Are you an atheist member of the secular movement................?

[Walt Zingmatilder]

..........Or is the secular movement Atheist?

Do you believe that secularism equals atheism?

What do you understand the meaning of the slogan" freedom from religion" to be?

[SqueakyVoice]

1 - Only in an unofficial capacity.
2 - No.
3 - No.
4 -  That the state should be indifferent to religion(s).

[Bubbles]

..........Or is the secular movement Atheist?

Do you believe that secularism equals atheism?

What do you understand the meaning of the slogan" freedom from religion" to be?

I'm not an Athiest and I'm not a member of the secular movement, as I see it.

However I see secularism as no one religion has control or more say than another one.

I don't see it as an exclusion of religion or all about excluding religion.

It means to me that no one religion can dictate to us all.

So if you go to a secular club it has no affiliation to a religious group

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/secular

The problem with the BHA and the NSS is that they have made it into an almost anti religious political movement.

It now goes with the constant whining about religious privilege and moaning about religion.

Originally, I don't think the definition was meant to exclude religious people, just describe something where no one religion or religious ideas held sway.
Athiests were not forced to comply to religious ideas.

Now it seems to be a another version of atheism and anti religion.

It now seems to mean being prejudiced.

 

[floo]

I am an agnostic and not a member of any movement, apart from the single member of the Floo club, I am not clubbable!

[Outrider]

I'm an agnostic atheist that advocates a secular political system so I presume that would be a 'yes'.

..........Or is the secular movement Atheist?

'The secular movement' - as though it were one unified body - consists of atheists and theists. I'm not sure what the balance is, I can imagine it changes significantly from place to place depending on the religious culture in which it's operating.

Do you believe that secularism equals atheism?

No. Does anyone? Are you sure you didn't mean to ask if it meant anti-theism?

What do you understand the meaning of the slogan" freedom from religion" to be?

That no-one's life options should be restricted by the imposition of someone else's religious sentiments being bolstered by legal backing purely on the basis that it's someone's religious sentiment.

What's your take on these questions, Vlad?

O.

[Hope]

Originally, I don't think the definition was meant to exclude religious people, just describe something where no one religion or religious ideas held sway.
Athiests were not forced to comply to religious ideas.

Ironically, some Roman sources referred to Christians and other religious groups as atheists - simply because they didn't 'comply' with the Roman ideas about deities. 

In western Classical antiquity, theism was the fundamental belief that supported the legitimacy of the state (Polis, later the Roman Empire). Historically, any person who did not believe in any deity supported by the state was fair game to accusations of atheism, a capital crime. For political reasons, Socrates in Athens (399 BCE) was accused of being atheos ("refusing to acknowledge the gods recognized by the state"). Christians in Rome were also considered subversive to the state religion and persecuted as atheists. Thus, charges of atheism, meaning the subversion of religion, were often used similarly to charges of heresy and impiety – as a political tool to eliminate enemies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_atheism#Classical_Greece_and_Rome

As such, there have been atheists around for centuriues, if not millennia.  Its just that here in the West we give the word a very tight definition.

[ippy]

It wouldn't matter how you were to describe secularism or humanism to Vlad, even if he did understand he will never admit that he has understood.

I think he sees Secular Humanism as some kind of big bad wolf out to get religionists, instead of a group of people that pursue religious privilege and do their best to root it out and the trouble is the religions have had most of these privileges for so long they no longer see them as privileges, so when any one of these many religious privileges is challenged they, most of them, see this as religious persecution, in the same way Vlad does.

ippy

[Enki]

I happen to be an atheist. The phrase 'freedom from religion' seems to me to be very similar in its intent to the phrase 'freedom of religion'. Both seem to suggest that people should have the right to have a religion, no religion or, indeed, change their religion if they so wish without any form of admonishment being administered. I would support the above.
As far as secularism is concerned, this seems to me to be simply the idea that religion and the state should be separate, without any special privileges given to or imposed by any religion in the process of the state's duties. I don't see why one should have to be an atheist to support that position.

[Hope]

As far as secularism is concerned, this seems to me to be simply the idea that religion and the state should be separate, without any special privileges given to or imposed by any religion in the process of the state's duties. I don't see why one should have to be an atheist to support that position.

Excellent summary, enki.

[ProfessorDavey]

Are you an atheist member of the secular movement................?

I am an atheist and agree with the principles of secularism - I don't think I am part of 'the secular movement' largely because I don't know what that is

..........Or is the secular movement Atheist?

Err - not sure I understand what you are asking, it seems not to make sense.

Do you believe that secularism equals atheism?

Of course not - again that makes no sense. There are people who support the principle of secularism of all faiths and none. Secularism is a political approach rather than a political (or religious) belief. So to put it in political terms (so that Vlad might understand), secularism is to democracy as christianity (or atheism) is to the Tory party. Get the difference.

What do you understand the meaning of the slogan" freedom from religion" to be?

Not sure it is a 'slogan' any more than freedom of religion is. But I see it as the ability, if you chose, to live your life without interference from religion.

[King Oberon]

Are you an atheist member of the secular movement................?

NO

..........Or is the secular movement Atheist?

Secularism is the principle of the separation of government institutions and persons mandated to represent the state from religious institutions and religious dignitaries.

So no because an atheist is just someone who doesn't believe in gods not even your special one.

Do you believe that secularism equals atheism?

No one is different from the other although I suppose most secularists are also atheists but not all atheists are secularists.

What do you understand the meaning of the slogan" freedom from religion" to be?

If religion floats your boat then it should be personal relationship between you and your imaginary friend nothing more. Not in schools and certainly as the secularists argue government institutions.

Next......