Hong Kong Liberal Religious Forum

The Future of Religious Humanism
Dave Salyers
UURN (UU Religious Naturalists) mailing list UURN@lists.uua.org http://lists.uua.org/mailman/listinfo/uurn

As someone who is a nontheist and involved with three progressive religious movements - Quakerism through the Wider Quaker Fellowship, Ethical Culture through the Ethical Society Without Walls (eswow), and Unitarian Universalism with the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Kern County (uufkc), I find that they can be very complementary and enrich each other.

I have an interest in personal ethical development as my primary “spiritual practice” (for lack of a better term) and as my focus with my children.

In fact, my view is that the only possible future for “religious humanism” (rather than the ossified, argumentative form which it has become) is the merging of the Ethical Culture form which provides the philosophical depth with the growing understanding of ecological awareness and interdependence which would be religious naturalism. Ethical Culture focuses on shared ethical values as it states - "Knowing that building the good and the true is far more important, interesting and useful than to focus on whether we believe or disbelieve in certain philosophical or metaphysical or religious ideas..." In fact, my understanding is that metaphysical debate would be considered in poor form among Ethical Culturists (aka Ethical Humanists) at an Ethical Culture meeting as they feel that example, rather than debate, is a better attractor.

For me, personal ethical development comes through a mindfulness of the interactions of my actions and their consequences upon other people and living beings (including those in the future just as my ancestors' actions had consequences on my current living circumstances). This, combined with the “sense of awe” that I can get from nature and the Universe, and recognition of its cycles, is my definition of a humanistic and naturalistic “spirituality”. Liberal Quakerism greatly helps in concepts of mindfulness application.

Certainly I am not the only one who has had this idea:
Humanist Contemplatives Link
www.dtstrain.com/contemplatives/about.htm

Ethical Culture has an Ethical Axiom which can be considered to be the shared core value - "Always act so as to Elicit the best in others, and thereby yourself". Felix Adler, the founder of Ethical Culture, used the term "The Ethical Manifold" to refer to his conception of the actions of individual human beings having an influence on the actions and circumstances of others.. In other words, we are all interrelated, with each person playing a role in the whole and the whole affecting each person. Our interrelatedness is at the heart of ethics.

If you would like a more detailed explanation of personal ethical development and interrelatedness in Ethical Culture, please refer to:
www.ethicalsociety.org/faq.php

For those who are interested in parallel philosophical concepts, the concept of the Ethical Manifold in Ethical Culture is uncannily similar to the underlying recognition of interdependence which is at the heart of religious naturalism (which means that for a significant number there is a commonality in the basic underlying worldview) and directly addressed in the 7th Principle of Unitarian Universalism. Personally I find that the Eight Commitments complement the 7 Principles of UU quite well.

Here are some links if you would like to explore this topic more:
www.uua.org
www.aeu.org
www.eswow.org
www.nontheistfriends.org