secular humanism

noun

: humanism (see humanism sense 3) viewed especially as relying on reason, logic, and naturalism (see naturalism sense 2) as opposed to religious dogma and supernaturalism (see supernaturalism sense 2)

Some items on the spiritual person's shopping list are easily supplied by secular humanism. Easiest of all are two that people often find intuitively the most perplexing: how can there be meaning in life and moral values in a world without gods?

—Julian Baggini

Secular humanism was the seeking of a middle way between dogmatic belief in God and militant atheism.

—Anthony T. Kronman

… as the author states, his secular humanism offers a cosmic outlook on the universe and our place in it …

—Genevieve Stuttaford

secular humanist noun

plural secular humanists

… as a secular humanist she has a moral and ethical belief system that is very similar to those found in many of the great religions. She just doesn't believe in gods, the supernatural, or an afterlife. She is, instead, guided by reason, science, logic and a desire to find a common ground and love, between all people.

—Claire Knight

[Tim] Madigan says secular humanists can criticize dogma and statements of faith while retaining working relations and friendships with people of many different religious beliefs.

—Michael McAteer

secular humanist adjective

secular humanist groups

… ethical quandaries faced by those of us who try to maintain a delicate balance between our secular humanist values and our scholarly duties …

—Jason Gersh

Examples of secular humanism in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Advertisement This decision to ground authority in reason, science, and secular humanism was profound at a time when European monarchs claimed that God had appointed them to the throne. —Time, 1 July 2025

To those of us who look to the Doctor to represent a kind of super-powered secular humanism, the show's credulous embrace of religion and superstition feels like a breach of contract with the viewer. —Glen Weldon, NPR, 7 June 2025

Founded in 2015, the church offers weekly Sunday meetings for a couple dozen participants who share in leading sermons in relation to their commitment to secular humanism, a nonreligious worldview that rejects belief in the supernatural. —Morgan Shipley, The Conversation, 31 Oct. 2022

See here for Mark Oppenheimer's report from last weekend's secular humanism conference. —Chris Mooney, Discover Magazine, 16 Oct. 2010

Moral Majority condemned books on secular humanism. —Jeffrey Fleishman, Anchorage Daily News, 31 Jan. 2023

There are different kinds of secular humanism. —Susan Dunne, Hartford Courant, 23 July 2022

By the 1980s, as Mr. Schmidt brings his story to a close, the Religious Right was portraying secular humanism as a threat to the nation’s hopes for morality and decency. —D.g. Hart, WSJ, 21 Jan. 2022

Word History

First Known Use

1895, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for secular humanism

• abolitionism
• aldosteronism
• americanism
• anticommunism
• antisemitism
• antiterrorism
• bioterrorism
• colloquialism
• colonialism
• consequentialism
• contextualism
• conventionalism