The American Humanist Association's Definition of Humanism:
"Humanism is a rational philosophy informed by science, inspired by art, and motivated by compassion. Affirming the dignity of each human being, it supports the maximization of individual liberty and opportunity consonant with social and planetary responsibility. It advocates the extension of participatory democracty and the expansion of open society, standing for human rights and social justice. Free of supernaturalism, it recognizes human beings as a part of nature and holds that values -- be they religious, ethical, social or political -- have their source in human nature, experience and culture. Humanism thus derives the goals of life from human need and interest rather than from theological or ideological abstractions, and asserts that humanity must take responsibility for its own destiny."
Thursday, 19 August 2010
Monday, 9 August 2010
Dark humour
I've been struggling to keep it together recently. The following has little to do with anything on this blog except humans sometimes find comfort in black humour to which they can relate. For me it works where religion does not. The following cheered me up no end. Still chuckling about it. I have a terrible memory. One of the few upsides is that I refind jokes I had forgotten and they make me smile all over again:
"Welcome to the Psychiatric Hotline.
If you are obsessive-compulsive, please press 1 repeatedly.
If you are co-dependent, please ask someone to press 2.
If you have multiple personalities, please press 3, 4, 5, and 6.
If you are paranoid-delusional, we know who you are and what you want. Just stay on the line so we can trace the call.
If you are schizophrenic, listen carefully and a little voice will tell you which number to press.
If you are depressed, it doesn't matter which number you press. No one will answer.
If you are delusional and occasionally hallucinate, please be aware that the thing you are holding on the side of your head is alive and about to bite off your ear."
I've been there, and I've met all these people....
"Welcome to the Psychiatric Hotline.
If you are obsessive-compulsive, please press 1 repeatedly.
If you are co-dependent, please ask someone to press 2.
If you have multiple personalities, please press 3, 4, 5, and 6.
If you are paranoid-delusional, we know who you are and what you want. Just stay on the line so we can trace the call.
If you are schizophrenic, listen carefully and a little voice will tell you which number to press.
If you are depressed, it doesn't matter which number you press. No one will answer.
If you are delusional and occasionally hallucinate, please be aware that the thing you are holding on the side of your head is alive and about to bite off your ear."
I've been there, and I've met all these people....
Friday, 25 June 2010
Frustration, Incredulity, Anger
It's been a while since my last post. Too many pressing tasks got in the way.
It's now several months since I started taking a more in depth look at religious motivation. I had hoped to discover something that went some way to explaining why people still cling to religion in advanced democracies. I have to admit to still being none the wiser. It still seems to me that people embrace religion as a coping strategy, and as a way to feel a sense of community and purpose. In this respect it is useful and helpful, but surely the cost in human misery as a result of the misuse of religious belief to oppress people is not worth it.
I hope that one day humans advance to the point that they can live without religion, and instead understand the World in which they live for what it is, not for what legends imply it could be.
I remain amazed that intelligent humans can be so wilfully blind to physical reality.
It's now several months since I started taking a more in depth look at religious motivation. I had hoped to discover something that went some way to explaining why people still cling to religion in advanced democracies. I have to admit to still being none the wiser. It still seems to me that people embrace religion as a coping strategy, and as a way to feel a sense of community and purpose. In this respect it is useful and helpful, but surely the cost in human misery as a result of the misuse of religious belief to oppress people is not worth it.
I hope that one day humans advance to the point that they can live without religion, and instead understand the World in which they live for what it is, not for what legends imply it could be.
I remain amazed that intelligent humans can be so wilfully blind to physical reality.
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
The Golden Rule
Many religions include an exhortation to "do unto others as you would have done unto you" or some similar form of words. This exhortation is also a fundamental part of being a Humanist. This common theme from so many different cultures and religions must surely imply that it is essentially an idea created by humans, and not something passed down by "God"?
Examples of the ‘Golden Rule’ from around the world (Courtesy of BHA)
"He should treat all beings as he himself should be treated. The essence of right conduct is not to injure anyone." (JAINISM -from The Suta-Kritanga, about 550 BCE*)
"Do not do to others what you would not like for yourself."
(CONFUCIANISM - from The Analects of Confucius, about 500 BCE)
"I will act towards others exactly as I would act towards myself."
