Bush out-of-touch on Stem Cell Research

Once again, President Bush has vetoed a bill that would ease restraints on federally funded stem cell research. His stance is based purely on religious beliefs and isn't scientifically-based. The difficult question here is whether you consider a fetus life at conception. I struggled with this one most of my life, electing to agree with the fundamentalists because I couldn't see how a baby, just prior to being delivered couldn't be considered life; and once you make that step it was difficult to see where to stop - when is it life?

Some would say that it is life only once delivered, some when it has a heart beat or when "quickening" happens (when the mother can feel it move). In some countries/societies, the baby isn't considered life until well after birth. I struggled with all of these until recently when I read an article suggesting that we have a clear definition of when life ends - with the cessation of brain wave activity; why isn't the definition of when life starts based on the same premise - that life begins when brain wave activity is detected.

Given this perfectly reasonable scientific definition of the beginning and end of life, there is no reasonable argument against stem cell research. President Bush’s vetoing this bill is another example of him foisting religious views of right and wrong on the country and further is an example of just how out of touch he is with his constituency.

From a Humanist standpoint, our views of right and wrong have to be based on scientific, rational reasoning and on eliminating pain and suffering for sentient, aware people – not on ill-defined and personal religious opinions.

Humanism for Parents - Parenting without Religion

Well, I've been neglectful of blogging for the last month or so. Between gutting my master bathroom and starting the rebuild, starting a new job, and completing the book, I've just been too busy.

The good news is that the Humanism for Parents - Parenting without Religion book is not generally available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Google Books. Please, take a look at it and let me know what you think. It is slightly cheaper to order through the publisher as they don't gouge you for shipping.

The following is the short description from the publisher.

By some estimates, over 1 billion people in the world are non-religious (humanist/secular/atheist) yet we base some of our parenting techniques and traditions on religion. There are many books available on parenting around each of the major religions, but few around parenting in a Humanist household. This book is an attempt to outline how non-religious parents can have rites, rituals, and practices needed for a healthy, spiritually fulfilled family.

You can also preview it on-line through my site via the page on
parenting.

Cheers, Sean

BIHI presenting The Rise of Christian Nationalism.

The Boulder International Humanist Institute is putting on a great event in a couple of weeks. The full title is: Secular America under Siege – The Rise of Christian Nationalism. If you are anywhere near Boulder, CO, you should make a point of going to this event. Michell's and Damon's books are excellent!

Here is the BIHI announcement

On Tuesday, May 22nd, BIHI and the AHA present an evening with Michelle Goldberg and Damon Linker entitled, “Secular America under Siege – The Rise of Christian Nationalism.” If you value preserving the separation between Church and State, you won’t want to miss this! The event includes discussion and book signing by both speakers. Location is the Glenn Miller Ballroom at the UMC at CU, corner of Broadway and Euclid in Boulder. Tickets are $7.00 in advance and $10.00 at the door. Students and faculty free with ID. Online ticket purchasing and parking information is at www.bihi.info. For general questions, call Gordon Gamm at (303) 543-9166.

Michelle Goldberg, a senior political reporter for Salon, has been covering the intersection of politics and ideology for years. In her book, Kingdom Coming, she demonstrates how an increasingly bellicose fundamentalism is gaining traction throughout our national life, taking us on a tour of the right-wing evangelical culture that is buoyed by Republican political patronage. With her trenchant interviews and the telling testimonies of the people behind this movement, Goldberg gains access into the hearts and minds of citizens who are striving to change our nation into a Christian nation run according to their interpretation of scripture.

Damon Linker, author of The Theocons, is intimately familiar with the rise of the “theoconservatives.” His experience working in the center of the theocon world as an editor of its flagship journal, First Things, led to his resolve to write a critical history of the movement. The Bush administration’s overt religiosity represents the triumph of an ideological movement that for the past several decades has devoted itself to fashioning a theocratic governing philosophy for the U.S. and has actively sought to roll back the division of church and state in American life.

Boulder International Humanist Institute seeks to build a more humane society by asserting that values and public policy choices should be based on the most beneficial human consequences and not on faith or ideology. BIHI is not concerned with the proof of the existence or non-existence of God, but how one's God belief or disbelief affects their values and public policy decisions. BIHI’s niche in the Humanist world is to challenge both traditional religious values which are based on unquestionable supernatural sources, as well as those “create your own reality” values emphasized in new age religion. The organization’s Web site can be found at www.bihi.info

The American Humanist Association (www.americanhumanist.org) is the oldest and largest Humanist organization in the nation. The AHA is dedicated to ensuring a voice for those with a positive outlook, based on reason and experience, which embraces all of humanity.

Go here for more information and to buy tickets on-line.

Humanism for Parents

I am in the final stages of publishing a book called Humanism for Parents that provides information to parents and potential parents (or even caregivers) about how to raise children without reliance on religion. By some accounts there are 1.1 billion people who don't believe or don't practice religion. There are plenty of books out about parenting with religion but few that are specifically secular. This book describes the aspects of parenting that are particular to a non-religious household.

It is currently available at the publisher (Lulu), and will be available at Amazon, Google Books, Barnes&Noble, and Borders within 6-10 weeks. You can also preview the book through my page on The Spiritual Humanist web site here.

Cheers, Sean

Global Warming

This week’s edition of Newsweek has a special report on Leadership & the Environment. It’s nice to see such a prominent, mainstream magazine get it right. There is way too much politics involved in this “debate” and it is obscuring the real science. I still hear people, usually ones impacted by energy companies or big business, say that global warming isn’t real or isn’t anthropogenic (man-made) and it really irks me.

