What does it all mean? Finding humanist meaning in religious words

By Dr David Mayston

In this wide-ranging reflection, David Mayston explores how words traditionally associated with religion – such as God, Spirit, Faith, and Being – can be reinterpreted through a humanist lens. He shows how familiar religious language may express deeply human values of love, creativity, and compassion without invoking the supernatural. By uncovering the rich secular meanings within these ancient words, David invites us to see humanism not as the absence of faith, but as a positive reorientation toward life, caring, and shared purpose. David has a PhD in Economics from the University of Cambridge and is a member of the independent York Humanists.

What does it all mean – not life itself, but the words we use to make sense of it? We know from official Census returns that the number of people who find conventional religious belief meaningful is falling. But is humanism helping to fill the resulting gap with a positive and meaningful alternative?

The way we define and convey meaning is through language. Words – and the meanings we attach to them – are central to both religion and other systems of belief. Yet the same word can carry several interpretations, and many apparently religious terms also have rich secular meanings. Humanism needs to make these meanings more apparent if it is to thrive in a less religious age.

In the beginning was the Word

The meaning of the very word ‘Word’ is indeed a case in point. Christianity places this word at its centre, declaring in St John’s Gospel ‘In the beginning was the Word’, with Jesus Christ taken to be the embodiment of a thought by a supernatural being, namely God, who ‘sent’ his Son to redeem the World.

What is certainly true, and worth acknowledging, is that words are crystallisations of thoughts which take place inside people’s minds. While we now have an increasing appreciation of the physical processes occurring within the brain, the concept of mind remains a somewhat abstract, holistic entity. This does not, of course, make it ‘supernatural’. However, words and actions can be motivated by good or bad thoughts, and many anti-human actions throughout history have resulted from very bad ideas taking hold in the minds of human beings. Motivations and thoughts which lead to much better objectives and actions are therefore fertile territory for humanist concerns.

The spirit of humanity

This brings us to a second key word, ‘spirit’, which carries both religious and richly secular meanings. The Holy Spirit, as the third member of the Christian Trinity, is usually taken to have the same meaning as ‘Holy Ghost’. Ghosts might be taken to inhabit a ‘supernatural’ world, with God and the Devil fighting it out for dominance of this world. However, the word ‘spirit’ also has several secular meanings, one related to alcohol, but another to phrases such as ‘community spirit’, ‘team spirit’, ‘public spirited’ and ‘a spirited performance’. Community spirit, public spiritedness, and team spirit are key ingredients in achieving worthwhile goals that rise above self-centred individualism to create something greater than the sum of their parts – and well worthy of humanist attention.

In contrast to such positive motivations, phrases such as ‘being possessed by an evil spirit’ could meaningfully describe the actions of many dictators and rulers, both in this century and in the past – without implying any belief that ‘spirit’ refers to a ghost-like being rather than to a state of mind. It is notable that the word ‘Devil’ – which conjures up a supernatural personification of evil – is simply the word ‘evil’ with a ‘D’ added. Equally, some may point out that the word ‘God’ has the same letters as the word Good, but with the letter 'o' included only once. Good and evil are indeed important moral concepts to which we can attach great importance and meaning, without any necessary belief in God and the Devil as supernatural beings.

What does ‘being’ mean?

We may ask here what the word ‘being’ really means. Again, this is a word which has a religious meaning but also rich secular meanings. God described as ‘a supernatural being’ includes the indefinite article ‘a’, one of the shortest words in the English language, but one which raises the larger question of whether there are several such beings, and indeed where this being lives. ‘In heaven’ might be the typical answer to where God is said to live – a place once imagined as physically ‘up there’, an idea that no longer holds credence in an age of advanced astronomy and modern physics. ‘God lives in believers’ hearts’ might be another reply, but again, not literally true, since the brain, rather than the heart, is the more plausible seat of our emotions and drives.

