Republican Atheists to delete group content used by a Humanist website without permission
Over a year ago I created a Republican Atheists group on Agnostic.com, a website forum for atheists and agnostics. Since then the developers of the site decided to cross post user accounts, groups and forum posts to their sister website Humanist.com without asking users for permission. I was not notified of this cross posting and just recently learned Republican Atheists’ content has been posted to the humanist website for months without my knowledge.
While some of Republican Atheists’ members identify as humanist, the organization does not affiliate with humanism at all. I consider this hijacking of content to be misrepresenting and exploitative of site users.
What is the issue with humanism?
While many people think humanism is a new ideology, it is not, it actually has an extensive history. Humanism is a doctrine that took a more definitive form in 1933 when the Humanist Manifesto I was published. The purpose of humanism was to provide a moral compass that mimicked religion. Since then humanism has developed to be a “movement” of sorts, with American Humanist Association being one of the most well known organizations representing the doctrine. I consider qualifying as an official humanist involves following the “humanist commandments,” found in the most recent “official” humanist manifesto titled Humanist and its Aspirations: Humanist Manifesto III that was published by American Humanist Association in 2003.
To get more of an idea of the complexity of humanism, below you can see a list of links Agnostic.com has published on its own website attempting to explain humanism and how it correlates with atheism. I can’t help but notice how Agnostic.com appears to be a gateway to converting people to humanism.
Clearly “humanism” is a complex ideology that is similar to a religion or philosophy. While humanist organizations tend to participate in atheist groups and organizations, and often claim to represent atheists, the fact is that many atheists do not want anything to do with humanism. That is the conflict Republican Atheists has with what the website developers of Agnostic.com are doing with its sister humanist site. Republican Atheists is not affiliated with humanism at all and does not appreciate content being published on a humanist website without notification or permission.
I have learned the developers have made a setting that allows a user to “turn off” sharing between the sister websites, but I have determined to not have Republican Atheists associated with a website that essentially misrepresents its users and exploits content.
I hope the developers of Agnostic.com will stop cross posting site content with its humanist site until they receive absolute permission from users to do so. Until then, the website Humanist.com is publishing content from users who never registered with the site and do not officially identify as humanist.
Lauren Ell is President of Republican Atheists. She is a business owner, consultant, marketer and communications strategist. Contact Lauren Ell here. Follow Republican Atheists on Facebook and Twitter.
