Morality is not determined by the church you attend nor the faith you embrace. It is determined by the quality of your character and the positive impact you have on those you meet along your journey
Speaking about taking his oath of office, Scott said:
"Last night I decided to take my oath holding a copy of the Constitution because there is so much controversy surrounding separation of church and state. I am a firm believer in keeping religion and government separate."
In my opinion EVERY American politician should take their oath of office holding the Constitution.
After all THAT is the document they are swearing to uphold.
An eighth grader from Wilson Middle School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania was sitting in the nurse’s office last Thursday, waiting to be treated, when the Pledge of Allegiance was recited over the intercom.
The girl did not stand, which is apparently a choice she makes often.
However not usually in front of the school nurse it seems:
The school nurse ordered everyone present to stand up, but the student remained seated as she typically does. She reports that subsequently, when it was her turn to be seen by the nurse, the nurse asked loudly, “Why didn’t you stand for the Pledge?” The student replied that the Pledge exercise is voluntary and that no explanation for opting out is needed. Shockingly, the nurse responded by ordering her out of the room, yelling, “Fine! Then leave! I have the right to not service you!”
The student reports that she left the nurse’s office in tears and went to the administrative offices to call her mother. A secretary then led the student to an office, but at that time the same nurse appeared again, saying, “She isn’t calling a parent until I have a long conversation with her!”
Ultimately the girl saw her counselor who was only minimally helpful so the student told her parents, and they contacted the American Humanist Association’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center who sent this letter to the School District:
To say that the actions of school district staff in this situation have inflicted trauma upon
this child would be an understatement. She was bullied and subjected to public embarrassment
for doing nothing more than harmlessly exercising her constitutional rights. The actions of the
nurse are indefensible, as she provides an example of the kind of overzealous, dangerous
patriotism that any true patriot would loathe. The student was left angry and scarred by this
mean-spirited hostility, which is only made worse by the fact that it came from a person trusted
with the health and well being of students. Moreover, the nurse’s refusal to give the child
medical attention calls into question her fitness for the job.
You know as somebody who was forced to not only participate, but as a TA sometimes asked to lead the pledge, I have to say I am very inspired by the young people today making this stand (Or if you prefer, sit.) against religious indoctrination.
I have always felt that the Pledge of Allegiance was a little to fascist for my tastes anyway, and participating in this ritual, or not, in no way indicates the level of a person's patriotism.
If I had it all to do over again I would have sat in my chair for every pledge from the first grade on.
One third of under-24s describe themselves as atheists, according to a new poll which offers more evidence for a "generational shift" away from religious belief.
The YouGov/Times poll found that 42% of adults in the UK said they had no religion, including 19% who described themselves as atheists, 7% who identified themselves as agnostics and 3% as humanists.
49% of respondents described themselves as Christian, whilst 9% were listed as "other".
The Times reports that "33% said that they did not believe in 'any sort of god or greater spiritual power', compared with 32% who believed in God and 20 per cent who believed in a spiritual power."
So one third of the adults in the UK are now non-deists?
That is amazing.
And you have to love this next part.
Interestingly, the poll noted that political leaders were "viewed slightly more positively as a result of their admissions that they do not believe in God."
This marks the first time I have ever wanted to move to the UK in my entire life.
What must that be like, to be surrounded by so many rational people?
The topic of this episode of The Big Question is a discussion concerning how the UK recently passed a ruling saying that humanist marriages are not to considered a legal form of matrimony in the country, while in Scotland, which embraced humanist marriages since 2005, they now outnumber Catholic weddings.
But things quickly go off the rails with the introduction of Taiwo Adewuyi, founder of the group Discuss Jesus. (Though to be honest it does not sound like he wants to rationally discuss ANYTHING.)
Host Nicky Campbell presented Adewuyi, who said humanist weddings are “entirely demonic.”
“It all goes back to the origins of humanism,” Adewuyi said. “Humanism is the cancer on thanks-giving. It is the Devil’s PR. It is a first-class ticket to the sea of wantonness and debauchery.”
Humanism, he said, tries to “knock God off the throne” and put mankind at the top instead, which Adewuyi claims is wrong.
Andrew Copson of the British Humanist Association responded, “Well, if you’re going to wantonness and debauchery, you might as well travel first class.”
“Humanism,” he explained, “is a nonreligious world view that — instead of looking to revelation or authority, we look to reason and evidence to understand the universe. Instead of looking to moral rules that come from outside human beings, we look to other human beings to generate values in the here and now and also to generate meaning in our life.”
