Secular Humanism, Spirituality and Mourning Rituals: A Transformational Journey without God

Secular humanism is often associated with atheism and materialism. As Dennett
(2006) points out, materialism might be explained in one of the two following
ways: primo, the more popular (populist?) sense, denoting an attitude that only
cares for mere material possessions (i.e. money, wealth, fame) or, secundo, as a
scientific stance (i.e. the explanation of natural phenomena without recourse to
anything immaterial like the soul or God). These two approaches are frequently
mixed up, resulting in the misconception that people who do not believe in
immaterial things might as well go for whatever they can in this material world.
This, in turn leads to a cold and egotistical worldview, deprived of anything
spiritual. In this article, I would like to refute those misunderstandings. Being a
former secular humanist counsellor myself, I have always been astounded by the
amount of warmth, depth and even spirituality one can find within secular
humanist mourning rituals. Specifically, I would like to draw attention to the work
of the Belgian philosopher Leo Apostel (1925-1995) who lectured and published
about atheistic spirituality. More precisely, I will demonstrate the contemporary
relevance of his ideas and theories on spirituality, atheistic mourning rituals and
mental health. The basic premise will be Ton Jorna's recent approach (2012) to
spirituality as a transformational journey through life, combined with the ideas of
Marrone (1999) and Romanoff and Terenzio (1998) on spirituality, (mourning)
rituals and mental health. I will demonstrate that the way in which Apostel
composed a secular humanist mourning ritual can in fact be seen as a symbolic and
spiritual transformational journey, within the bigger journey that is life.

ISBN:978-1-84888-257-7

Publication year:2013

Keywords:Atheism, Secular Humanism, Mourning Rituals, Atheistic Spirituality, Leo Apostel, Ton Jorna