What is humanism?

[sidetrack]

I dont think I know of a satisfyng defination of humanism and ⁄ or clearly know what it is.
From what I know it’s a philosophical system originating in the the Renaissance concerned only with humans,the imeediate world and also being happy and human(not with anything divine).However I’ve also heard that humanists follow certain ideas such as the right for humans to have freedom and give meaning to there own lives.Here are my questions about it.
-would people who are simply not concerned with any religions and for the most part are not theistic be considered humanist?.
-is humanism,being a humanist harmful to a persons spirituality and ⁄ religion?
-If humanism is bad then what about Christian humanism?(I remember that when I went on wikipedia and looked up Cardinal Newman at the bottom under categories it says “Christian humanists”)
-would some environmentalists (like maybe extremists)be considered humanists?

• even though the ancient Greeks worshipped dieties in theremythology would philosphers such as Thales,Xenophanes and Anaxagoras be considered humanists?.
  Thank you very much so for responses everybody.

 

[tonyrey]

In theory there are different types of humanism - e.g. the Christian you have mentioned - but in our present society Humanism is associated with atheism.

 

[Abu]

Sidetrack
If humanism is bad then what about Christian humanism?

In Christian Humanism: A Critique of the Secular City and Its Ideology, 1978, Thomas Molnar points out that over the centuries, so-called Christian Humanism came to be a contradiction in terms, because some Humanists distorted the true relationship between Creator and human creature….many centuries before Darwinian evolutionary ideas became popular. (Creation Rediscovered, Gerard J Keane, TAN 1999, p 289-90).