Former political prisoner and President of South of Africa Nelson Mandela passed away on Thursday December 5th. He was imprisoned for 27 years for battling against apartheid in South Africa. He was elected the first black President of the country after apartheid was ended.
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Earlier this week Oprah Winfrey interviewed endurance swimmer Diana Nyad, who recently completed the swim between Cuba and the US at age 64. Nyad said she is an atheist who appreciates the awe and beauty of nature. Winfrey was gobsmacked and actually said Nyad can’t be an atheist because only believers can appreciate the beauty of nature. Winfrey expressed a typical, and false theist meme about atheists.
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One tool humanists should have in their tool box of life is Skepticism. It’s the notion that we don’t accept something without testable evidence to back it up. It can lead us to the truth of something or to establish the facts of something. One doesn’t use skepticism just to be contrary. Skepticism can take practice to perfect but once you learn how, it will make your humanism stronger.
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It is fairly easy to make the mistake in thinking that Humanism is just a fancy name for humanitarianism. It is part of Humanism, but even people who label themselves Humanists tend to forget the non-theistic basis for the conclusions we come to that then lead to our humanitarianism. We are “good without God” because we don’t expect any reward in an afterlife. People who are theists may also do humanitarian work but the difference is Humanists don’t give any credit to an irrational belief like religion.
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A unique online conference for freethinkers, sponsored by the Freethought Blogs network, will take place July 19th through the 21st. ‘FtBConscience: Atheism with a conscience‘ will be entirely online and completely free which is unusual for freethought conferences. Although they don’t use the word Humanism, the people behind the conference support many of the ideas and principles we do, so this conference should be a good fit for Humanists in general. Check out the information and if you have time ‘attend’ the conference.
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President Obama had his public inauguration today (1/21) and he gave his 2nd inaugural speech on the West Front of the US Capital. As I listened I couldn’t help but be impressed by the elements of the social contract he included in his speech. I have highlighted my favorite parts and plan on using these quotes in future essays and discussions I might have.
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