# Why do Fundies call skeptics/scientific materialists "secular humanists"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 23, 2010, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-fundies-call-skeptics-scientific-materialists-secular-humanists/526156 "2010-01-23T19:58:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-fundies-call-skeptics-scientific-materialists-secular-humanists/526156/61 "2010-01-25T18:47:58Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > It’s funny that you think these people are being dishonest, that they know what they believe is not true but they lie about it anyway. People are very, very good at lying to themselves. Note the term “cognitive dissonance” - some people get it, and some _should_ get it, but don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-fundies-call-skeptics-scientific-materialists-secular-humanists/526156/62 "2010-01-25T19:41:30Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I’d call him “Mass-Murdering Motherfucker”, and damn the consequences. Sure. What about your wife? Your kids? What if he tells you he’s going to kill your kids instead of you? Easier said than done. As for the other, I also agree that being overly concerned with the soul is not humanism at all. Too often I have seen people concerned with the soul to the exclusion of all else. Forget Christianity for a moment, and let’s look at Hinduism. In many stripes of Hinduism one of the major concepts is that we are reborn and die in the circle of life, over and over, until we have washed away our sins. I have seen people look at the terrible conditions in their life and assume it’s to do with past sins. Sure, fine, whatever. BUT the problem comes in where they think that since it’s punishment, they can and must do nothing to change their state. So they just continue living in their unhappy lives, even though they could change it, and continue spreading the unhappiness around them, because of this eternal thing called a soul. We could make heaven right here on earth I think sometimes. But the soul when it supplants the real human life involved doesn’t help one bit. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-fundies-call-skeptics-scientific-materialists-secular-humanists/526156/63 "2010-01-25T19:50:03Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > Or in other words, write your own morality. If only those religious people who claim that (unlike atheists) their morality comes from some higher power were honest about where their morality \*really \*comes from. So you think when she said, [QUOTE=a minister I won’t name because I’m going by memory of the sermon as I’m too lazy to find my copy of it] “The Bible is a good guide, but not infallible as it was written by men and women. Frankly, some of it is crap. In judging what is right and what is wrong, it is incumbent on Christians to use reason, our own experience, and the effect of our actions on others in deciding what to do, rather than slavishly following the dictates of any book.” [/QUOTE] she was being dishonest about where her morality came from? ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-fundies-call-skeptics-scientific-materialists-secular-humanists/526156/64 "2010-01-26T04:32:45Z")
I was (as I said quite explicitly) talking about those religious people who claim that (unlike atheists) their morality comes from some higher power. I don’t know about the minister in question. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-fundies-call-skeptics-scientific-materialists-secular-humanists/526156/65 "2010-01-26T04:40:04Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > It’s funny that you think these people are being dishonest, that they know what they believe is not true but they lie about it anyway. The degree of dishonesty varies. Some have probably never thought about it and while they may be ignorant, they are probably not being actively dishonest. Plenty have had the obvious facts laid out before them in debates in places such as, say, the SDMB, but they just put their hands over their eyes and stick their fingers in their ears and carry on regardless. Precisely how wilful one’s ignorance has to be before continuing to espouse something you incorrectly believe to be true becomes dishonesty is not a very interesting question, since wilful ignorance and dishonesty are pretty much equally jerkish, in my view. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-fundies-call-skeptics-scientific-materialists-secular-humanists/526156/66 "2010-01-26T09:41:01Z")
The label may or may not be insulting and this may or may not be intentional - but more than anything (IMO) it’s a _label_ and its purpose is insulation - it allows an argument to be addressed against a group _without repeatedly having to examine (and thus being challenged by, or even having to honestly describe or address) any of that group’s ideas._ ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-fundies-call-skeptics-scientific-materialists-secular-humanists/526156/67 "2010-01-26T15:27:37Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > I was (as I said quite explicitly) talking about those religious people who claim that (unlike atheists) their morality comes from some higher power. I don’t know about the minister in question. Gotcha. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-fundies-call-skeptics-scientific-materialists-secular-humanists/526156/68 "2010-01-26T23:31:48Z")
> [@appleciders](#): > > Most skeptics _are_ secularist; they reject sectarian arguments out of hand and seek to live in a society with rational, worldly rules and behaviors. And that’s a bad thing? I just don’t see it. > [@DrCube](#): > > Humanism is a world view that doesn’t blame devils or demons for our troubles nor looks to gods or angels to help us. It is about humans taking responsibility for our actions and recognizing that only humans can fix our problems. It is necessarily a secular point of view, but perhaps not necessarily skeptical. Again, I don’t see what is so horrible about this. > [@True Blue Jack](#): > > Sure, but imagine the tremendous songs song in your honor for ages and ages… > > – by the **Klingons** who conquer Earth (after somehow destroying “K/Y”) and restore order. Well, sort of. > > But better those filthy bastards than anyone resembling the “Good Book” deity. > > 😛 “Klingon gods are dead, ancient warriors killed them a millenium ago, they were more trouble than they were worth.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-fundies-call-skeptics-scientific-materialists-secular-humanists/526156/69 "2010-01-26T23:56:45Z")
I’ve also heard Secular Progressives, or SPs as Bill O’Reilly likes to call them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-fundies-call-skeptics-scientific-materialists-secular-humanists/526156.md?page=3)