Atheist and Humanist rites of life

Ceremonies
People often mark the major life stage events in life - like being born, getting married and so on - with religious ceremonies like christenings, weddings and funerals. Atheist and Humanist organisations offer their own rituals for these events that give them meaning and significance without any religious content. These ceremonies differ from mainstream secular ceremonies like civil weddings, in that they are highly personalised for the individuals concerned.

Naming ceremonies Weddings Funerals

Sources for Atheist and Humanist ceremonies

A number of books containing guidelines for such ceremonies are published, including some written by Jane Wynne Wilson for the British Humanist Association.

Atheist and Humanist celebrants

Humanist organizations train people to officiate at humanist ceremonies, and compile lists of those who are qualified to do so.

Non-religious weddings and civil partnerships

Wedding traditions depend on culture, not religion. A non-religious wedding marks the commitment of two people to share their lives together just as much as does a religious wedding. A non-religious marriage is founded on the efforts and relationship of the couple. There is no place in the marriage or the wedding for a supernatural power. Whether a couple chooses a religious or a non-religious wedding depends on their faith or lack of it, and their cultural tradition. Humanist wedding ceremonies allow for far greater personalization than religious ceremonies, which must inevitably follow the directions of a particular church or institution. This allows the ceremony to incorporate words and rituals from a wide range of cultures.

Some religious wedding services include gender-biased traditional language that may not truly reflect a couple's own idea of their relationship. Humanist wedding rituals often emphasize the equality of the partners.

Humanist weddings
In most countries Humanist wedding ceremonies are not legally valid, and a civil ceremony will be required as well. Registered Humanist celebrants can conduct legally binding marriages in Scotland (though not currently England or Wales) as of 2005. Humanist weddings have been increasing in popularity as a result: from 80 in 2004, before legal recognition, to 434 in 2006. This figure rose again in 2007 to 710. The British Humanist Association trains and licenses celebrants to conduct Humanist weddings - but anyone can conduct a non-binding ceremony if they wish to. The ceremony will reflect the Humanist idea that the marriage depends solely on the efforts and relationship of the couple. Humanist wedding ceremonies may include:

Music An introduction that sets out the nature, purpose, and importance of marriage Readings: o A ritual of commitment for the bride and groom Ritual actions: o These will include an exchange of rings, and perhaps an embrace, candlelighting, a wine cup ritual or a hand-fasting ritual Formal words pronouncing the couple married A non-religious blessing of the marriage

Namings
Naming ceremonies welcome babies into the family and community These welcome babies into the family and community, and give family and friends an opportunity to make a commitment to support and protect the child while it grows up. Most parents choose to hold the ceremony at the start of a celebratory party, either in their home or at a special venue. The formal ceremony can be as long or short as desired, they usually last about 20 minutes. Parents may state their love for and commitment to their child, and their hopes for their future welfare and happiness. They may include poetry or prose readings and music. British Humanist Association - Humanist Baby Namings

Often the ceremony will include a place where chosen individuals declare a particular commitment to interest themselves in the child in a humanistic version of "God parents". These people are called mentors, supporting adults or special friends.

Non-religious funerals
Non-religious funerals are legal, and funeral directors and crematoriums and cemeteries are accustomed to arranging them.

Why a non-religious funeral?

Many people are uncomfortable with religious funerals if religion had no meaning for the dead person, and when most of the dead person's closest relatives and friends are not religious. Some people find that a church funeral (no matter how well done) for a non-believer is just a formal religious ritual conducted by someone with no knowledge of the dead person, and which doesn't help them to say farewell to someone they love. Religious people will often organise a non-religious funeral if the person who has died was not a believer, out of respect for that person's views. A humanist funeral, although it does not include hymns or prayers, can be entirely acceptable to religious people mourning an atheist. Humanist ceremonies do not include anti-religious material.

