Video of Rabbi Wine's Memorial

Rabbi Wine's memorial was quite emotional and inspirational. Anyone interested in Humanism and just how pervasive and life-changing it can be should review Rabbi Wine's past and read some of his books. The video is available on line now from the organization he founded:

"Rabbi Sherwin T. Wine, the founder of Humanistic Judaism, was killed in a car crash on July 21, 2007, while vacationing in Morocco. He was 79. Rabbi Wine laid out the intellectual foundations of Humanistic Judaism, creating many of its celebrations, rituals, and educational materials. In 1963, he founded The Birmingham Temple in suburban Detroit, the first congregation of Humanistic Judaism, and in 1969 established the Society for Humanistic Judaism.

You can view it at: The Birmingham Temple

Joyce Carol Oates 2007 Humanist of the Year

Joyce Carol Oates named 2007 Humanist of the Year


Joyce Carol Oates, the prolific award-winning writer, was named the 2007 Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association. The award was presented at the Association’s 66th Annual Conference, held in Portland, Oregon.

“Oates has long been recognized as a giant of literature," said Roy Speckhardt, the Association’s executive director. "And now we’re thrilled to formally honor her humanistic endeavors. Ms. Oates’s work reflects a deep respect for humanist values and expresses a devotion to humanistic social change.”

See the Celestial Timepiece web site for more information on Oates and for a list of her works.

EvolveFISH

I'm sure you have all seen those Darwin or evolved fish emblems on the back of cars. The one that made me laugh the most was a fish with legs that was eating a religious fish symbol. Well, those and many other irreverent paraphernalia comes from a company called EvolveFISH. From their site, they "are dedicated to countering the destructive aspects of religious zealotry... they create and gather enlightened symbols and materials and sell these products online; with special focus on areas where zealots are trying to usurp the freedoms of the targets of their bigotry.".

Great Stuff Huh!

Now for the even better news - EvolveFish has agreed to sell my book Humanism for Parents - Parenting without Religion. Check it out on their site

WebCast of Memorial Service for Rabbi Wine

Arrangements are being made for the memorial service for Rabbi Wine being held at the Birmingham Temple on Friday morning at 10:am EDT to be streamed live through a link on our website – www.shj.org. People will need Quicktime Player, which can be downloaded, to view the live feed.

The family of Rabbi Wine has suggested that contributions in his memory be directed to support the Secular Humanistic Jewish Movement he established. They have selected the 21st Century Fund, which benefits the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism, the Society for Humanistic Judaism and the Birmingham Temple. Donations may be made payable to the 21st Century Fund and sent to:

Rabbi Sherwin T. Wine Memorial Fund
c/o The Birmingham Temple
28611 West Twelve Mile Road
Farmington Hills, MI 48334

In the next day we hope to post some readings on hope and courage, which were favorites of Sherwin, on our website for you to include in your community memorials if you so choose. These are passages that Sherwin wrote.

Thank you all for your support.

Parenting without Religion

The press release for my book Humanism for Parents - Parenting without Religion finally went out. You can see a copy on PRWeb at:

PRWeb Press Release

The book is also available through my site or you can use the links to the right.

The book covers aspects of raising children without reliance on religion. It goes over rites, rituals, and practices that you might want to consider when raising children. It also has Q&A chapters for younger children and teens so that they can try to get an understanding of Humanism in a way they can relate to.

If you take a look at it or read it, please send feedback to me at humanismforparents@spiritualhumanist.info.

Farewell Rabbi Sherwin T. Wine

Much of this is taken from a letter from Greg M. Epstein of the
Humanist Chaplain of Harvard University

Rabii Wine was a teacher, a fellow Humanisst, AHA Humanist of the Year, and one of the greatest Humanist leaders of the 20th Century. Rabbi Wine and his longtime partner, Richard McMains, were vacationing in Morocco. Returning from dinner Saturday evening July 21 in Essaouira, their taxicab was hit by another driver. Both Rabbi Wine and the taxi driver were killed instantly. Richard survived the collision and currently is hospitalized in stable condition.

