Humanism and atheism religions?/Moral Relativism

I commonly hear that humanism and atheism are religions. Atheism is simply the non-belief in God. Saying an atheist is religious is like saying a person who doesn't believe in a purple dinosaur on the planet Pluto, because others do and worship it, is religious.Atheists can be socialist or pure laizze fair capitalists who want government and the markets separated entirely or as usual, atheists are between these two extremes. Humanism, on the other hand, is a philosophy, like Marxism, like capitalism, like democracy and its central idea is that society and laws and morals should be based solely on human needs and alleviating human pain and suffering and furthering the happiness of mankind.
We see this idea from Locke, Jefferson to Thoreau. Indeed many religious individuals were humanists or agreed with these humanist precepts fully or in part. Humanism and the Enlightment and the ideals it represents, something which many of our founding fathers embraced (such as Thomas Paine, Ben Franklin, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson etc ) have given us a foundation of free speech, assembly, and due process.I feel that teaching about religion in our schools is important be it Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism etc but not in the sense in the teaching that one religion is right and true.Our schools are paid for by those of all religious stripes and those who are non-religious and it is not the duty or obligation of taxpayer supported schools to convert the children of Muslim or Buddhist parents to Christianity.


Atheism, moral relativism?

As a non-religious person, I constantly hear that atheists and other non-religious individuals are moral relativists or situational ethicists.Yes, I agree that moral positions should be contingent on the situation. I believe that it is moral to shoot someone who is about to murder you. I do not think it is moral or ethical to kill in robbing a bank. I think, that the faithful religious individuals would agree with me on those situations. They would agree that, dependent on the situation, they would weigh competing issues. Indeed, most traditional absolute values folks would agree the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima was OK, because it saved more lives than it cost. But, ironically, only the secular left is called moral relativists while in truth both sides weigh moral judgments based on each situation.
The right supports the death penalty, which means the taking of a life (and a possibly innocent one even though convicted) and has no or little qualms over this moral relativism or situational ethics.Morality is not the commands of a God or a religion - it is the weighing of the possible actions of a situation and seeing which action one takes has the best possible consequence for all participants.To appeal to religion for moral truths gives up the ability of one to examine what is an actual, good and just decision to make.