Dafayan University of Science and Art/Philosophy

Philosophy

Courses to be offered will expand beyound what is here now. Below is what DUSA has to offer in ways of philosphy and study of philosophy. Those wishing to add courses please contact Professor dafayon or DUSA's members within the Dafayan Board Education

Secularism.

Sec·u·lar·ism: (sĕk'yə-lə-rĭz'əm) n.

Religious skepticism or indifference. The view that religious considerations should be excluded from civil affairs or public education.

secularist: sec'u·lar·ist n.

secularistic: sec'u·lar·is'tic adj.

Secularism

Secularity is the state of being free from religious or spiritual qualities. For instance, eating a meal, playing a game, or bathing are examples of secular activities, because there is nothing inherently religious about them. Saying a prayer or visiting a place of worship are examples of non-secular activities. A synonym for secular is worldly.

Secularism refers to a belief that many human activities and decisions should be free from religious interference. For example, a society deciding whether to promote birth control might consider the issues of disease prevention, family planning, and biblical righteousness. A secularist would argue that the religious issues are irrelevant to the decision.

Secular movements

Its proponents argue secularism is the concept that societies should be governed by a process of reasoning rather than dogmatic belief. Its opponents argue that secularism is a concept which, instead of presenting freedom of religion, actually holds all religions in contempt.

State Secularism

In political terms, secularism is a movement towards the separation of church and state. This is the idea that religion should not interfere with or be integrated into the public affairs of a society. This can refer to reducing ties between a government and a state religion, replacing laws based on scripture with civil laws, and eliminating discrimination on the basis of religion.

Secularism is often associated with "Enlightenment", and plays a major role in modern society. The principles, but not necessarily practices, of Separation of church and state in modern States and Kingdoms draw heavily on secularism.

Government Secularism

In this sense, secularists would prefer that politicians make decisions based on secular reasons, rather than religious ones. Decisions about many contemporary issues, such as cruel experiments on humans and sex education of children, should not be made on the basis of religious belief

Societal Secularism

Secularism can also be the social ideology in which religion and supernatural beliefs are not seen as the key to understanding the world and are instead segregated from matters of governance and reasoning. In this sense, secularism can be involved in the promotion of science, reason, and naturalistic thinking.

Secularism can also mean the practice of working to promote any of those three forms of secularism. It should not be assumed that an advocate of secularism in one sense will also be a secularist in any other sense. Secularism does not necessarily equate to atheism; indeed, many secularists have counted themselves among the religious.

Some societies become increasingly secular as the result of natural social processes, rather than through the actions of a dedicated secular movement.

Secular ethics

Secularism is a code of duty pertaining to this life, founded on considerations purely human, and intended mainly for those who find theology indefinite or inadequate, unreliable or unbelievable. Its essential principles are three: (1) The improvement of this life by material means. (2) That science is the available Providence of man. (3) That it is good to do good. Whether there be other good or not, the good of the present life is good, and it is good to seek that good. Secularism should take no interest at all in religious questions (as they were irrelevant), and was thus to be distinguished from strong freethought and atheism.

Secular society

In studies of religion, societies should be generally recognized as secular. Generally, there is near-complete freedom of religion (one may believe in any religion or none at all, with little legal or social sanction). Religious references should be considered out-of-place in mainstream politics. Religious influence should also be largely minimised in the public sphere, and religion should no longer hold the same importance in government systems.

Modern sociology, is born of a crisis of legitimation resulting from challenges to traditional religious authority. Twentieth-century scholars whose work has contributed to the understanding of these matters are named below.

Humanism

Hu·man·ism (hyū'mə-nĭz'əm) n.

• A system of thought that rejects religious beliefs and centers on humans and their values, capacities, and worth.

Concern with the interests, needs, and welfare of humans.

• Medicine. The concept that concern for human interests, values, and dignity is of the utmost importance to the care of the sick.

• The study of the humanities; learning in the liberal arts.

