Atheist organizations Secular Student Alliance and Secular Coalition for America have made a name for themselves since the early 2000s. While these organizations often claim they are representing the US atheist community, one may be surprised to learn these organizations actually have a foundation in humanism, a doctrine that took modern shape in the early 1930s to mimic religion. Other atheist organizations are also affiliated with humanism.
The conflict with humanism being the foundation of atheist organizations is that not all atheists identify as humanist, yet these humanist-oriented organizations present themselves to the public as speaking on behalf of all US atheists. One could say that they were never “atheist” organizations, but rather “atheist humanist” organizations.
Secular Student Alliance was launched in 2000 by a group of students who had been previously affiliated with Campus Freethought Alliance, an organization governed by Council for Secular Humanism (currently known as Center for Inquiry). While it is noted the students who formed Secular Student Alliance broke off from Campus Freethought Alliance, it should be acknowledged that they were fresh from a humanist organization. Did they drop humanism or integrate it into the new student organization? Secular Student Alliance is described on Wikipedia as, “an educational nonprofit organization whose purpose is to educate high school and college students about the value of scientific reason and the intellectual basis of secularism in its atheistic and humanistic manifestations.”
Further background on Campus Freethought Alliance is that it was founded in 1995 to organize college students. It is now called Center for Inquiry on Campus and is directed by Debbie Goddard, whom recently also took on the role of vice president of programs for American Atheists in 2019, another atheist organization that claims to follow humanist principles.
Council for Secular Humanism has been a program of Center for Inquiry since 1991. (On a side note, In 2016 the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science merged with Center for Inquiry, yet another atheist-oriented organization to become associated with humanism).
Another well known atheist organization known as Secular Coalition for America was founded in 2002 by four organizations that became known as “member organizations” – Atheist Alliance International, Institute for Humanist Studies, Secular Student Alliance and Secular Web.
It is obvious Institute for Humanist Studies is a humanist organization, while Secular Student Alliance comes from a humanist background. Atheist Alliance International launched in 1991 and partnered with Atheists United (according to its website, “Atheists United is a positive atheist community grounded in Humanist ethics”) and other atheist groups that have become inundated with humanism. It opened branches throughout the world, but in 2010 the board of Atheist Alliance International decided to disassociate with the founding group, leading it to be renamed to Atheist Alliance of America. Atheist Alliance International has also worked with humanist groups, such as Humanists International.
Secular Coalition for America was also founded by Secular Web, now known as Internet Infidels. It is difficult to determine how much humanism played a role in Secular Web since it is no longer existent and there is little information available about its history. According to Wikipedia, Secular Web’s former editor-in-chief, Richard Carrier, said its mission has always been to defend and promote Metaphysical Naturalism, “the hypothesis that the natural world is a closed system, which means that nothing that is not a part of the natural world affects it…. [This] implies that there are no supernatural entities, or at least none that actually exercises its power to affect the natural world.” Internet Infidels’ discussion board was transferred to Freethought and Rational Discussion Board in 2008. Eventually this board was archived and became Talk Freethought in 2014, which is still a discussion board today.
Since the early 2000s, atheist organizations have become increasingly intertwined with humanist organizations. Here are organizations that signed on to be a member with Secular Coalition for America:
- 2005 – Humanist organization American Humanist Association (fifth member)
- 2006 – Humanist organization The Society for Humanistic Judaism (sixth member) and Freedom from Religion Foundation (seventh member)
- 2007 – Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers (eighth member)
- 2008 – Humanist organization American Ethical Union (ninth member)
- 2009 – Humanist organization Camp Quest (tenth member) and American Atheists, whom claims to follow humanist principles (eleventh member)
- 2010 – Humanist organization Council for Secular Humanism (twelfth member)
When assessing this list of collaborating “atheist” organizations, it is clear humanism has become the core of US atheist organizations claiming to represent all atheists. This collaboration has led to polarization within the US atheist community since, as previously noted, not all atheists identify as humanist. Humanist organizations tend to promote predominately left-leaning issues, which has portrayed a narrow image of the US atheist community to the public.
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Lauren Ell is an American blogger born and raised in Southern California and is currently based in Sweden. She discusses Epilepsy, Politics and Fun. Professionally Ell is an Online Marketing Consultant and Virtual Assistant. She is also founder and president of Republican Atheists and Nordic Republicans. Connect with Lauren on Facebook and Twitter.