcaster as of 2014. As of 2022 it operates as a company within the Dutch Public Broadcasting system.
The Humanistischer Verband Deutschlands is an organisation to promote and spread a secular humanist worldview and an advocate for the rights of nonreligious people. It was founded 1993 in Berlin and counts about 20,000 members. The HVD is a member of the International Humanist and Ethical Union and the European Humanist Federation.
The Romanian Secular-Humanist Association is a non-governmental organization established in March 2010 to promote secular humanist values in Romania. The organization's activities include fighting religious indoctrination in schools and the state financing of churches.
Young Humanists International, known as the International Humanist and Ethical Youth Organisation or IHEYO from 2002 to 2019, is the youth wing of Humanists International, founded in 2002. It aims to network young humanists around the world together, support training and promote humanist values for the age category of 18–35. It is an umbrella organisation representing around 40,000 young people across the world.
The Humanistisch Verbond is a Dutch association based on secular humanist principles.
