Humanism Glossary Terms
al-Razi, Abu Bakr
Abu Bakr al-Razi (865-926 CE) was a Persian doctor, philosopher, chemist, and humanitarian who, despite his agnosticism and belief that all religions were created by man, was well known and beloved in the early Muslim world.
Carvaka
A system of philosophy developed in India around 600 BCE and named after its founder, Carvaka. Although virtually no writings from its followers have survived, was known to emphasize rational thought and skepticism over and against the mystical and...
Center for Inquiry
An organization that aims to “foster a secular society based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values.” Founded by Paul Kurtz and headquartered in Amherst, New York, CFI has branches across the United States and around the world.
Dawkins, Richard
Richard Dawkins (1941–) is a British evolutionary biologist who became a well known public face of the “New Atheists” movement that gained ground during the early 21st century. Dawkins’ most famous works include The Selfish Gene (1976), The Blind...
Epstein, Greg
Greg Epstein (1977-) is the Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University, a leader in the founding of the Harvard Humanist Community Project, and author of Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe (2009). In 2005, Epstein was ordained as...
Ethical Culture Movement, The
The Ethical Culture Movement was founded in the late 19th century by Felix Adler and represents one of the first successful attempts to organize a community around secular values. Today, there are a network of Ethical Societies which stem from the Ethical...
freethought
Freethought is a philosophical worldview that maintains that all matters can be a topic of conversation and opinions should not be formed from tradition or dogma but rather from logic and reason.
Harris, Sam
Sam Harris (1967-) is a prolific author and co-founder and CEO of Project Reason. His most well known books include The End of Faith (2004), Letter to a Christian Nation (2006), The Moral Landscape (2010), and Free Will (2012). Harris was educated in...
Hitchens, Christopher
Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) was a British American author and journalist and one of the most well known public faces of the “New Atheists.” He was an outspoken critic of religion and authored God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (2007).
Humanism
Humanism is a belief system that values reason, compassion, and hope. Emphasis is placed on human concerns and that which can contribute to human flourishing. Dogmas or creeds that in any way impede these foci are disregarded and humanity is thought to be...
Humanist Community Project
The Humanist Community Project is an initiative of the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard that seeks to research and resource the Humanist, skeptic, atheist, and not religious communities of America.
Humanist Manifesto
The Humanist Manifestos are a series of statements which outline the core beliefs of the Humanist movement. The first, A Humanist Manifesto (1933) was primarily written by Raymond Bragg with 34 co-signers and published in the May/June 1933 issue of the...
Ingersoll, Robert
Robert Ingersoll (1833–1899 CE) was a veteran of the American Civil War and famed orator whose defense of agnosticism came during “the golden age of freethought.”
nonreligious; non-religous; non-belief; non-believers
Multivalent terms that often are used to describe people (or their worldview) who reject the practices, dogma, and creeds of established religious traditions. Some people, on the other hand, may identify as Humanist and also consider this either a belief...
rationalism
Rationalism is a philosophical tradition that understands reason to be the foundation for all knowledge. Empiricism, or the idea that all knowledge comes from sense experience, is key to rationalism.
Reason Rally
The Reason Rally was held on March 24, 2012 to support secularism and religious skepticism. The march and program that took place on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. was sponsored by several major secular and atheist organizations. According to...
religious humanism
Religious humanism draws upon the rites and communal aspects of religion while maintaining secular values and a rejection of theism and the supernatural. Oasis, a growing community in Houston, Texas is one example of “atheist churches” in the United...
Roddenberry, Gene
Eugene Wesley “Gene” Roddenberry (1921-1991 CE) was the creator of the immensely popular Star Trek, a franchise that includes seven television series and ten movies. Roddenberry, a Humanist, expressed through his life’s work a hopeful view of humanity’s...
Rose, Ernestine
Ernestine Rose (1810-1892 CE) was an abolitionist and atheist feminist, the daughter of a Polish rabbi. At the age of sixteen she won a case against her father who insisted that she marry a man he chose for her; after the ruling, she left Poland and lived...
secular humanism
Secular humanism is the belief that ultimate values reside within the human individual and possess no supernatural origin; it has been shaped by Enlightenment rationalism, Darwinian science, and later by Freudian and post-Freudian psychology. The humanist...
Secular Student Alliance
The Secular Student Alliance is a network of campus-based student organizations that seek to promote “the ideals of scientific and critical inquiry, democracy, secularism, and human-based ethics.”
skeptics
Skeptics are people who question religion, religious tenets, or other truth claims.
Stark, Pete
Representative Pete Stark (1931-) is the first openly atheist member of the United States Congress. His beliefs became known in 2007 when he responded to a Secular Coalition for America questionnaire, a stance he publicly announced that same year. Stark...
Stedman, Chris
Chris Stedman (1987-) is an openly gay atheist, interfaith activist, and Assistant Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University. He is founder of the blog Non-Prophet Status and is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post. Stedman is author of the 2012...
The Origin of Species
A groundbreaking work on evolutionary biology published by Charles Darwin in 1859. It became—and remains—controversial among those who maintain a literal translation of the biblical seven-day creation myth.