I mean, if he hadn’t just pointed it out, here I’d be, going about the rest of my life thinking a conceptual phenomenon had ends of its own separate from the aggregate ambitions and agenda of its constituent people.

What a relief!

Secular humanists might have a political agenda, though by the nature of their outlook on life, it’s hard to see how that might be anything more forceful than “il faut cultiver nôtre jardin”.

People who call themselves secular humanists for political reasons (or even worse, for euphony), almost certainly do have a political agenda. This tells us quite a lot about people’s ability to spin stories about themselves, but not much about anything else.

I consider myself secular when I’m not listening to Bach, and humanist when I’m not helping out small cute mammals, but I see nothing common between my philosophy (political or otherwise) and yours. if someone held a gun to my head, I’d probably describe yours as as “rampant tribalism” – in which of course, the nature of one’s beliefs matter only in so far as the define one as a member of the tribe.

Sorry.