ABSTRACT
The case is of considerable significance, for if the plaintiffs are successful, the viability of public school education in America will be seriously undermined, indeed perhaps destroyed. The plaintiffs, 624 parents, contend that the textbooks used in Alabama public schools promote the "religion of secular humanism" and that this is contrary to the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. The humanities, the sciences, and ethics can and should be taught in the schools—for these are the common heritages of human civilization. Since the three million teachers in American schools come from all walks of life and represent differing religious faiths, surely the schools are not dominated by a humanist elite. Additionally, secular humanism is skeptical of religious claims. The organized humanist movement in America is put in a quandary; for the Fellowship of Religious Humanists, the American Ethical Union, and the Society for Humanist Judaism consider themselves to be religious.