The meaning of ‘is’

‘God is Love’ is another frequent response, but it raises the question of what the word ‘is’ means in this context. The word ‘is’ can again take on several different meanings. In mathematics, the statement x is equal to six, written as x = 6, means that the value of x happens to be six – for example, at a particular point where two lines cross. By contrast, the notation x ≡ 6 means that x is defined as being identically equal to six in every case – it’s not just true at one point, but true by definition. We might ask a similar question of theological language. When someone says ‘God is Love’ does this mean God happens to be loving, or lovely, or that God is identical with Love itself – that the two are, in effect, the same by definition?

Modern ‘gods’ and misplaced faith

Even though many people do not worship God, there is a secular sense in which individuals may still have ‘gods’ – objects of devotion that can become the dominant focus of their motivation. Of course, this would not apply to those who spend several hours a day following and caring for a non-human being if they remain in control – even with  ‘god’ spelled backwards.

One secular definition of a personal ‘god’ might be that which a person unconditionally worships — without any necessary meaning that they ought to be doing so. If we interpret ‘God’ as that which should motivate a person – the ultimate objective of their behaviour – then the phrase ‘God is Love’ takes on an important secular meaning: that love itself should be what motivates us.

Such a secular interpretation also casts new light on the meaning of faith. Having faith in your values – and doing good out of love, without expectation of personal reward – is not the same as having faith in a semi-contractual arrangement with a ‘supernatural’ God who promises abundant rewards in Heaven in return for obedience. Faith can also be misplaced. The UK Post Office scandal – in which hundreds of sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted – resulted from excessive faith being placed by senior managers in a new technology that turned out to be faulty. Being careful where you place your faith, rather than exercising it blindly, calls for closer scrutiny of what – and whom – you trust.

Being and goodness

As noted above, the word ‘being’ has many possible meanings – especially when the limiting article ‘a’ is removed. Being alive, being happy, being fulfilled, being socially productive, and promoting well-being all give positive, secular meanings to the word ‘being’ – meanings that might be described as ‘being good’ without invoking belief in a supernatural being. The phrase ‘supreme being’, when read without the enigmatic little word ‘a’ in front, could even be understood as being supremely alive, being supremely happy, being supremely fulfilled, and so forth.

From godlessness to human flourishing

Similar considerations arise if we examine the use of words which might be considered the opposite of ‘God’, namely ‘godless’ and ‘godforsaken’. Describing a place as godless or godforsaken typically means it is bleak and desolate – lifeless, unloved, and lacking the natural beauty, human caring, and creativity that make life worthwhile. A humanist perspective might well focus on the opposite of godlessness. Instead of seeking to follow a distant ‘supernatural being’, we might define our purpose as nurturing natural beauty, creativity, and human caring for the well-being of all – a vision that stands in stark contrast to the desolation and suffering witnessed in Gaza in recent years.

The Roman god Jupiter and the Greek god Zeus were thought to embody natural forces such as the weather. Image produced using AI

Reification and ancient gods

A rather longer word than ‘a’ or ‘is’, but relevant here, is ‘reification’. Wikipedia defines it as ‘a fallacy of ambiguity, when an abstraction – an abstract belief or hypothetical construct – is treated as if it were a concrete event or physical entity.’ To reify abstract ideas as concrete beings is to follow a long tradition of filling gaps in human understanding. The Roman god Jupiter and the Greek god Zeus, for example, were thought to embody natural forces such as the weather and were therefore deemed worthy of worship. Scientific advances, however, have made such representations obsolete.

Reinterpreting the word ‘God’ as a placeholder for human values

In place of the historical claim that ‘God made the world’, it takes only a few different words – but a large change in meaning – to say instead that ‘God makes the world worthwhile’, if the word ‘God’ is understood to include the opposite of godlessness – human warmth, caring, creativity, and respect for the natural world.

A reorientation away from the worship of an abstract deity toward the practical application of ethical principles is reflected in the contrasting uses of the word ‘service’ in the phrases ‘church service’ and ‘public service’. Humanism, in this sense, has a positive role to play in encouraging more productive understandings of such key words – terms that carry within them rich secular meanings.

Conclusion

In giving old words new meanings, humanism can reclaim the language of reverence for life itself – not as worship of the divine, but as celebration of our shared humanity and creative spirit.