Ocassional Thoughts of an Independent Progressive Atheistic Humanist
I remember the time when I revealed to my family I was a Humanist. It was at our family Christmas shindig. I wore my Humanist Community T-shirt. My Grandma asked me if I was a heathen and some cousins asked how could I celebrate Christmas if I was an atheist. Holidays may have strong religious ties but atheists can enjoy them if the believers work a little harder to include us.
Herb Silverman wrote a couple of posts about the interaction of atheists and believers on the holidays.
A new book titled ‘Atheist Mind, Humanist Heart: Rewriting the Ten Commandments for the Twenty-first Century‘ by Lex Bayer and John Figdor, included a set of 10 ‘non-commandments’ for the non-believer. The authors also held a contest to crowdsource an alternative set. I was pleased that I agreed with a majority of the items judged the winner. They are good guidelines for living as a non-believer.
For some years there has been a faction of atheists who use their atheism to be bigots. When asked to take some action on social justice issues like feminism or racism, some of these atheists go out of their way to ‘prove’ why their lack of values causes them to either ignore social justice issues or to support the status quo. Activist and blogger James Croft calls out these bigots and makes some great points why atheists shouldn’t use their atheism a cover for their bigotry.
So I got up earlier than usual on Thanksgiving morning specifically to watch the famous Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. I turn on the TV to watch but where is the parade? It is suppose to be on two networks and I see bits of the parade in the background but the hosts act like they are somewhere other than a parade. When did the Macy’s parade become just an advertising vehicle for NBC and CBS? Where did my Thanksgiving Parade go?
Watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade was a ritual growing up. It would be on at Grandma’s house as we kids tried to pass the time before we could eat. We would sneak cheese from the cheese plate as we watched the floats and balloons go by.
In what seemed like deja vu, Republicans in the Ohio legislature rigged a committee vote on the anti-abortion law known as the Heartbeat Bill (House Bill 248). The GOP pulled a similar stunt back in 2011 in the Ohio Senate to pass out of committee Senate Bill 5 that attempted to strip collective bargaining from public employee unions.