“Instead of looking externally for some meaning to give value and sanction to the existence we’re having, the humanist view is that men and women in the course of our lives create the sustained meaning together,” Copson said.
Okay I am not terribly familiar with this Andrew Copson fellow but I found his explanation of humanism to be very satisfying.
And this in a nutshell is how many people in the religious right characterize those of us who are living our lives free of religion or oppressive dogma.
Everything to them is black or white, right or wrong, good or evil. And if you are not one of them, believing exactly as they do, then you are an agent of Satan and you, and your dangerous ideas, must be rejected out of hand.
Today the American Humanist Association’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center sent a letter to officials at the Beaufort County School District in Beaufort, South Carolina, on behalf of an anonymous student who has been denied his constitutional rights to refrain from participating in the school’s daily Pledge of Allegiance exercise.
The student, a ninth grader at Right Choices Alternative School, identifies as an atheist and opposes the phrase “under God” in the Pledge. When he has attempted to remain seated at his desk in a quiet and undisruptive manner during the Pledge recitation, his teacher has instructed him to stand, has told him that school policy requires him to stand and has also threatened him with punishment. In addition, the teacher has argued with the student about his atheism, has questioned the student’s patriotism and has insisted that his actions are offensive to members of the U.S. armed services. The student contacted the American Humanist Association’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center through the organization’s DontSaythePledge.com campaign website.
“Threatening a student with punishment simply for exercising his or her right to sit out the Pledge demonstrates a shocking disregard for the rights of free speech and religious freedom,” said David Niose, legal director of the Appignani Humanist Legal Center.
“No one should have her or his patriotism questioned for objecting to the phrase ‘under God’ in the Pledge of Allegiance,” said Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association. “Doing so marginalizes humanist and atheist kids as second-class citizens merely for exercising their constitutional rights.”
You know at first I was not sure that this whole sitting down during the Pledge of Allegiance would have any impact, but this is starting to look promising.
My fantasy is that they apply enough pressure that the words "under God" are forever removed from the pledge.
And you know, that might not be such an impossible thing to accomplish. Especially when you consider the fact that the words were put in there in 1954 in response to pressure from the Knights of Columbus.
Of course my next fantasy is about doing away with a nationalist pledge altogether, but perhaps it's best to take these things one at a time.
Members of the U.S. Army can now proudly and officially list their religion as "Humanist," after years of not being able to do so, according to the ACLU.
The Army's faith code allows for designation of Wiccans, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, and over 100 denominations of Christians, among other faiths, but until now had few offerings for those who follow a non-theistic belief system.
However, this week, the Army changed its faith code to allow Humanists to identify themselves as such.
I personally would not consider being a humanist a religion, but anything that helps the non-religious get equal rights is not a bad thing in my book.
a system of values and beliefs that is based on the idea that people are basically good and that problems can be solved using reason instead of religion.
As I said, hardly a religion, but still good news.
You know I actually don't think that Atheists are necessarily more moral than religious people.
I just hate it when somebody makes the assumption that without religion we are without a sense of morality or empathy. Nothing could be further from the truth.
And I have known many truly wonderful Christians, Buddhists, Jewish people, etc. in my life.
However I have to admit that when I hear somebody describe themselves as a "Good Christian" that always raises red flags with me, because it seems to so often be followed by the statement, "I had no idea such a good Christian would do something so horrible to the Robertson's dog."
It seems that people use Christian camouflage to cover a devious nature so often that it immediately makes me suspicious. That's undoubtedly unfair, but there you have it.
Atheists should be seen as good people if they do good, Pope Francis said Wednesday in his latest urging that people of all religions — or no religion — work together.
The leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics made his comments in the homily of his morning Mass in his residence, a daily event where he speaks without prepared comments.
He told the story of a Catholic who asked a priest if even atheists had been redeemed by Jesus.
"Even them, everyone," the pope answered, according to Vatican Radio. "We all have the duty to do good," he said.
"Just do good, and we'll find a meeting point," the pope said in a hypothetical conversation in which someone told a priest: "But I don't believe. I'm an atheist."
Now we're talking!
This is all that the non-religious want. Just stop treating us like a cancer on human kind.
Oh and stop indoctrinating our children.
The idea that the only way people can be good is by accepting God into their life is an antiquated lie that should have died out along with stoning adulterers and only eating fish on Fridays.
