What is naturalistic humanism? Is it a religion or what? According to the dictionary, naturalistic humanism is a doctrine that states that "religion does not depend on supernatural experience, divine revelation, etc., and that all religious truth can derive from the natural world." I would like to spend the next few minutes analyzing this term further before continuing with the main theme of my speech. What is religion? There are probably as many definitions as there are people who think about these things, but the word itself comes from the Latin word meaning "to bind to." Perhaps one of the most concise definitions to be found was offered by William James: "Religion means to us the feelings, acts, and experiences of individuals in their solitude, so far as they learn to stand in relation to what they may consider divine". But I think a short definition that most of us would agree on is that religion is our attempt at reconciliation with ultimate reality. It helps to answer such a question: why do I and my loved ones eventually have to die, and why does there seem to be so much seemingly unnecessary suffering in the world? The answers to these crucial questions are the stuff of all significant religions. So as long as we are humans faced with the dilemma of not wanting to die but knowing that we must die, there will be a need for some kind of religious expression. But does this religious expression necessarily mean being a believer in a religious dogma based on divine revelation? ? The most influential and philosophical of the religious naturalists of this century is John Dewey. In his book "Common Faith" he outlines the difference between the noun religion and the adjective relig...... middle of paper......they want to integrate the revelations of science into their religious life. However, naturalistic humanism is not a religion but an alternative to religion. Naturalistic humanism rejects divine revelation in favor of scientific research, but recognizes the value of religious expression, based on love for nature, for others and for ourselves. Naturalistic humanism preaches that love for all of Nature, including humanity, will be the only thing that will ultimately save us. Naturalistic humanism recognizes the limits of our knowledge but condemns any attempt to use myth to allay fear of the unknown. a reasonable antidote to the suffering and fear due to our ignorance is the active pursuit of knowledge and total commitment to a life based on love for ourselves, for others and for Nature as a unifying whole..