(BUDDHISM - from The Siglo-Vada Sutta, about 500 BCE)
"This is the sum of duty: Do nothing to others Which, if done to you, could cause you pain." (HINDUISM - from The Mahabharata, about 150 BCE)
"What you would avoid suffering yourself, seek not to impose on others." (ANCIENT GREECE - Epictetus, the Greek philosopher, about 90CE*)
"Love your neighbour as yourself." (JUDAISM / CHRISTIANITY - Leviticus 19, in The Torah, about 400 BCE, quoted by Jesus in Matthew 22 and Mark 12, 1st Century CE)
"What is harmful to yourself do not do to your fellow men. That is the whole of the law…" (JUDAISM - from Hillel: The Talmud, about 100 CE)
"None of you truly believes, until he wishes for his brothers what he wishes for himself." (ISLAM - a saying of The Prophet Muhammad, 7th Century CE)
"As you think of yourself, so think of others." (SIKHISM - from Guru Granth Sahib, 1604 CE)
One should be "contented with so much liberty against other men, as he would allow against himself." (GREAT BRITAIN - Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher, 1588-1679 CE)
Examples of the ‘Golden Rule’ from around the world (Courtesy of BHA)
"He should treat all beings as he himself should be treated. The essence of right conduct is not to injure anyone." (JAINISM -from The Suta-Kritanga, about 550 BCE*)
"Do not do to others what you would not like for yourself."
(CONFUCIANISM - from The Analects of Confucius, about 500 BCE)
"I will act towards others exactly as I would act towards myself."
(BUDDHISM - from The Siglo-Vada Sutta, about 500 BCE)
"This is the sum of duty: Do nothing to others Which, if done to you, could cause you pain." (HINDUISM - from The Mahabharata, about 150 BCE)
"What you would avoid suffering yourself, seek not to impose on others." (ANCIENT GREECE - Epictetus, the Greek philosopher, about 90CE*)
"Love your neighbour as yourself." (JUDAISM / CHRISTIANITY - Leviticus 19, in The Torah, about 400 BCE, quoted by Jesus in Matthew 22 and Mark 12, 1st Century CE)
"What is harmful to yourself do not do to your fellow men. That is the whole of the law…" (JUDAISM - from Hillel: The Talmud, about 100 CE)
"None of you truly believes, until he wishes for his brothers what he wishes for himself." (ISLAM - a saying of The Prophet Muhammad, 7th Century CE)
"As you think of yourself, so think of others." (SIKHISM - from Guru Granth Sahib, 1604 CE)
One should be "contented with so much liberty against other men, as he would allow against himself." (GREAT BRITAIN - Thomas Hobbes, English philosopher, 1588-1679 CE)
Is there a point to any of this?
I thought I had come to terms with their being no point to all of this - That there was no higher purpose, no need to have more than that which we experience in the here and now. Sometimes one could wish for something more. But there is an unbridgeable gulf between wishing there to be more, and believing, knowing that there is. Since thinking more deeply about what I believe and what I know, I have become ever more aware of how little of which I can be sure.
And yet one thing continues by turns to fascinate and annoy me - Why do apparently rational, intelligent and well educated people still believe in the Abrahamic God. There is now so much evidence that explains why humans created this supernatural being, and the anthropological origins of the stories; and so many far more extraordinary tangible things we have now discovered about our existence that make this God look feeble by comparison. And yet belief continues. Is it the comfort, the tribal togetherness, the social status, or something else, or have have many humans really discovered something real that I cannot ever comprehend? The apparent rough correlation between atheism and higher education would tend to make one think not.
And yet it still continues.
Puzzling to be sure....
And yet one thing continues by turns to fascinate and annoy me - Why do apparently rational, intelligent and well educated people still believe in the Abrahamic God. There is now so much evidence that explains why humans created this supernatural being, and the anthropological origins of the stories; and so many far more extraordinary tangible things we have now discovered about our existence that make this God look feeble by comparison. And yet belief continues. Is it the comfort, the tribal togetherness, the social status, or something else, or have have many humans really discovered something real that I cannot ever comprehend? The apparent rough correlation between atheism and higher education would tend to make one think not.
And yet it still continues.
Puzzling to be sure....
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
Quantum Weirdness
An article in the current edition of New Scientist (08May2010 - "Weirdest of the weird"), reminded me of the extraordinarily brain stretching concepts involved with quantum physics - Concepts that turn so many of our cherished views on the how and the what of our existence on their heads. Almost whatever physical law you take, quantum physics runs a steamroller right through it.
When I was a boy I used to make my brain hurt by trying to imagine infinite space and time. Now my headache is quantum physics. Sadly I don't think I have the mental capacity to understand significant parts of the science, no matter how hard I try, but it's immensely satisfying when I find I have finally understood another element.
Another thing that strikes me is how much more utterly amazing and weird this is compared to any concept encompassed by the main World religions, which seem so very mundane by comparison - products of people who fashioned their Gods within the limited constraints of their understanding. Quantum physics just does not fit into any model which includes God as currently described. It is all together more extraordinary. That's not to say there is no God. Maybe we just have not yet discovered or understood the "reality" that this God might be. The God described by Christians, Muslims and others is just too "human".
