I would be really interested in more answers to the question whether you approve of non-religious rituals such as offered by the BHA, and why or why not. What do such organizations have in common with churches, what not? What do (potential) members really want? Does organized "humanism" (meaning atheism plus some "positive" content) amount to an ideology? Would you wish existing church organizations to be transformed into such services?

Stu, I think you are somewhat mixing the objects of science ("scientifically explicable") with the acts of human thinking and feeling. My own feeling is that religion is primarily about humans, so I can call myself a humanist without inverted commas.