“Empathy is the opposite of Utopia. There is no empathy in heaven, I can tell you before you get there. There isn’t any empathy in heaven because there’s no mortality. There’s no empathy in utopia because there’s no suffering. Empathy is grounded in the acknowledgement of death and the celebration of life and rooting for each other to flourish and be. It’s based on our frailty and imperfections. So when we are talking about building an empathetic civilization we are not talking about utopia, we are talking about the ability of humanity to show solidarity not only with each other but with our fellow creatures who have a one and only life on this planet. We are homo-empathicus.”
In other words the idea that what makes us law abiding, compassionate individuals, with morals, comes from God, or the idea of a god, is pure crap.
What makes us loving, giving, empathetic creatures is our sense of connection to those around us. It is our humanity.
And what can strip that away are the artificial differences created by geographic distance, politics, and religion.
And in the case of religion the belief that this life is only a probationary life before the eternal one that we will enjoy as Christians, also removes the sense of the temporary which activates our empathy.
So when somebody calls us secular humanists, they are not insulting us. They are recognizing how truly wonderful, and loving, and giving we human beings can be.
A humanist does not need to believe that they themselves will live forever. We take great solace and strength from realizing that the world, and the universe, will live on without us and that upon our death our essence and molecules will be reunited with the planet from which they were borrowed.
Not only are all human beings connected, but ALL life is connected, and once you remove God from the equation it allows you to finally accept your place in the universe and recognize that there is great peace and serenity awaiting you.
The methods and values of scientific thinking have expanded our knowledge of life and our place in the universe. This modern knowledge—based on experience and evidence—has brought enormous benefit to humanity, yet many people still choose to rely on ancient texts and beliefs to guide their lives and their nations.
The Center for Inquiry exists to change this situation. We are here to promote the scientific outlook—to expand the methods and values of science into all areas of human endeavor.
We invite you to learn more about the ways we are using research, outreach, and activism to advance reason and human values around the world. Then, if these values are as important to you as they are to us, we ask you to join CFI.
This video is about five years old but I thought it did a pretty good job of explaining the secular viewpoint, and why it is so important to spread the message of freethinkers.
And with the new Freethought Equality Fund PAC having been recently established now seems like the right time to start reaching out to let others to let them know that Atheists and Humanists are not immoral anti-religious zealots but rather reasonable individuals who just think it is time to embrace the benefits of reason and science.
Atheists and humanists hope to increase their influence in politics with the launch of the Freethought Equality Fund, a new political action committee for nonbelievers.
“When people see respected ethical humanists and atheists serve in public office, this will begin to dispel many myths about nonbelievers,” said Bishop McNeill, coordinator of the new PAC that was launched Wednesday (Sept. 18).
The mission of the PAC is to grow the ranks of open humanists and atheists in public office at all levels of government. It will also seek to elect people who support the separation of church and state regardless of their personal beliefs, said Maggie Ardiente, director of development and communications at the American Humanist Association.
On a larger scale, the new PAC reflects a long-term strategy among nonreligious activists to increase their profile in Washington; last year the Secular Coalition for America hired Edwina Rogers, a veteran Republican lobbyist, as its executive director, in part to open doors on Capitol Hill.
The PAC was launched by the American Humanist Association’s Center for Humanist Activism; it’s the first nontheist PAC to have full-time paid staff and start-up funds.
A 2012 Pew study reported that one in five Americans do not claim any religious affiliation, an increase of 5 percentage points during the past five years.
“Our patriotism is suspect, our value system is dismissed and the more we come out of the closet in certain communities as people who don’t happen to believe in a god, the more we observe new limitation in our business opportunities and in public life,” said Ardiente, referring to prejudice against the nonreligious. “Most of all, these voters want respect and equality for nontheists in the United States.”
Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association, called nonreligious Americans “one of the largest minorities in the U.S.”
“But you’d never know it from our organized numbers or political power,” he said. “It’s time for that lack of representation to change.”
Where do I send my money? Where do I send my money? WHERE DO I SEND MY MONEY?
Air Force Trainee Jonathan Bise and others will be offered a chance to recite and sign a secular oath as part of their graduation ceremony on Tuesday, after officials noted that they had erred in including the phrase, "So help me God" as mandatory in both written and verbal versions.
"Our previous legal advisors were mistaken in advising us that it was required," Maj. Stewart L. Rountree wrote in a letter, addressing the planned revision. "Our current legal advisors made me aware and we will ensure it reaches all corners of our program."
Bise, of Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, had earlier contracted the help of the American Humanist Association’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center and the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, asking them to step in on his behalf after allegedly being forced to sign a pledge contrary to his "deeply held beliefs" last month.
