Free Religious Humanism Classes in Colorado

A couple months ago, Rev. Roger Butts of the High Plains Unitarian Universalist Church wrote a wonderful defense of atheists doing good works in the Colorado Springs Gazette.

Now, he’ll be leading free classes on religious humanism:

Beginning Wednesday at High Plains, Butts will teach a free four-week course on religious humanism and its place in society. Classes are open to anyone and no registration is required.

“I want to lift up religious humanism as an alternative to (religious) orthodoxy,” said Butts, who isn’t sure if God exists and doesn’t take the Bible literally.

Religious humanists contend that belief in deities and a spiritual realm are not needed to motivate people to make the world a better place. Yet there are aspects of religion, such as its communalism and use of rites and rituals, that they uphold.

Religious humanism is still too touchy-feely for my tastes, but I know there are a lot of atheists who still feel culturally tied to their former faiths who might see this religious humanism as a helpful stepping stone away from actual religion.

For those of you in that camp, this may be a great series of talks for you.

Edman

Funny you should mention UU, and being a little “touchy-feely” for your tastes. I attended a local UU church today just to get a feel for them, and while they were nice, it just wasn’t for me.
Aegis

If anyone at Faux News got hold of this…any bets on which joke headline they’d use on the guy’s name?
Kaleena

Whoa! This is my local UU church. I guess I might have to start going!
Modern Girl

I like the post but disagree with the last sentence. To me, religious humanism CAN be a “actual” religion to those who see it that way.

The way it’s described in the article, it fits my wordview – even though I see myself as an “Agnostic Humanist” which I see as being the middle between secular humanists and religious humanists.

(I also love the fact that recently you’ve mentioned your disagreement with both agnosticism and humanism. Despite the fact you obviously don’t have the same worldview as me, I agree with most of everything on your blog) 🙂
SickoftheUS

Yet there are aspects of religion, such as its communalism and use of rites and rituals, that they uphold.
…
Religious humanism is still too touchy-feely for my tastes, but I know there are a lot of atheists who still feel culturally tied to their former faiths who might see this religious humanism as a helpful stepping stone away from actual religion.

The rites and rituals are one of the things that MOST drove me away from the Roman Catholicism imposed on me in childhood. The orchestrated spectacle for the sheeples, repeated daily, really drove home the inanity and waste of time of it all.

To this day, I hate rituals of all kinds.