N.C. Army officer wants humanism recognized

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The Associated Press
© February 8, 2012

By Tom Breen

RALEIGH, N.C.

An officer at Fort Bragg wants the Army to recognize that there are not only atheists in foxholes, but plenty of humanists, too.

Maj. Ray Bradley has applied to become a lay leader for humanists at the sprawling Army base, but his request to be officially identified as a humanist in his records and dog tags has been denied.

Bradley can be identified as an atheist, but he says that's not a fully accurate description of what he believes. He says humanism is a philosophical system with a distinctive set of ethics and beliefs rather than a simple disbelief in God.

Fort Bragg has an increasingly active population of soldiers who are atheists, agnostics or humanists. They're planning a concert at the base on March 31.

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Humanism

Submitted by Citizen Shane on Wed, 02/08/2012 at 1:29 pm.

I believe one of the tenets would be reason and/or logic. The thing I find lacking in today's religious tenets is the denial of human divinity. The divine has been stripped from mankind and given to some deity away in the clouds. I think, if all peoples recognized the divine in one another, there would be no need for a Fort Bragg or Fort anything for that matter. Religion has caused more warfare than any other catalyst. Humanism on the other hand, started the Renaissance and Age of Enlightenment.