Humanism – Page 14 – Doug's Views

May 30, 2013April 18, 2020

Seculars, Young And Old, Need To Work Together

How I imagine older Humanists passing on their knowledge to younger Humanists

It has been almost 20 years since I officially chucked religion once and for all and identified as an Atheist and Humanist. Getting rid of the irrational belief system called religion was the most liberating thing that had happened to me in my life to that point and I wanted everyone to know it. I became an evangelist for rational thought and if you didn’t agree with me you were a moron. Now 20 years and many battles later I don’t feel the fire in my belly as much. I’m still a non-believer but I am more selective about what gets me cranked up. Is it my age? Have I gained some kind of wisdom as I got older that mellowed me out. Maybe it is some kind of secular menopause.

*Editor’s note* Since this post was originally published and after some good feedback in the comments below I have rewritten a couple of paragraphs to clarify my thoughts. I didn’t intend to offend any reader young or old. This post was mainly an expression of my thoughts on the subject and how I need to do better. I expressed the thoughts I know are not productive as means of illustrating that it was not productive. If you read the entire post you should see that my point as set in the title is that all of us seculars, young and old, need to work together. We all have different things we can bring to the movement. Thanks again for the feedback and reading this post.

May 19, 2013April 18, 2020

CFI’s Ronald Lindsay Learns How NOT To Encourage Women In Secularism

photo of Ron Lindsay President and CEO Center for Inquiry

Ronald A. Lindsay – President & CEO Center for Inquiry

The second Women in Secularism Conference was held in Washington, DC this weekend. The conference is a response to the struggle inside secular groups to reach out and encourage more participation by women. There has been a vocal minority of mostly men who have taken it upon themselves to defend the dominance of males and male-centric attitudes in the various secular groups. This political “debate”, at times, has not been respectful or rational. It seems the President and CEO of the conference sponsor, Center for Inquiry (CFI), Ronald A. Lindsay decided to use his opening remarks to light a match in the vapor enriched environment then complain when he got caught in the firestorm. I would hope he has learned how a community leader should NOT respond to criticism.

May 8, 2013April 18, 2020

With Sanford Win, Family Values Crowd No Longer Morally Superior

Family Values Poster Boy: Mark Sanford

Serial adulterer, liar, and former Governor of South Carolina Mark Sanford won a seat in Congress on Tuesday. What gets me is the family values crowd who claim to be morally superior and who dare to demand we live our lives a certain way yet don’t hold their own members to the same standard. Mark Sanford thy name is hypocrisy.

May 2, 2013April 18, 2020

Today Is The National Day of Reason

graphic with words National Day of Reason

National Day of Reason: May 2nd 2013

Thursday May 2nd is the National Day of Reason in the United States. The day is a secular celebration for humanists, atheists, and other secularists and freethinkers in response to the National Day of Prayer, that is unfortunately a legal holiday in the United States. Our government shouldn’t be giving official sanction to a particular religious belief. It should spend its time trying to solve issues of concern to all Americans.

April 30, 2013April 18, 2020

Everything Should Be Open To Questioning? Not Quite

Being an atheist, I have spent a lot of time debating religious people about all sorts of things such as my freedom to be an atheist to the US motto (In God We Trust) being printed on our money. The theist is on the wrong side of the debate all the time but they seem to believe my equality and freedom is subject to debate. No one would rationally support that kind of injustice. Imagine my shock when a fellow atheist, trying to support debating the equality of women, used a line of argument we atheists dismiss out of hand when fundamentalist Christians use it against Evolution.

This all stems from the unending internal Internet arguments over sexism in secular groups that I’ve written about before in this blog. The fighting has devolved into unproductive name calling and whining one sees on the middle school playground. I try to avoid reading blog posts specifically about the conflict because those posts just seem to be attempts by the authors to feel superior to a straw man and no one really listens to what is being said. The signal to noise ratio is very low.