Secular humanism and government intrusion

David Bouck (“Secular humanism is our de facto religion,” Nov. 14) presents an irrationally tortured perspective of the world. He asserts that, “God puts governments in power.” Did an angry Middle-Eastern sky-god put Adolf Hitler in place? Caligula? Nero? Josef Stalin? Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?

Mr. Bouck states that “secular humanism” (a generic term sometimes applied to a wide range of nonbelievers as infinitely varied as the number of freethinkers) is our “de facto religion.” This is as silly as saying that not collecting stamps is a hobby.

Mr. Bouck refers to our “founding fathers’ genius” in basing the Constitution on a God who, strangely, is never once mentioned in it. In reality, their genius was in keeping private personal superstitions separate from public policy, because some of them were not believers, and others were very devout but didn’t trust government to meddle in personal matters of faith.

Mr. Bouck complains of “governmental control of our lives,” but the only intrusions I see by public policy into our private lives are those by religious conservatives trying to impose religion in the public square, dictate matters regarding personal intimate relationships and control medical choices regarding reproduction, stem cell therapies and end-of-life decisions.