Humanist Funerals
A Humanist funeral remembers the life of the person who has died, and reflects on their contribution to the world and to others. It also provides an opportunity for family and friends to share their sadness and create a bond of support for those who were closest to the dead person.

A Humanist funeral
The ceremony is likely to include:

Music A non-religious reflection on death Readings of poetry and prose Reminiscences about the dead person A eulogy

A talk focussing on the achievements of the dead person, and the meaning of their life. Ritual actions o These might include: Candle lighting, sharing reminiscences with the people alongside you, moments of silence and reflection. Formal words of goodbye

It's likely that some of those attending a humanist funeral will have religious beliefs, and humanist funeral ceremonies usually contain a period of silence and meditation that can be used for private prayer.

Who takes a Humanist funeral?

A Humanist officiant is a person familiar with the procedures of cremation and burial who understands the experience of bereavement. They are trained and experienced in devising and conducting a suitable ceremony. The British Humanist Association describes officiants like this: Officiants are generally at least 35 years old, have experience of public speaking, and have probably had paid or voluntary experience in a caring/supporting profession such as nursing, teaching, police or social work, for example. They must be able to cope with the emotional burden of regularly meeting and working with bereaved people - often in relation to particularly difficult or unexpected deaths, such as the death of a child in a road accident. Funeral directors are able to make arrangements with trained officiants in their local area. British Humanist Association

Humanism
A positive approach to life
Humanism is an approach to life based on reason and our common humanity, recognising that moral values are properly founded on human nature and experience alone. Robert Ashby While atheism is merely the absence of belief, humanism is a positive attitude to the world, centred on human experience, thought, and hopes. The British Humanist Association and The International Humanist and Ethical Union use similar emblems showing a stylised human figure reaching out to achieve its full potential. Humanists believe that human experience and rational thinking provide the only source of both knowledge and a moral code to live by. They reject the idea of knowledge 'revealed' to human beings by gods, or in special books. Humanism is a democratic and ethical life stance, which affirms that human beings have the right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives. It stands for the building of a more humane society through an ethic based on human and other natural values in the spirit of reason and free inquiry through human capabilities. It is not theistic, and it does not accept supernatural views of reality. International Humanist and Ethical Union

Humanist ideas
Most humanists would agree with the ideas below:

There are no supernatural beings. The material universe is the only thing that exists. Science provides the only reliable source of knowledge about this universe. We only live this life - there is no after-life, and no such thing as reincarnation. Human beings can live ethical and fulfilling lives without religious beliefs. Human beings derive their moral code from the lessons of history, personal experience, and thought.

Rationalism
Rationalism is an approach to life based on reason and evidence. Rationalism encourages ethical and philosophical ideas that can be tested by experience and rejects authority that cannot be proved by experience. Because rationalism encourages people to think for themselves, rationalists have many different and diverse ideas and continue in a tradition from the nineteenth century known as freethought. However, most rationalists would agree that:

There is no evidence for any arbitrary supernatural authority e.g. God or Gods. The best explanation so far for why the natural world looks the way it does is the theory of evolution first put forward by Charles Darwin. All human beings should have fundamental rights. Some rationalists and humanists go further and argue that animals should also have rights as they are living, sensate beings. Society is should be an "open society", where each individual is able to live "freely and equally practise their chosen life stance, and in which human potential is realised to the benefit of the individual and the community at large." (Levi Fragell, President of International Humanist and Ethical Union, 2001)

Rationalism and philosophy

Almost all rationalists are atheists or agnostics. There has been a long link between rationalism and scientific method. There is also a long tradition of philosophers who have approached philosophical and ethical questions from a rationalist perspective. Bertrand Russell's "The Faith of a Rationalist" is an example of a rationalist approach to religious belief.

Rationalism, art, and literature

As well as approaching life through reason, rationalists enjoy those things in life where emotion and imagination are to the fore. There has been a long tradition of artists and writers who have been associated with rationalism and its sister movement, humanism, or have pre-empted rationalist ideas in their writings. George Eliot, E.M. Forster and Emile Zola are all examples of such writers.