“A non-religious person cannot be forced to affirm the existence of a God,” said Appignani Humanist Legal Center Coordinator Bill Burgess in a statement. “The law is clear that such demands violate the constitutional mandate of church-state separation and the right to freedom of conscience. This officer-to-be must be allowed to omit theistic language from his commissioning oath.”
A letter to Air Force officials at Maxwell from the group similarly warned that the initial language of the oath was a violation of Bise's constitutional rights, and that a failure to offer Bise a secular option would subject the base to a suit in federal court.
As you know I view protecting the rights of the non-religious in much the same way I do protecting the rights of the LGBT community, and hope very much that we can have a movement equally successful in the years to come.
Remember Atheists and Humanists don't want to take anything away from religious people we simply do not want religion or God forced upon us, or used as a way to oppress or isolate us.
A high school in central Mississippi allegedly forced students to watch a Christian video and listen to church officials preach about Jesus Christ.
The American Humanist Association’s legal center filed a lawsuit against Northwest Rankin High School in Flowood on Wednesday, accusing the school of violating the student’s First Amendment rights.
The school has held at least three mandatory assemblies about finding hope in Jesus Christ this month, according to the lawsuit. The assemblies showed a video laced with Christian messages about overcoming personal hardships through Jesus Christ and were allegedly led by local church officials.
“See, before Jesus came, innocent blood had to be shed for our sins,” one of the church officials allegedly told the students. “There had to be an animal that was sacrificed to atone for our sin. There had to be innocent blood. So Jesus came and he was the innocent blood because he lived a perfect life. He was that innocent blood. See the last few years of Jesus’ life he traveled from region to region and country to country and he had 12 disciples that followed him everywhere. And he talked about the hope he was bringing.”
The assemblies concluded with a prayer and teachers blocked the exits to prevent students from leaving, the lawsuit claimed. A disillusioned student videotaped one of the assemblies.
Christianity, so wonderful that you have to be forcibly exposed to it while the exits are blocked for the protection of your immortal soul.
Did these people really suggest that animal sacrifice was necessary before the crucifixion of Jesus Christ? Yeah nothing superstitious or anti-intellectual about that!
I think these people have a good case for a lawsuit here. It is one thing for a student to talk about their belief in God and quite another for the school to strap you to your chairs and attempt to forcefully indoctrinate you.
In 1996, noted criminologist Jewel asked a question that has long haunted those hoodlums prone to pondering the existential consequences of their actions: “Who will save your souls after those lies that you told, boy?” For generations of American crooks, the answer has been “religious do-gooders.” As a 2006 Federal Bureau of Prisons report put it, “faith groups have become involved in offering formal programs within prison to bring about not only the spiritual salvation of the inmates but their rehabilitation in the profane world as well.” The idea is that spiritual rebirth may help tame the criminal impulse, and set wild hearts on the straight and narrow.
Maybe not. A new study in the academic journal Theoretical Criminology suggests that, far from causing offenders to repent of their sins, religious instruction might actually encourage crime. The authors surveyed 48 “hardcore street offenders” in and around Atlanta, in hopes of determining what effect, if any, religion has on their behavior. While the vast majority of those surveyed (45 out of 48 people) claimed to be religious, the authors found that the interviewees “seemed to go out of their way to reconcile their belief in God with their serious predatory offending. They frequently employed elaborate and creative rationalizations in the process and actively exploit religious doctrine to justify their crimes.”
In the end, the authors found, “there is reason to believe that these rationalizations and justifications may play a criminogenic role in their decision making.”
I think this is one of those things that most of us probably realize deep down, but not something which gets much discussion simply because it is an uncomfortable reality of life.
One of the topics always up for discussion when I was in my "searching for meaning" phase during my twenties was "How could religion possibly have an influence on criminal behaviors if all you have to do as a Catholic is go to confession, or accept Jesus as your personal savior, to be absolved of all of your past sins?" To me it always seemed that you could do just about anything without fear of eternal damnation, so long as you were willing to kiss God's ass with your dying breath.
That is why I was never impressed with the argument that religion is necessary to provide a moral framework for human beings. I actually thought quite the opposite and believed the "Get out of Hell Free" card encouraged anti-social and criminal behaviors by making these individuals feel they answered to a higher authority than our human laws, and it was an authority who could essentially be bribed at the last minute to forgo any punishment.
However those of us who are directed by internal, rather than external, controls make our choices based, not out of fear of punishment, but from a feeling of connection to those around us and a fundamental sense of right and wrong.
