Humanism – Page 20 – Doug's Views

March 12, 2012April 18, 2020

Framing Humanism Is Okay But Not At The Expense Of Honesty

Humanism is a strange collection of individuals in a stew of rationality, all of us looking for the truth for our world view. We, as Humanists, know we must work with believers and other theists to find common ground with the goal of bettering the human condition. Andy Norman, writing for the Humanist Network News, an e-zine of the American Humanist Association, tries to offer tips for dialogue on Humanism to non-humanists but does so by giving up honesty in the process.

Norman, in his essay “Framing Humanism, or How to Win the Culture War”, starts out great by explaining how we as Humanists could do a better job of bringing in new people or at least getting our message out by the use of Framing (where we control the meaning of our message), but then my alarm bells start going off when I read this:

January 4, 2012April 18, 2020

National Atheist Party Is Too Thin For A Political Party

Read an article on the Washington Post about a new political party called the National Atheist Party. While I applaud the effort to get atheists more involved in the political process, trying to include a broad progressive platform into such a narrow religious belief label is the wrong way to go.

The National Atheist Party is a non-profit, 527 political organization devoted to issue advocacy. As a 527 they can’t endorse candidates. In their mission statement the NAP says:

November 12, 2011April 18, 2020

Michael Shermer’s Skepticism Missing In Giving Praise Of David Brooks

Michael Shermer is founder of The Skeptics Society, and Editor in Chief of its magazine “Skeptic”. He is a BIG NAME in the freethought community and is well known for debunking pseudoscientific and supernatural claims. Shermer has been an advocate of Scientific skepticism – questioning the veracity of claims using the scientific method – except it seems for his own political views. Recently Shermer wrote a series of tweets praising an OpEd by David Brooks that complained about the Occupy movement. He (and Brooks) totally missed the point.

The first tweet shocked me because I really didn’t know that much about Shermer’s political views:

November 11, 2011April 18, 2020

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow…

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 the guns fell silent across the Western Front in Europe. That’s why we mark November 11th as Veteran’s Day to honor not only our war dead (like my father, pictured on the right) but to celebrate the living men and women who put themselves in harms way. Raise a glass to honor and thank them all and hope, one day, no other sons and daughters, moms or dads, or brothers and sisters have to go to war. Here’s a classic poem about war titled “In Flanders Fields”:

July 14, 2011April 18, 2020

Why I am NOT a brain-dead liberal

I admit I’m a liberal and have been for most of my life. David Mamet is a well known and loved screen and play writer who I have admired for his creative work. In 2008 he wrote an essay in the Village Voice that gave the big kiss off to being a liberal. His essay was titled “Why I Am No Longer a ‘Brain-Dead Liberal'” where he explains how he changed from a liberal to libertarian. I feel sad that a smart and well-respected person can come to a conclusion based on wrong information. I want to explain how one can be a liberal and not be “brain-dead”.