When I was a boy I used to make my brain hurt by trying to imagine infinite space and time. Now my headache is quantum physics. Sadly I don't think I have the mental capacity to understand significant parts of the science, no matter how hard I try, but it's immensely satisfying when I find I have finally understood another element.
Another thing that strikes me is how much more utterly amazing and weird this is compared to any concept encompassed by the main World religions, which seem so very mundane by comparison - products of people who fashioned their Gods within the limited constraints of their understanding. Quantum physics just does not fit into any model which includes God as currently described. It is all together more extraordinary. That's not to say there is no God. Maybe we just have not yet discovered or understood the "reality" that this God might be. The God described by Christians, Muslims and others is just too "human".
Friday, 23 April 2010
Remembering the dead
Recently I was driving the support vehicle for a charity cycle ride in France. It was a sunny day, I had time to spare, and I saw a sign to a nearby British Commonwealth War Grave site. I decided to pay it a visit. It was a small site, with maybe 50 or so graves in an immaculately tended grassy dip between two nondescript fields. Amongst the 50 graves were those of South Africans, Indians, Canadians and individuals from all parts of the UK. There were Christian, Jewish and Hindu symbols. The plaque explained that this was the site of a Field Dressing Station (a temporary military hospital set up on the battlefield). The dates of death closely correlated with some of the largest battles in the area in 1915 and 1916.
Clearly I did not know any of these people, and their relatives will all be long dead, and yet here in this little cemetery their graves are still tended with great dedication, and in the record book kept at the site the details of the date and cause of death are recorded, for all to see for many years to come.
A little further along the road was a civilian peacetime graveyard. Each memorial seemed designed to try to outdo the others, and many were like small houses. Many of those remembered by these impressive tombs would probably now have no living descendents, and yet their tombs continue to stand across the centuries to mark a life otherwise forgotten.
Contrast this with the remebrance of my mother's father. He was a senior and decorated Army officer in the First World War who survived, and died in 1935 when my mother was 12. They had survived largely on a small Army pension since the War, and there was no money for a memorial. I know the graveyard where he is buried, but there is no trace of his grave, or even a record. Since my mother died, his memory lives on only in my mind. Mychidren wiill remember only the small fragments of information I can pass on, and within a few generations it will be as if he never existed. Whether a human's life is physically commemorated for future generations remains arbitrary.
I can understand the sadness people might feel at death as the end of everything, with the knowledge that with few exceptions memories of them will fade to nothing within a few generations.
Is it this that has prompted humans to create a supreme being, and an afterlife where their minds continue to exist, and to know that they exist? The thought of nothingness is too awful for many people, and this belief in an "afterlife" is comforting. It would perhaps explain the fervour of many people's belief.
Clearly I did not know any of these people, and their relatives will all be long dead, and yet here in this little cemetery their graves are still tended with great dedication, and in the record book kept at the site the details of the date and cause of death are recorded, for all to see for many years to come.
A little further along the road was a civilian peacetime graveyard. Each memorial seemed designed to try to outdo the others, and many were like small houses. Many of those remembered by these impressive tombs would probably now have no living descendents, and yet their tombs continue to stand across the centuries to mark a life otherwise forgotten.
Contrast this with the remebrance of my mother's father. He was a senior and decorated Army officer in the First World War who survived, and died in 1935 when my mother was 12. They had survived largely on a small Army pension since the War, and there was no money for a memorial. I know the graveyard where he is buried, but there is no trace of his grave, or even a record. Since my mother died, his memory lives on only in my mind. Mychidren wiill remember only the small fragments of information I can pass on, and within a few generations it will be as if he never existed. Whether a human's life is physically commemorated for future generations remains arbitrary.
I can understand the sadness people might feel at death as the end of everything, with the knowledge that with few exceptions memories of them will fade to nothing within a few generations.
Is it this that has prompted humans to create a supreme being, and an afterlife where their minds continue to exist, and to know that they exist? The thought of nothingness is too awful for many people, and this belief in an "afterlife" is comforting. It would perhaps explain the fervour of many people's belief.
Saturday, 17 April 2010
Let's stop fighting religion with religion!
In so many conflicts, religion is used as the pretext for conflict, and tribes are divided along religious lines. All too often those in other parts of the World rally to the side of those who appear to share the same religion. Frankly this is muddleheaded. What on earth does a Catholic in Boston have in common with a Catholic in Belfast, or a Jew in Kansas have with a Jew in Tel Aviv. The simple response might be that they share a fundamental belief. But so often, were these people to meet, they would realise just how far apart they really are, both culturally, and in their political and religious views.