All the serious scientists and all the real, peer-reviewed work says that global warming is happening and that it is anthropogenic. The only real debate happening is around what we can do about it. Newsweek’s article makes the valid point that to get everyone behind fixing the problem; we have to make energy produced by the burning of fossil fuels more expensive than renewable energy and we have to apply the changes worldwide. Until you do that, people in general will continue to use energy that is helping to cause global warming.

There are some serious efforts under way to apply technologies to remove CO2 from the atmosphere and sequester it underground or in the deep ocean (below a certain level, it sinks instead of rises). I have hopes that our ability to apply technology will yet save us (I did a master’s thesis on Technological Mitigation Options to Anthropogenic Global Warming which evaluated many of the potential technologies we might apply (and no, Ethenol isn’t one of them). But, we need to get the federal government behind the changes. Right now, they are being implemented piecemeal by individual states (e.g. CA) and cities (e.g. Seattle), but these won’t be sufficient. This will take a worldwide, concerted effort.

I have actually heard some fundamentalist Christian people say that we don’t really need to worry about global warming because the second coming is happening soon and so the health of the planet won’t really matter much longer. This is at the heart of the difference between Humanism and some religious people (not necessarily the religions). We believe that we all have to lead a reasonable, sustainable life without reliance on faith or a potential afterlife. There is no way they can know for sure when (if ever) the second coming will happen, so how can they say we don’t need to worry about the planet. Do they really want to leave this mess to their kids to figure out? It is frustrating to see such blind stupidity contribute to the planet’s man-made sickness.

With magazines like Newsweek printing a fairly accurate view of global warming, I’m hoping more of the general public gets behind serious change.

If you want to look at discussions between real climate scientists about the subject, try http://realclimate.org.

Goodbye Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) died yesterday. He was a profound American novelist who combined dark human and science fiction. But, most notably for this blog, he was an avid Humanist. He won the 1992 Humanist of the Year award and took the place of Issac Asimov as Honorary President of the American Humanist Association.

"I am a humanist," he wrote in a letter to AHA members, "which means, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without expectations of rewards or punishments after I am dead."

Indianapolis, where he lived, named 2007 "The Year of Vonnegut."

Goodbye Kurt, the world is a lesser place with you gone.


If you are interested in furthering his cause, you can contribute at The AHA. You can also leave a personal message honoring him. The AHA compile those comments in the coming days and create a special online memorial page.

Homosexuality and Humanism

My career happens to be in Computer Science. One of the things that really irked me off at one point was learning about the homophobic plight of Alan Turing. Turing is arguably one of the founders of modern computer science and he played a huge role in defeating the Germans in WWII by deciphering their code. He should have been hailed as a hero for the war, but was instead vilified, tried, and convicted for homosexuality. Punishment was either prison or being chemically neutered.

It is shocking to me that this is still such a heated topic. Homosexuality has been around for as long as we have records. There have been various forms of it:

• Egalitarian where the partners are equal


• Gender-based where the two partners take on male or female roles


• Age-based where there is a wide discrepancy in ages

In modern western society, the egalitarian type of homosexuality is most prevalent, but in roman times, it was common and accepted for men to have homosexual relationships with young boys. The Koran also discusses young boys as a reward for men.

It is difficult to tell just how prevalent homosexuality is in modern society, mostly because of the rampant homophobia in some parts of the country. In addition, there is the difficulty in defining homosexuality – does a single homosexual experience make a person homosexual; does it require multiple experiences; or is it only when someone is exclusively homosexual, or self-identifies as homosexual? Generally, though, most research indicates that 35% to 40% of the population has had some homosexual encounter and an estimated 4% of the population claim to be exclusively homosexual. Homosexuality is also present in various animal species including a number of primates. Some report that it is well-documented behavior in more than 500 different species.

From a scientific standpoint, there is no evidence that a gene or genes exist that promote homosexuality. In addition, the American Psychiatric Association has been clear that “treatment attempts to change sexual orientation are ineffective” . They go on to say, however, that the risks are great and can include anxiety, self-destructive behavior, depression, and suicide.

I can’t specifically explain how homosexuality made it past evolution, but then attributes acquired through natural selection are extremely complex and sometimes very difficult to explain. What we can say is that homosexuality is a natural phenomenon and we must give homosexuals the same rights as every other citizen, including marriage and all the rights that that includes.
However, this stance is one that tends to cause even liberal religious people to baulk. It has been a rallying force for religious people across the country, but especially in the Bible belt. Otherwise conflicting groups like Catholics, Protestants, and Mormons unite in their stance that homosexuality is evil. As Michelle Goldberg puts it:

“Homosexuality has become the mobilizing passion for much of the religious right. A populist movement needs an enemy, but one reason the Christian nationalists are so strong is that they’ve made peace with many old foes, especially Catholics and African-Americans. Gay people have taken the place of obsolete demons.”

The Humanist stance on this topic is quite clear. Homosexuality is natural and is here to stay. We must provide the same rights to homosexuals that heterosexuals have and we should never be prejudiced or homophobic.

References
Steve Jones, Darwin’s Ghost

Sara Goudarzi, LiveScience, November 2006, Homosexual Animals Out of the Closet

www.medicow.com/topics/Reparative-therapy

Michelle Goldberg, Kingdom Coming

Sean Curley, Humanism for Parents