The Thinker
Rationalism encourages people to think for themselves, to look at the evidence before them and to come to their own conclusions. For this reason, the logo of the Rationalist Press Association is based on Rodin's "The Thinker".

Unitarian Universalism
Ours is a non-creedal, non-doctrinal religion which affirms the individual's freedom of belief. Unitarian Universalist publications Unitarian Universalism is not an atheist movement, but a religious movement into which some atheists may comfortably fit. The movement proclaims the importance of individual freedom of belief, and it includes members from a wide spectrum of beliefs. Unitarianism and Universalism began in the 18th century as a reaction against some Christian doctrines. The movements joined together in 1961.

Is it atheist?
The movement does not have an official definition of God, but allows members to "develop individual concepts of God that are meaningful to them." Members are entirely free to "reject the term and concept altogether." However, the movement's literature says: Most of us do not believe in a supernatural, supreme being who can directly intervene in and alter human life or the mechanism of the natural world. Many believe in a spirit of life or a power within themselves, which some choose to call God. Unitarian Universalist literature Most followers of established religions would regard this as an atheist position. Services in the movement's churches do not make much (if any) mention of God. They emphasise human, ethical and social issues, and do not assume a belief in God.

Spirituality
While the movement is both religious and spiritual, it does not have any place for spiritual beings that have an existence outside this world. Spirituality is seen as a

dimension of ordinary life, in the same way as human life has physical, mental and emotional dimensions.

Afterlife
Most Unitarian Universalists believe that this is the only life we get.

Attitude to religion
Unitarian Universalists believe there is wisdom in most, if not all, of the world's religions. They feel each is valuable for what it can tell us about humanity and the world, and how people can find religious meaning and direction.

A statement of belief
Unitarian Universalism is a liberal religion born of the Jewish and Christian traditions. We keep our minds open to the religious questions people have struggled with in all times and places. We believe that personal experience, conscience, and reason should be the final authorities in religion. In the end religious authority lies not in a book, person, or institution, but in ourselves. We put religious insights to the test of our hearts and minds. We uphold the free search for truth. We will not be bound by a statement of belief. We do not ask anyone to subscribe to a creed. We say ours is a noncreedal religion. Ours is a free faith. We believe that religious wisdom is ever changing. Human understanding of life and death, the world and its mysteries, is never final. Revelation is continuous. We celebrate unfolding truths known to teachers, prophets, and sages throughout the ages. We affirm the worth of all women and men. We believe people should be encouraged to think for themselves. We know people differ in their opinions and lifestyles, and we believe these differences generally should be honored. We seek to act as a moral force in the world, believing that ethical living is the supreme witness of religion. The here and now and the effects our actions will have on future generations deeply concern us. We know that our relationships with one another, with diverse peoples, races, and nations, should be governed by justice, equity, and compassion. Unitarian Universalist Association

Postmodernism
Postmodernism does away with many of the things that religious people regard as essential. For postmodernists every society is in a state of constant change; there are no absolute values, only relative ones; nor are there any absolute truths.

This promotes the value of individual religious impulses, but weakens the strength of 'religions' which claim to deal with truths that are presented from 'outside', and given as objective realities. In a postmodern world there are no universal religious or ethical laws, everything is shaped by the cultural context of a particular time and place and community. In a postmodern world individuals work with their religious impulses, by selecting the bits of various spiritualities that 'speak to them' and create their own internal spiritual world. The 'theology of the pub' becomes as valid as that of the priest. The inevitable conclusion is that religion is an entirely human-made phenomenon.

Precedents
This is not a very new development. In Japan, many people have adopted both Shinto and Buddhist ideas in their religious life for some time. In parts of India, Buddhism co-exists with local tribal religions. Hinduism, too, is able to incorporate many different ideas.

