Felix Adler, who helped found Ethical Culture over a century ago, said it was a religion for those who are religiously inclined and a philosophy for those who are not (and today “spiritual” might better capture what the phrase “religiously inclined” meant then). Ever since, controversy has erupted about whether to call Ethical Culture a religion, and what the word “religion” ought to mean in the first place.

But one way to set aside these questions, and make progress in terms of the basic idea of its founders, is to look, not at what “religion” means, but instead at what religions do.

Sigmund Freud identified three basic functions he thought religions have for individuals and societies.

They provide (1) a world-view, or overall vision of the Universe and our place in it, (2) a code of ethics, and (3) comfort and hope, given the difficulties, pain and tragedies we all encounter in the course of our lives. Here is a link to the essay where Freud wrote about these three fundamental things religions do.

http://www.freud.org.uk/education/topic/10573/subtopic/74334

Now, despite the rejection of, and even at times disdain for, mainstream religion that many people in Ethical Culture and Humanism – myself included – have, it is no concession to acknowledge that these three are valuable functions in the lives of people and the communities they belong to.

Obviously, Ethical Culture has a special place for (2), and many of us, as far as (1) is concerned, are naturalists: our basic word-view is drawn from science and common sense, and from a rational commitment to the search for truth, and posits that all that exists is natural, to the exclusion of the supernatural.

No one in Ethical Culture and Humanism is expected to agree with naturalism, or any particular code of ethics. Instead, we hold meetings and invite speakers to help us decide for ourselves about these things.

But many of us believe we can do better in terms of (3): providing inspiration.

Our Sunday meetings ought to make us feel better when we leave than when we came, inspired and ready for the week to come. This is the function that churches and synagogues serve for many people.

In the face of life’s inevitable disappointments, we need a regular revitalization to remind us of what is meaningful and fulfilling in life. This contributes to our purpose as an ethical and congregational community in helping to take care of each other, and reaching out through charity and activism to address the sufferings and injustices of the larger world of Humanity.

At least, that is what a lot of people – including the devout atheist Daniel Dennett – think is a good thing religions sometimes do for people, and worth preserving as belief in the supernatural and God-given ethics declines in much of the United States and Europe.

I strongly recommend viewing the following talk by Dennett in which he makes the case for salvaging the best of religion.

Scroll down to the still image from the video and click on it to view the talk by Dan Dennett.

http://www.theatheistrabbi.com/2011/02/what-should-replace-religion-daniel-dennett-knows.html

But how do we provide inspiration in the absence of shared comforting beliefs in a just God and the after-life? I believe the answer lies in the arts, and especially music.

Our meeting this past Sunday was a good example of how the arts can touch our emotions, provide insight about an important ethical controversy, and remind us about what is meaningful in life.

Our guests from the Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship presented a theatrical presentation of “Dead Man Walking” and I am sure we are all grateful to them for giving dramatic form to the moral issue of capital punishment.

While, I would say, our meetings should continue to embrace the intellectual dimension of ethics and questions about naturalism, we should also extend our involvement with the arts. We can continue to provide intellectual stimulation, in pursuit of excellence in the life of the mind, while also finding inspiration and comfort.

We would do well to heed the caution of Randy Best, our Ethical Leader, when in a recent talk he noted that “[c]ongregational community that does not encourage moral engagement risks becoming a mere entertainment.” But our purpose in engaging the arts is not to entertain ourselves. It is to satisfy the basic human need for meaning in life.

I believe that, among the arts, music in particular provides the greatest opportunities for inspiration.

At the meeting this coming Sunday I will bring a bit of (recorded) rock-and-roll with me, as a demonstration of the potential of music for affirming our ethical connections as individuals, as well as our common identity as members of the Ethical Humanist Society of the Triangle.

Also, I have been asked to chair a task force on music for the EHST. Please let me know if you would like to help in this effort. I am excited about this initiative to move forward in addressing the inspirational, as well as the intellectual, dimension of our shared experience in Ethical Culture and Humanism.

What are your thoughts and feelings about music and the arts in Ethical Culture and Humanism? I look forward to your comments.