Life Stance - Definition

Definition

Harry Stopes-Roe, who fought for the term's acceptance by the Humanist movement, defined "life stance" as follows:

"Life stance" - The style and content of an individual's or a community's relationship with that which is of ultimate importance; the presuppositions and commitments of this, and the consequences for living which flow from it. (Each individual or community hopes that it has come to a good and well-founded relationship, but the word is usually used without implying that this really is so). —Harry Stopes-Roe

A further, more analytical definition has been put forward by the British Humanist Association, drawing in part on jurisprudence related to the term 'religion or belief' in the European Convention on Human Rights:

A collective belief that attains a sufficient level of cogency, seriousness, cohesion and importance and that relates the nature of life and the world to morality, values and/or the way its believers should live. —British Humanist Association

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