Editing Secular humanism (section)

====''Washington Ethical Society v. District of Columbia''====
Another case alluded to in the ''Torcaso v. Watkins'' footnote, and said by some to have established secular humanism as a religion under the law, is the 1957 tax case of ''[[s:Washington Ethical Society v. District of Columbia|Washington Ethical Society v. District of Columbia]]'', 249 F.2d 127 (D.C. Cir. 1957). The ''Washington Ethical Society'' functions much like a church, but regards itself as a non-theistic religious institution, honoring the importance of ethical living without mandating a belief in a [[supernatural]] origin for ethics. The case involved denial of the Society's application for tax exemption as a religious organization. The U.S. Court of Appeals reversed the Tax Court's ruling, defined the Society as a religious organization, and granted its tax exemption. The Society terms its practice [[Ethical Culture]]. Though Ethical Culture is based on a humanist philosophy, it is regarded by some as a type of religious humanism. Hence, it would seem most accurate to say that this case affirmed that a religion need not be [[theistic]] to qualify as a religion under the law, rather than asserting that it established generic secular humanism as a religion.

In the cases of both the ''Fellowship of Humanity'' and the ''Washington Ethical Society,'' the court decisions turned not so much on the particular beliefs of practitioners as on the function and form of the practice being similar to the function and form of the practices in other religious institutions.