Editing Secular humanism (section)

====''Peloza v. Capistrano School District''====
The implication in Justice Black's footnote that secular humanism is a religion has been seized upon by religious opponents of the teaching of [[evolution]], who have made the argument that teaching evolution amounts to teaching a religious idea. The claim that secular humanism could be considered a religion for legal purposes was examined by the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit]] in ''[[Peloza v. Capistrano School District]]'', 37 F.3d 517 (9th Cir. 1994), ''cert. denied'', 515 U.S. 1173 (1995). In this case, a science teacher argued that, by requiring him to teach evolution, his school district was forcing him to teach the "religion" of secular humanism. The Court responded, "We reject this claim because neither the Supreme Court, nor this circuit, has ever held that evolutionism or Secular Humanism are 'religions' for [[Establishment Clause]] purposes." The Supreme Court refused to review the case.

The decision in a subsequent case, ''Kalka v. Hawk et al.'', offered this commentary:<ref name="Kalka v Hawk"/>
<blockquote>The Court's statement in ''Torcaso'' does not stand for the proposition that humanism, no matter in what form and no matter how practiced, amounts to a religion under the First Amendment. The Court offered no test for determining what system of beliefs qualified as a "religion" under the First Amendment. The most one may read into the ''Torcaso'' footnote is the idea that a particular non-theistic group calling itself the "Fellowship of Humanity" qualified as a religious organization under California law.</blockquote>