List of secularist organizations


Secularist organizations promote the view that moral standards should be based solely on concern for the good of humanity in the present, without reference to supernatural concepts, such as God or an afterlife, any desire to do good for a reward after death, or any fear of punishment for not believing in life after death. The term secularism, as coined and promulgated by George Jacob Holyoake, originally referred to such a view. Secularism may also refer to the belief that government should be neutral on matters of religion, and that church and state should be separate. The term here is used in the first sense, though most organizations listed here also support secularism in the second sense.

Background

Secularists, and their organizations, identify themselves by a variety of terms, including, bright, freethinker, naturalist, rationalist, or skeptic. Despite the use of these various terms, the organizations listed here have secularist goals in common. Note that, while most of these organizations and their members consider themselves irreligious, there are certain exceptions.
In some jurisdictions, a provincial or national humanist society may confer upon Humanist officiants the ability to conduct memorial services, child naming ceremonies or officiate marriages — tasks which would be carried out by clergy in most organized religions.

List

National organisations

There are many local humanist groups around the United Kingdom, most being affiliates of Humanists UK and the National Secular Society. Of these, Leicester Secular Society has particular claim to fame in being the world's oldest secular society, founded in 1851. Others include North East Humanists.

United States