You are hereMore couples tie the knot with Humanism (in Scotland)
More couples tie the knot with Humanism (in Scotland)
From Humanist Philosopher Julian Baggini’s Herald column; he doesn’t seem overly impressed by the increase in Humanist weddings in Scotland.
Humanist weddings, and other ceremonies, are unusual in that they provide a like-for-like replacement for what religions offer. Since people will always want to mark significant events in life in a shared, public way, once humanist weddings were made legal in Scotland it was inevitable that those who held broadly humanist views would take them up. But I do not expect humanism as a mass movement to gain much from this. The wedding statistics show the limitations as well as the strengths of humanism as an organised movement. The self-limiting paradox of humanism is that it is most popular when it does what religions would otherwise do; but it would not be humanism if it tried to do all that religions have done.
More Couples Decide To Tie The Knot With Humanism (from The Herald ).
It is Baggini's view of what Humanism is that limits its potential for becoming an influential force in society. As long as it does not try to do all the good things that religions have done it is merely a protest movement attacking forms of behaviour and institutions on philosophic grounds without offering an alternative. The popularity of religion even when its basic tenets are unsustainable seems to indicate that it answers basic human needs. I would identify these as the need to feel part of a community with shared rituals, the need to express ourselves in good works and the need to nourish our spirituality, our non material side which draws sustenance from abstract thought, creativity and an emotional response to the natural world. A Humanist movement that filled these needs would sweep all before it.
Michael Imison