Jjoplin

Objective truth and secular humanism

Hi. On secular humanism you replaced

• Objective truth - A constant search for objective truth, with the understanding that new knowledge and experience constantly alter our imperfect perception of it.

with

• Search for truth - A constant search for truth, with the understanding that new knowledge and experience constantly alter our perceived truth and objective truth may not exist at all.

My concern about this is that the original text was a direct quote from the Council on Secular Humanism web site (http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=main&page=what) from a document that had five authors and thus was apparently a concensus of sorts. It's true that the heading wasn't orginal, and I'd be happy to change that to Search for truth. Otherwise, while I'm sympathetic to your change, your wording seems less authoritative. I'm tempted to revert it. Suggestions? -Rhwentworth 04:18, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

Reverted but kept your Search for truth header and removed "objective" from emphasis. Section name change to "Tenets" was good. Talk to me if you have issues with this. Regards, Rhwentworth 04:51, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

I didn't realize the search for objective truth was from the CSH. Perhaps my changes could go to the criticism section?

I don't see how a secular humanist can believe in objective truth, this is ultimately a belief in the existence of an external 'thing' called objective truth, which is closer to Buddhism or western religions (e.g. Christianity). Secular humanists can perceive something they call truth from the human POV.

However, that is more my criticism of secular humanism, so I would be okay if you want to revert back to the original. The current change looks okay too.--Jjoplin 13:23, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

I'm happy with the way it reads now. As to whether secular humanists can believe in objective truth... The issue of whether objectivity is possible has long been debated by philosophers. While I don't think there is uniformity of agreement on the answer, certainly many secular philosophers have thought that the idea of objectivity made enough sense to be a worthy goal. It's odd that you associate the notion of "objective truth" with religions; I've heard the term "objectivity" used by scientists much more often than by theologians. "Absolute truth" is a term more often associated with religion, but it's a different concept. As to whether it would be appropriate as a criticism... While the use of the phrase "objective truth" was sanctioned by CSH, I doubt they would consider this exact formulation to be critical--likely some secular humanists differ on this point. Criticising something that is not necessarily a core position would seem a bit frivolous. Too, as you say, it sounds like this is a personal criticism rather than a widely held perceived failing of secular humanism. -Rhwentworth 16:15, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

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