• Humanism is a cultural and intellectual movement of the Renaissance that emphasizes secular concerns as a result of the rediscovery and study of the literature, art, and civilization of true science.

Humanism: A philosophical and literary movement in which man and his capabilities are the central concern. The term is restricted to a point of view prevalent among thinkers in the Renaissance of science and philosophy. The distinctive characteristics of humanism is its emphasis on classical studies, or the humanities, and a conscious return to classical ideals and forms. Modern usage of the term has had diverse meanings, but some contemporary emphases are on lasting human values, cultivation of the classics, and respect for scientific knowledge.

Humanism is a comprehensive lifestance that upholds human reason, ethics, and justice, and rejects supernaturalism, pseudo science and superstition.

Humanism has appeal to atheists, agnostics, freethinkers, empiricists, rationalists, and sceptics. Humanism is non-theistic and secular, and shares many beliefs with secular humanism.

Humanism is a democratic and ethical life stance, which affirms that human beings have the right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives. It stands for the building of a more humane society through an ethic based on human and other natural values in the spirit of reason and free inquiry through human capabilities. It is not theistic, and it does not accept supernatural views of reality.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights endorses international human rights for Freedom of Religion and Belief.

An international law that protects freedom of religion and belief Must created to insure modern growth of man. This protection should extend to those professing belief in no religion which includes Humanist, Atheist, Rationalist and Agnostic beliefs, as well as those who adhear to mythical or biblical ways of life.

Today man's larger understanding of the universe, his scientific achievements, and deeper appreciation of brotherhood, have created a situation which requires a new statement of the means and purposes of religion. Such a vital, fearless, and frank religion capable of furnishing adequate social goals and personal satisfactions may appear to many people as a complete break with the past. While this age does owe a vast debt to the traditional religions, it is none the less obvious that any religion that can hope to be a synthesizing and dynamic force for today must be shaped for the needs of this age. To establish such a religion is a major necessity of the present. It is a responsibility which rests upon this generation. We therefore affirm the following:

To Be a true Humanist

FIRST: Humanists regard the universe as self-existing and not created.

SECOND: Humanism believes that man is a part of nature and that he has emerged as a result of a continuous process.

THIRD: Holding an organic view of life, humanists find that the traditional dualism of mind and body must be rejected.

FOURTH: Humanism recognizes that man's religious culture and civilization, as clearly depicted by anthropology and history, are the product of a gradual development due to his interaction with his natural environment and with his social heritage. The individual born into a particular culture is largely molded by that culture.

FIFTH: Humanism asserts that the nature of the universe depicted by modern science makes unacceptable any supernatural or cosmic guarantees of human values. Obviously humanism does not deny the possibility of realities as yet undiscovered, but it does insist that the way to determine the existence and value of any and all realities is by means of intelligent inquiry and by the assessment of their relations to human needs. Religion must formulate its hopes and plans in the light of the scientific spirit and method.

SIXTH: We are convinced that the time has passed for theism, deism, modernism, and the several varieties of "new thought".

SEVENTH: Religion consists of those actions, purposes, and experiences which are humanly significant. Nothing human is alien to the religious. It includes labor, art, science, philosophy, love, friendship, recreation — all that is in its degree expressive of intelligently satisfying human living. The distinction between the sacred and the secular can no longer be maintained.

EIGHTH: Religious Humanism considers the complete realization of human personality to be the end of man's life and seeks its development and fulfillment in the here and now. This is the explanation of the humanist's social passion.

NINTH: In the place of the old attitudes involved in worship and prayer the humanist finds his religious emotions expressed in a heightened sense of personal life and in a cooperative effort to promote social well-being.

TENTH: It follows that there will be no uniquely religious emotions and attitudes of the kind hitherto associated with belief in the supernatural.

ELEVENTH: Man will learn to face the crises of life in terms of his knowledge of their naturalness and probability. Reasonable and manly attitudes will be fostered by education and supported by custom. We assume that humanism will take the path of social and mental hygiene and discourage sentimental and unreal hopes and wishful thinking.

