Secular Humanists Congregate in Spirit of Friends

You are barely religious, if at all, you are decidedly liberal on social and cultural issues and you profess a scientific view of reality.

Where do you find like-minded souls, er, people, to meet and mingle with?

As some secular humanist and freethinker groups struggle to draw more than 50 people to their monthly meetings, a group called the Skeptic Society, started four years ago by a Glendale native, seems to have found a way to attract nonbelievers as well as the slightly spiritual.

Michael Shermer, who has taught at Glendale Community College and is an adjunct professor of history and science at Occidental College, counts 10,000 Skeptic Society members nationwide and an average of 300 people at monthly lectures on the Caltech campus in Pasadena.

Skeptic magazine, launched by Shermer in 1992 with 1,000 subscribers, now prints 25,000 copies.

“We are bigger than most scientific journals and climbing fast,” said Shermer, who now lives in Altadena. “We investigate [scientific] claims that are . . . controversial or in the paranormal area.”

One way the society may have succeeded, he said, is to eschew anti-religious goals. In contrast to atheist and some humanist groups, “we don’t have a goal to de-convert religious people,” he said. However, the group does challenge the anti-evolution arguments of creationism, which Shermer regards as “smuggling religion into classrooms under the guise of science.”

Nor does Shermer say he is trying to supplant skeptical groups with longer histories. “The more the merrier if they hold the view that science and rationality offer solutions to human problems,” he said. “But I think all of us need to be cautious when dealing with religion, because people get offended so easily,” he added.

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Indeed, atheists generally are held in low esteem by the public. Six of 10 Americans in a recent survey by Glendale’s Barna Research Group said atheists have a negative influence on society--a far higher negative rating than even controversial faith groups.

Yet, in a Times Poll of the San Fernando Valley in late 1991, 20% of adults said they had no religion, matching the statewide percentage found in an earlier survey by researchers at UC Santa Barbara.

So why do some groups espousing an ethical, liberal and skeptical perspective find it hard to attract people from the pool of “nones” in surveys that ask religious affiliation?

The average age of participants is a factor. “A lot of the humanist groups are old, white guys and women,” said Shermer, referring to a dilemma acknowledged by leaders of some groups.

Take the Society for Humanistic Judaism, for instance. The national organization says the world is governed by natural laws and that people should shape their lives without reference to supernatural power. But its members also identify with Jewish history, culture and traditions.

Dolly Arond, 66, of Northridge, the incoming president of the Los Angeles chapter, said the group has close to 70 members at present and averages about 30 at monthly meetings.

Shirley Monson, who handles the group’s newsletter, added: “We’ve have two younger couples that have recently joined--well, they are in their 40s.”

Three dozen people showed up this month at Monson’s home in Encino for a Passover Seder that omitted mentions of God, offering instead the “light that is within all of us.”

The group’s monthly meetings, switched this month from a Beverly Hills park to a larger, more affordable location on the Westside, usually are held on Friday evenings and begin with lighting candles--similar to what religious Jews might do on the Sabbath.

“For some people, that takes on a religious tone and they have difficulty dealing with that,” said Arond. “We don’t do it in a religious way. We believe in keeping certain traditions, but we look into the real meaning behind them and celebrate in a modern, humanistic way.”

Some of the same tensions exist in the Ethical Culture Society of Los Angeles, which is part of the nationwide American Ethical Union, founded in 1876.

Anita Devore, the Los Angeles society’s president, noted in the group’s most recent newsletter that the long-standing identification of Ethical Culture as a religion “turns freethinkers off.” She appealed to members to define their philosophical outlook for themselves, but, above all, to come up with recruitment ideas to help the 50-member group survive.

One of its best-known leaders is Gerald A. Larue, a USC professor emeritus who is scheduled to speak at the group’s May 19 meeting.

The society moved its monthly meeting from Brentwood to a Van Nuys bookstore in September. Although Book Grinders offers a congenial setting, Devore wrote, “the bad news is that our membership has increased by only three members.”

The Ethical Culture Society and the Society for Humanistic Judaism are among six like-minded groups that form a coalition called the Alliance. The others are Atheists United, Gay and Lesbian Atheists and Humanists, the Humanist Assn. of Los Angeles and Secular Humanists of Los Angeles.

Some coalition members are doing better than Ethical Culture and Humanistic Judaism. Both Atheists United and the Humanist Assn. of Los Angeles are averaging about 60 members at their monthly meetings, representatives of those groups said.

The Alliance’s annual conference, dubbed Humcon, is scheduled for Sept. 27 to 29 at the Disneyland Hotel.

So far, the Skeptic Society is going its own way, although members of the various organizations attend some of each other’s events. Its weekend conference at Caltech in March drew 285 registrants for programs that included entertainer-skeptic Steve Allen and magician James “The Amazing” Randi, who debunks paranormal and psuedo-scientific claims. Allen and Randi have been favorite speakers and honorees at humanist gatherings.

The Skeptic Society’s monthly lectures draw people of diverse ages and ethnic backgrounds, according to Shermer. He acknowledges that attendance often is augmented by students assigned to take notes at the lectures.

More than that, Shermer said, the social enjoyment of the human spirit is at work.

“One reason we have our meetings on Sunday is because skeptics have a psychological nature like anyone else--we enjoy each other’s company,” he said. “Skeptics are spiritual, psychologically speaking.”