Ethical Culture Movement
 

Has anyone heard of the Ethical Culture Movement, or are you a member of this society? I had never heard of it before, but have been browsing some websites and came across this one:

http://www.aeu.org

It catches my interest because it is a specifically non-theistic, secular-humanist type of group that still considers itself to be spiritual, and still respects other faiths. Here is their "vision," from the website... keep in mind this group has been around for over a 100 years, and they have chapters in most major cities.

I can't find much to argue with in their "vision." I mean, part of me thinks it could be kinda hokey/watered own, but if I set my cynicism aside... why not? I read all these studies for my work that say going to church and having a religious life improves people's quality of life, increases social networks, and betters your mental health... but these studies never leave much room for atheists and those who don't want to subscribe to a religion for their own reasons. I believe there ought to be a communal substitute for going to church with a mainstream religion and having to sign up for all that jazz (well, the TFP is a pretty good one, actually)... this seems like a decent alternative.

Thoughts?

Never heard of it here.

It looks and sounds ok. This seems roughly equivalent to humanism I think. Perhaps a philosophy type could help me on that...

I just check "humanist" on wikipedia, and it had some interesting links also. What I'd be curious about is how this group differs from them.

Fascinating. I've never come across that one.

Sounds similar to Unitarian Universalists. But that in itself is simply a religion that accepts all beliefs or lack thereof. A social network of moral people, basically. They do have weekly devotionals, though, that resemble worship services.

Thanks for the replies, guys... I guess it's really not well known, since a lot of TFP'ers have passed by this thread without posting.

It does seem to have a lot in common with humanism, though they seem to overlap in certain ways (rather than be copies of each other). There is something on their website about this... I'll look for it later.

Yeah, it is also similar to the Unitarian Universalists... but this group is distinctly NON-theistic. So basically belief in any kind of deity is irrelevant to the community; they are just a group of ethical people that gets together on a regular basis. A kind of church for atheists and others who still wouldn't fit in even the most liberal of "churches."

It's a neat sort of idea.

I remember checking up on religion many years back. While I like the ethical/moral aspects of religion, "faith" based stuff bothers me immensly.

So potentially, non-religious ethical/moral groups provide a forum (I would think) through which people of these views can agitate for a particular society/world.

Whats the point though?

Reading through much of the website it was sort of a 'ok and?' moment.

Example.

Ok tolerance for different points of view, great, but are you all working for this 'ethical society' or just talking about it?

Its a very mild 'we like these laws' and 'we like to talk about being ethical'.

Nothing wrong with it, but its the kinda thing where I expect to find pseudo intellectuals thinking they have the answers to all the worlds problems, talking with other pseudo intellectuals who think they have all the answers and doing really nothing.

... you mean, like the TFP? ;) (I know I am just as guilty as the rest.)

But I agree, Ustwo. When I read through the websites, I was relieved to simply see a community-gathering of people who didn't necessarily believe in God... and yet, nothing grabbed me and said, "You KNOW you want to join us!!" It just seemed kinda... boring. Still, I liked it better than the idea of an exclusively theistic community.