TWELFTH: Believing that religion must work increasingly for joy in living, religious humanists aim to foster the creative in man and to encourage achievements that add to the satisfactions of life.

THIRTEENTH: Religious humanism maintains that all associations and institutions exist for the fulfillment of human life. The intelligent evaluation, transformation, control, and direction of such associations and institutions with a view to the enhancement of human life is the purpose and program of humanism. Certainly religious institutions, their ritualistic forms, ecclesiastical methods, and communal activities must be reconstituted as rapidly as experience allows, in order to function effectively in the modern world.

FOURTEENTH: The humanists are firmly convinced that existing acquisitive and profit-motivated society has shown itself to be inadequate and that a radical change in methods, controls, and motives must be instituted. A socialized and cooperative economic order must be established to the end that the equitable distribution of the means of life be possible. The goal of humanism is a free and universal society in which people voluntarily and intelligently cooperate for the common good. Humanists demand a shared life in a shared world.

FIFTEENTH AND LAST: We assert that humanism will: (a) affirm life rather than deny it; (b) seek to elicit the possibilities of life, not flee from them; and (c) endeavor to establish the conditions of a satisfactory life for all, not merely for the few. By this positive morale and intention humanism will be guided, and from this perspective and alignment the techniques and efforts of humanism will flow.

Ethics

The word ethics is derived from the word "ethos", which means "character," and from the word "mores", which means "customs." In modern society, it defines how individuals should choose to interact with one another.

Ethics

A branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of ultimate value and the standards by which human actions can be judged right or wrong. The term is also applied to any system or theory of moral values or principles. Ethics is traditionally subdivided into normative ethics, metaethics, and applied ethics. Normative ethics seeks to establish norms or standards of conduct; a crucial question in this field is whether actions are to be judged right or wrong based on their consequences or based on their conformity to some moral rule, such as “Do not tell a lie.” Theories that adopt the former basis of judgment are called "consequentialist", those that adopt the latter are known as "deontological".

Metaethics

Metaethics is concerned with the nature of ethical judgments and theories. Since the beginning of the modern century, much work in metaethics has focused on the logical and semantic aspects of moral language. Some major metaethical theories are naturalism, intuitionism, emotivism, and prescriptivism.

Applied ethics

As the name implies, consists of the application of normative ethical theories to practical moral problems (e.g., Murder, death sentence, abortion). Among the major fields of applied ethics are bioethics, business ethics, legal ethics, and medical ethics.

Ethics has developed as people have reflected on the intentions and consequences of their acts. From this reflection on the nature of human behavior, theories of conscience have developed, giving direction to much ethical thinking.

Law vs Ethics

Laws also permit many actions that will not bear ethical scrutiny. In other words, what the law permits or requires is not necessarily what is ethically right. For instance, laws allow disloyalty toward friends, the breaking of promises that do not have the stature of legal contracts, and a variety of deceptions. Ethics do not take order over law. Nor are Ethical ideals to be forced on merit alone. When law backs up ethical morality, modern man will be better off as a whole.

Although local, state, and federal regulatory acts do influence the conduct of some professions, many ethical issues cannot be settled by the courts. The ethics of a particular act is many times determined independently of the legality of the conduct. In fact, decisive answers cannot always be given for many ethical issues because there are no enforceable standards or reliable theories for resolving ethical conflicts.

Code of Ethics

A code of ethics provides members of a profession or socieity with standards of behavior and principles to be observed regarding their moral and professional obligations toward one another, their clients, and society in general. A code of ethics is generally developed by a professional society within a particular profession. The higher the degree of professionalism required of society members, the stronger and therefore more enforceable the code. For instance, in medicine, the behavior required is more specific and the consequences are more stringent in the code of ethics for physicians than in the code of ethics for nurses.

A universal and offical Code of Ethics Must be formally created and agreed on by mankind as a whole to ever move into a modern age of new thinking and progress as a whole.