So we ARE a Christian Nation!

The House on Tuesday passed a resolution 847 that while not explicitly saying we are a Christian Nation, sure implies it. It includes implications that:

• Christianity is the primary religion of the country and the world


• Acknowledges the importance of Christianity, but not others.


• Recognizes that Christianity had a lot to do with the founding of this nation

It is ridiculous that the house feels compelled to even deal with such a resolution let alone that it would pass one thereby slapping every other religion and the non-religious in the country (and world) in their collective face.

I'm appalled and I feel like it is one more step towards making this country a Theocracy.

Christian Shooter in Colorado obviously not a Humanist

While starting to read the unraveling story of the two recent shootings at churches in Colorado (where I live), I found myself expecting the shooter to be a religious person.
This article through Google says the shooter was enrolled in religious training at one point and it has a quote: "He is said to come from a deeply Christian family."

Now, it may not always be true, but I find that many of the people that do such horrible things are frequently very religious. I wonder if there is some tendency towards extreme passion/obsession (to the point of doing or believing the impossible) that is common between the religious and people who would do such a horrific thing.

Certainly I have a hard time thinking of a Humanist doing such a thing. Being a Humanist has strong implications that you think about what is right and wrong and about compassion and that you see the beauty in life.

It is interesting to note that anyone can be religious without any real morality (and many do), but to say you are a Humanist actually means a lot more.

Something to smile (and be proud) about.

Norway a secular nation?

NORWAY FLOURISHES AS SECULAR NATION

Montgomery Advertiser - Montgomery, AL, USA

Link

Rev. Rick Mason notes that atheism is on the rise. He blames Christian
fundamentalism. Certainly the ineptness, dishonesty and lack of ethics
of the overtly God-fearing Bush administration may be turning people off
on God.

A case study shows what this could mean for America. Norway has embraced
secularism at the expense of its Christian roots. A 2005 survey
conducted by Gallup International rated Norway the least religious
country in Western Europe.

In Norway, 82.9% of the population are members of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church. (They are automatically registered at birth and few
bother to be unregistered.) However, only approximately 10% regularly
attend church services and identify themselves as being personally
Christian.

A 2006 survey found 29% believe in a god or deity; 23% believe in a
higher power without being certain of what; 26% don't believe in God or
higher powers; 22% have doubts.

Depending on the definition of atheism, Norway thus has between 26% and
71% atheists. The Norwegian Humanist Association is the world's largest
humanist association per capita.

And what has secularism done to Norway? The Global Peace Index rates
Norway the most peaceful country in the world. The Human Development
Index, a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education and
standard of living, has ranked Norway No. 1 every year for the last five
years.

Norway has the second highest GDP per capita in the world, an
unemployment rate below 2% and average hourly wages among the world's
highest.


Reprinted under the Fair Use section of international copyright law at
http://www.eff.org/IP/fair_use_and_copyright.excerpt. Full copyright
retained by the original publication.

The Golden Compass, a Humanist movie?

The Golden Compass movie comes out this Friday, December 7th. Some are billing it as a Humanist (or in this case Atheist) movie, though I think that is a stretch. The books do take a stab at the Catholic church, but that is more just treating the church as the dogmatic, authoritarian organization it is. The movie tones this down some and isn't quite as blatant, but it is still a statement against authoritarian rulers.

But, the Catholic church is causing some of the problem it self by trying to ban the reading of the books and boycott the movie. Of course, this will probably make the movie and books even more popular. I know it makes me want to go :)

Check out the AHA article here or a YouTube interview with author Philip Pullman here

Sunday School for Atheists

Time magazine published an article this last week on a program, started at the Humanist Community of Palo Alto in California called Sunday School for Atheists. This is the kind of program we need and I think the success of this ground-breaking program is testament to a growing non-theist world.

Check out the article.

Mentioning Atheism

I've had a few recent encounters where I mentioned either atheism or being without religion and got some interesting responses.

One was in an a casual business meeting with a couple of women. We got to talking a little about my book and I said it had to do with parenting without religion and her immediate response was "why would you want to?". I could have taken offense at it or gotten belligerent, but after a moments thought, I smiled and said, "well, there are many people out there who are not religious and some of them are parents or want to be parents." She at least agreed with that and so we could talk about the topic from a theoretical standpoint. We continued with the conversation for a few minutes, though we could all tell she was distinctly colder after that.

Another was with my Uncle. I'm recently separated and in the middle of a divorce. While I'm not too interested in dating right now, I will be at some point and my uncle asked me if it would be hard to find a woman who would go out with me if I'm atheist. Interesting idea and unfortunately it has some validity. The percent of non-believers across the population in the U.S. is small. But, fortunately for me, the percent among the intelligentsia is much higher. Numbers vary, but roughly 93% of scientists don't believe in a God. Since I'm in a high-intelligence industry (computer software), I find the percent of people who are non-theists to be quite high.

The other one was on the airplane coming back from Portland, OR last night (to Colorado). I got to talking to the woman in the seat next to me about Humanism. As always, I presented it as separate from religion and that there are many people that are Humanist and of a specific religion. At the end though, I said I was of the Humanist Atheist sort and you could see her face go blank. The conversation dried up fairly quickly, she put on her ipod-headphones and didn't talk to me the rest of the flight.

I've commented before on this Blog about how the world is changing to be more accepting of the non-theists, but I still encounter this kind of bias frequently. As a Humanist and an Atheist, what is different for me today from the past is that I'm ignoring that ignorance and am speaking out anyway. Maybe in speaking out, I'll sow some seeds of doubt or at least make the person think.

Good Definition of Humanism

SumoGirl posted a nice article on a definition of Humanism she found. See Definition of Humanism. She actually refers to the Progressive Living website, which is site about Confucianism. It is a really nice definition of Humanism that I didn't see when i did my previous post on definitions.

Humanism is an anti-authoritarian philosophy that emphasizes the importance of reason and the indispensability of both evidence and compassion for others in the formation of values. Contemporary humanistic morality judges acts primarily on the basis of their affect upon other human beings. Humanists believe that the purposes of life are found in the meeting of human needs -intellectual, emotional, and spiritual-and in the fulfillment of human capabilities, mental and physical.

The definition is a little long for me, but I really like the first half.

Nice find SumoGirl!