In the UK at the moment there is a frequently articulated fear of Islam taking over from Christianity as the dominant religion. Often the reaction by Christians is to re-double their efforts to strengthen the hold that Christianity enjoys in this country, and to discourgae multi-culturalism. The thinking is presumably that by opposing it in this way, the spread of Islam can be halted.
Surely fighting the spread of Islam in this way is like fighting fire with fire. Wouldn't it be wiser to break the cycle of defending one religion aganst another by instead promoting a fully secular society, where religion itself is marginalised and removed from mainstream decision-making?
Its time we stopped pitching one skygod against another skygod, and instead encouraged human beings to behave towards other human beings just as fellow humans, and not as alien creatures under the influence of a fictitious supernatural being in conflict with our currently resident supernatural being.
In the UK at the moment there is a frequently articulated fear of Islam taking over from Christianity as the dominant religion. Often the reaction by Christians is to re-double their efforts to strengthen the hold that Christianity enjoys in this country, and to discourgae multi-culturalism. The thinking is presumably that by opposing it in this way, the spread of Islam can be halted.
Surely fighting the spread of Islam in this way is like fighting fire with fire. Wouldn't it be wiser to break the cycle of defending one religion aganst another by instead promoting a fully secular society, where religion itself is marginalised and removed from mainstream decision-making?
Its time we stopped pitching one skygod against another skygod, and instead encouraged human beings to behave towards other human beings just as fellow humans, and not as alien creatures under the influence of a fictitious supernatural being in conflict with our currently resident supernatural being.
Tuesday, 13 April 2010
The S Word...
I see that Suicide is becoming a hot topic again on a few of the blogs I follow. It's another of those emotive issues that is almost guaranteed to polarise opinions. Having been around suicide and those who have attempted it, some successfully, it is odd to find people with no personal experience writing as if they fully understood the motives that people have for taking their own life. Further these "experts" all to easily jump to an assumption that the perpetrator has full control of their faculties, is rational, and is fully aware of the implications of what they are doing.
As I recently wrote on another blog, suicide was deemed a sin at a time in history when almost nothing was understood about mental illness, and it was commonly viewed as possession by demons/devils/evil spirits. It seems that some people have not moved on.
I find it shocking that these self appointed arbiters of right and wrong can burden the surviving members of the family and loved ones with such guilt and shame that one of their relatives/loved ones has ended his/her life in this way. Again, where is the compassion, understanding, sensitivity and plain common decency!
As I recently wrote on another blog, suicide was deemed a sin at a time in history when almost nothing was understood about mental illness, and it was commonly viewed as possession by demons/devils/evil spirits. It seems that some people have not moved on.
I find it shocking that these self appointed arbiters of right and wrong can burden the surviving members of the family and loved ones with such guilt and shame that one of their relatives/loved ones has ended his/her life in this way. Again, where is the compassion, understanding, sensitivity and plain common decency!
Friday, 2 April 2010
Christians and Homosexuality
It's sad to see the Christian Church so torn by the homosexual issue. There's recently been an interesting exchange between a liberal and conservative Christian at the 'eChurch' website; which I follow, and to which I contribute. I was particularly taken by the following extract from a post by the liberal, in response to my question as to why homosexuality was singled out with such venom:
"...Your question as to why homosexuality tends to be ’singled out’ makes me stop and think. I’m a Mennonite and not an Anglican but from a distance what is happening in the Anglican Communion grieves me. Effectively Anglicanism is in schism over the issue. I certainly don’t envy Rowan Williams’ position. A sentence including ‘rock’ and ‘hard place’ springs to mind. I suspect homosexuality raises such ire because it appears to strike at the heart of social and religious stability. It’s natural for heterosexuals to react with revulsion to an orientation that runs against our grain. Further, at a time when culture is in a state of flux and the Christian Churches are wrestling with their own marginality in a Post-Christendom setting the acceptance of homosexuality seems to be a sign of just how much has changed. I believe one reason why the churches are having such a hard time with the issue is that we have spent so much time focusing on ‘family values’ that we have forgotten to value singleness. As a divorced and currently single man I feel this acutely. In the end I see sexuality as a test of the Christian Church’s hospitality, generosity and vision. I believe that centuries from now, if Christ hasn’t returned by then, the ‘homosexuality issue’ will be regarded as something like the abolition of slavery. Nearly everyone will say, ‘how did people not see that’. Right now it’s deeply uncomfortable for people like me, who refuse either to let go of Christian authenticity or a passionate commitment to social and sexual justice. Deeply hurtful comments in this thread questioning my Christian commitment and eternal salvation are an illustration. Of course it’s even worse for Gay Christians who are often treated as if the remainder of the Christian Church would like to have them ’surgically removed’. ..."
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