What is the attitude of the Ethical Movement toward religious freedom?
Religious freedom is humanity’s most precious freedom. Members of the Ethical Movement treasure religious freedom for all, and above all freedom of individual conscience. Religious freedom requires religious tolerance. The Ethical Movement believes that everyone has the right to worship according to conscience and the right not to worship at all. By refusing to formulate or require acceptance of a fixed and final doctrine, the Ethical Movement strives to keep open-ended the quest for truth. Human beings will always differ in their interpretations of life and their need for intellectual and aesthetic formulations and ceremonial expressions of the meaning of life. It is doubtful whether all people will ever agree on one world religion. It would mean an end to religious freedom. It would rob humankind of one of its most valuable assets, the pluralism of the many religions and philosophies which contribute to the interplay of human differences and of human development.
