This Time, Giving Names

On Saturday, 6 October the Washington Post “On Faith” section featured a guest column by Matt Cherry titled “Welcome to This World, Lyra and Sophia,” in which he describes a nontheistic naming ceremony conducted for his daughters.

But there is nothing intrinsically religious about celebrating rites of passage. Atheists like me also have values and aspirations, family and friends. So after my twin daughters Lyra and Sophia were born, my wife Shannon and I decided to create a humanist “Welcome to the World” ceremony for them. We were delighted to hold the ceremony at the Atheist Alliance International annual convention, in Washington, D.C., Sept. 30.

That such a humanistic life cycle ritual is getting attention in a prominent newspaper is wonderful news, as there seems to be a nagging suspicion among the general public that atheists and humanists are somehow bereft of all sense of humanity. Certainly there are many atheists who shy away from such rituals, thinking they smack too much of religion, but building community and connections between families (such as in the very conduct of the ceremony, and in the appointment of “mentors,” which are presumably a more nontheistically correct version of “godparents”).

Although the tone and content of this column is entirely commendable, I want to raise one semantic objection. Matt Cherry is, among other things, the Executive Director of the Institute for Humanist Studies, has long been associated with organized humanism, and is truly an ambassador for humanist ideals. Yet, given this sturdy soapbox from which to expound on the merits of humanism, he carelessly reinforces the idea that atheism and humanism are somehow synonymous. He uses phrases like “atheists like me,” “created a humanist Welcome to the World Ceremony,” “no commitment to encourage them to be atheists or humanists,” and “raised in an openly humanist family.” In addition, he notes that this ceremony was conducted in conjunction with the annual conference of the Atheist Alliance International. Taken together, it would be difficult for the typical reader to draw any clear distinction between atheism and humanism. He also mentions that this ceremony welcomed his daughters into “the community of believers our family belongs to” which seems a strange obeisance to the faith-based community and at odds with the evidence over faith mantra of the humanist crowd (note: I understand that we all have beliefs of one form or another, and that beliefs may be founded on evidence – but in this context, that subtlety would not have been apparent).

None of this is meant to fuel the flames of discord between atheists and that sub-set of atheists preferring to be known as humanists, and I’m of the camp that positive attention for any nontheist / atheist / bright / secularist is good for all. But for those intent on promoting humanism as a distinct worldview that is more than the rejection of theistic belief, this is a reminder of the difficulties to be encountered, and of the need to be fastidious in the choice of the words we use to frame such discussions.

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