Ways to God
In a world where there is no objectively existing God "out there", and where the elaborate sociological and psychological theories of religion don't seem to ring true, the idea of regarding religion as the totality of religious experiences has some appeal. Religion in this theory is created, altered, renewed in various formal interactions between human beings. Images and ideas of God are manufactured in human activity, and used to give specialness ('holiness'?) to particular relationships or policies which are valued by a particular group. There is no one 'right' or 'wrong' religion - or sanctifying theory. There are as many as there are groups and interactions, and they merge and join, divide and separate over and over again. Some are grouped together under the brand names of major faiths, and they cohere with varying degrees of consistency. Others, although clearly religious in their particular way, would reject any such label.

Some examples
Some of these interactions are labelled 'religious': rites of passage like weddings and funerals, regular worship services, prayer meetings, meditation sessions, retreats. Some of these are just the rituals of everyday life. These include cooking and cleaning, and working. (Many established religions had that insight a long time ago - although they

required the actions to be carried out with a particular attitude of mind to count as religious.) Yet others are group actions designed to "bring about the Kingdom of God" on earth. These are often initiatives for social change, or charity work, or fighting for individual human rights. These dramas remove religion from the exclusive narratives of scriptures, or the lifestyle rules of various faith communities, and bring religion into everyday life. They enable people from different faiths, or none, to work together in religious acts when they engage in social action - they are working to bring about the Kingdom of God on earth, and they don't worry about who God is, or whether God is.

Secularism
Secularists oppose religion or the religious being afforded privileges, which - put another way - means others are disadvantaged. They believe that the reduced numbers attending church show that people have chosen to give up faith. They say this underlines the unfairness of giving any special privileges or rights to faiths. Secularists are particularly concerned about education. They think that religious schools are divisive, and damage the prospects of a harmonious and diverse society. Secularists are not against the right of individuals to have a religious faith. What they oppose is special treatment for religious beliefs and organisations. They think that the protection already given by the law, including human rights legislation, should be sufficient to protect believers from assault or discrimination. You may be surprised to know that while most secularists are atheists, some secularists are actually believers in a faith. While they believe, they don't think that belief is a reason for special treatment. Charles Bradlaugh was one of the founders of Britain's National Secular Society. His political activism kept the atheist point of view in the limelight during Victorian times.

Strong Secularism
Some secularists go further; they want religion to be regarded as a private matter for the home and place of worship - and that the state should be blind to religion. They also seek to separate those bits of our present-day culture that originated in religion from the religions that inspired them.

Secularists support:

The complete separation of church and state. The disestablishment of the Church of England. The repeal of the Act of Settlement. No official representation of religions in Parliament. (Britain is the only Western democracy with such representation.) This would mean no bishops in the House of Lords. The banning of prayers from Parliament, Council chambers, etc. The ending of religious oaths as a condition of holding public sector jobs. Money given to religious organisations from public funds should not be usable for missionary work. The abolition of any special privileges granted to religious organisations. The abolition of any special protection granted to faith groups. The conversion of faith schools to community schools open to all pupils regardless of faith or lack of it. o Religious education should be non-denominational and multi-faith. o No religion should be taught as fact and no religion described as superior to another. o Education should also cover non-religious ways of looking at the world o Some secularists would prefer RE to be replaced by citizenship lessons including only brief coverage of the basic tenets of world religions. o This would not exclude religious references in other subjects such as history, art etc. The abolition of "blasphemy" laws. o Secularists support the protection of individual believers, but not the protection of their beliefs. o Secularist groups are entirely opposed to discrimination against people because of their religious beliefs. o Secularists believe that the law should not restrict reasonable and vigorous criticism of religion. o Secularists believe that the law should not prevent criticism that hurts religious feelings. o Secularists do believe that the law should not permit incitement to religious hatred. o Secularists support legislation to outlaw discrimination in employment on the grounds of religion (or lack of it). o They oppose exemptions which religious organisations are seeking to enable them still to discriminate. o Abolition of the special treatment given to religious broadcasting.