For a press release with more detailed information about Wine, dubbed "the atheist rabbi" by Time magazine in 1965, including regarding the memorial service currently being planned, click here or visit the Society for Humanistic Judaism. To hear Rabbi Wine speak on Humanistic Judaism, click here for an interview recorded at Harvard University in April 2007. A video of Rabbi Wine’s stirring speech at Harvard in April 2007 will be available later this week at http://harvardhumanist.org.

Around the world, Wine taught that human dignity, courage and love are our most important values, not religious obedience. He publicly debated religious fundamentalists such as Jerry Falwell and Meir Kahane. And he refused the religious veneer that America so values in its leaders -- though he kept the title rabbi he did not pray or praise a god he did not believe in.

And yet the movement Sherwin founded and the career he pioneered, was never about being against god but rather about moving beyond god to create humanist community, led by humanist professionals, for the benefit of all human beings. If we learn one thing from Rabbi Wine's loss, let it be this: now that the world's attention has turned to the 1.1 billion non-religious people on earth, and now that bestselling books on atheism by authors such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens have shown millions what Humanists do not believe in, let us follow Sherwin's example and dedicate ourselves to building a positive alternative to traditional religion. Let us build communities, organizations, and families that do good for ourselves and others, based on the Humanist ethic of reason, compassion and creativity

More Americans accept creationism than evolution

This is shocking.
In June, a Gallop Poll showed that more Americans accept the hogwash called creationism than the scientifically-backed evolution. See the article:

Majority of Republicans Doubt Theory of Evolution

There article is especially disconcerting because it states there is debate over the validity of evolution. The only place there is debate is in religious circles and where those circles interact with politics. There is no real scientific debate over it (other than the background dissenters that open communication often has).

It is astonishing to me that something as sound as evolution, backed by huge masses of data can be up for debate because people want to take a book written (and I use the term loosely) 2000 years ago as literal fact. How blind can people be?

It makes me want to back belief in the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which is just as valid of a belief as Creationism (and a lot more fun).

AHA getting modern on us?

The American Humanist Association, EvolveFISH, and Rational Responders teamed up to bring the positive message of Humanism to YouTube!

Can you believe it - AHA and YouTube. It is great to see the leaders at AHA embrace modern technoligies. The video below is the winner of their Humanist Vision Contest.

Check it out. It is a nice little video on the meaning of Humanism. If you ever wondered what Humanism is really about, this video gives a good 30-thousand foot view.

America a Christian Theocracy?

This is a topic near and dear to my heart and one that has had a profound affect on me and my life.

I grew up a strict Catholic with very conservative views. Included in my teenage years, I happened to witness the results of abortions when viewing garbage cans full of baby parts. This turned per permanently against abortion, especially late-term abortion. Once you take the step that abortion of a late-term baby is murder the only reasonable place to stop (or so my teenage logic argued) was at conception. Ever since then I have based much of my voting on the candidate’s stance on abortion – which led me to almost always vote Republican.

Bush, the Christian Fundamentalists, and the movement to turn this country into a Christian Theocracy has finally overridden that stance. I no longer consider abortion the most critical issue in America today. Instead it is a bunch of right-wing fundamentalists who are trying to re-write the American history into one based on religion and now are trying, and in many cases succeeding, in turning this country into a theocracy run by Christians with other religions (and non-religious) being subjugated.

This movement scares the hell out of me!

Many reasonable religious people agree and are voicing their opinions on this and on the separation of church and state, which is a very related topic. There are also many Jewish holocaust survivors who recognize in this movement the same horrifying events that preceded fascism in Nazi Germany. Very frightening stuff!

If you have doubts about this or want to read more, there are two excellent books out on the subject. Be forewarned though that they are disturbing books and will cause you to lose sleep at night if you have any concern for America remaining a fee country. The books are:

Michelle Goldberg’s Kingdom Coming
Damon Linker’s The Thocons

Buy and read both immediately!

You can also visit the First Freedom First foundation for more information.