ABSTRACT
Covenantal pluralism and religious literacy can incorporate the perspectives of secular humanists. The rising population that identifies with various labels such as humanist, atheist, secularist, and freethinker, are defined as those who build their worldview on scientific reasoning along with compassion seen through an egalitarian lens. Drawing significantly on empathy, humanists can join others in respecting differences without lending them moral equivalency. Most humanists aim for as much government neutrality as possible, most understanding such neutrality should not be so rigid as to violate people’s right to faith and conscience, or prevent people from engaging core elements of their religious practice. Some atheists emphasize governmental religious neutrality to the point of extremist secularism, often in the grips of political ideology, and in such cases, it can be used as an excuse to act on prejudice, which can be just as threatening to pluralism as any other form of exceptionalism. Most humanists believe that by building on common ground, human beings have the potential to reduce violence and promote cooperation on some of the most pressing challenges facing our species.
