Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Aostach - a modern rite of passage

One of the aspects of spirituality and humanism that we discuss on our http://spirutualhumanist.info site is the need for a rite of passage. Rites like this help mark the natural progression through life and are some attempt at assuring you are ready for the next "level". Many religions have these, but atheists and humanists tend not to. This post (and the ones to follow) will talk about the program we call Aostach that my wife and I designed and is part of my discussion on parenting in a humanist household.

We have four children and we have always spent a great deal of time trying to figure out the best way to raise children in modern America. One of the things we realized early on was that children no longer have a rite of passage or any point where they can say they are now an adult and ready for the world.

We set out defining a set of criteria that the children had to pass with a final test as a kind of modern rite of passage. We now have one through this process and two in the middle of it. We have spoken to quite a few parents (and some want-to-be parents) about it and they all thought it was such a great idea that we decided a while back to turn it into a book. It will [probably] be called "Aostach - A Modern Rite of Passage". Aostach is a Gaelic word meaning Adult.

I plan to put some of the concepts out on this blog and hope to get feedback from anyone reading it.

The Aostach is broken into a number of sections with each section having 6 to 10 topics that the child has to learn or demonstrate. The sections include the following:

  1. Domestic Skills

  2. Financial Skills

  3. Safety and Survival

  4. Physical fitness

  5. Daily practical knowledge

  6. Ethics, Morals, Social Responsibilities and Manners


You can see that it is a diverse set of knowledge and abilities. The culmination of all of it is a somewhat difficult test that the child has to perform.

The next blog will be about the first section of the Aostach, Domestic Skills.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Darwin’s Birthday Coming Up

One of the aspects of spirituality that we talk about on the The Spiritual Humanist site is traditions and recurring celebrations. With Darwin’s 200th Birthday celebration coming up on February 12, 2009; it is slowly becoming a recognized celebration day in the Humanist and Atheist communities. Each year more and more celebrations are occurring around February 12th to celebrate Darwin’s Birthday. There is even a web site dedicated to various celebrations occurring each year on February 12th through 2009 and beyond (http://www.darwinday.org).

The Boulder International Humanist Institute (http://www.bihi.info) here in Colorado is having Professor Robert Tapp (Editor of The Humanist and Adjunct Faculty Chair of The Humanist Institute) talk on historical evidence of Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammad. I like the BIHI because their intent is to bring in speakers and provide an instructive environment around Humanism and not to tear down religion or the government. It is a very positive way to approach spreading Humanism to the community and the world.

Monday, January 29, 2007

Swearing on a Book in Court

AHA Article: No Bibles, No Quarans in Courts

A court of appeals in North Carolina is considering adding the Koran as a valid book to swear upon.

This AHA article talks about how absurd this is even if the intentions are clearly a support for religious diversity. Today non-theists or theists of any religion can take the stand in all 50 states. But, what does it mean when they have no Bible or Koran to swear upon?

Isn't it time we came up with some other means of saying we will tell the truth or should we just start relying on the justice system and the punishments for perjury to protect us? Maybe we should base this on swearing an oath to the constitution or some other politically based document rather than a religious one.

It seems to me that holding on to this old tradition of swearing on a bible is saying that we can't believe a person if they are not Christian or at least not religious; which is just blatantly false. Maybe a better solution is to base it on a person's reputation. We could have a system like the financial credit score system that tracks a person's reputation then you could gauge whether or not to trust a person on their reputation score. This solution sounds a bit ludicrous to me also and there are a lot of inherent problems in how we define the reputation score and who gets to manage it.

But, this is yet another aspect where Religion has played a valid role and we need to replace that capability with some secular solution.

I'd love to hear ideas on this, so feel free to comment on the post and make your own suggestion.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

A Distinction within Religious Criticism

Secular Humanism with a human face: A Distinction within Religious Criticism

Interesting post, much in-line with Sam Harris, though I think we shouldn't eradicate the text within these books as much as eradicate the belief that they are the literal words of God. There is certainly a lot of hypocrosy going on within the Abrahamic religious communities when they indicate they believe their respective books are the literal word of God, but they don't follow them. Of course it is fortunate for all of us most don't follow the words as the world would be in a perpetual war with each religious faction being told by their God to kill all who don't believe the same way.


There is a great joke (by Simon Jenkins) that exemplifies this:

"I was walking along when I saw a man standing on a bridge getting ready to jump. I tried to find a reason to dissuade him, and asked :

Are you religious? Yes, he replied. Great, so am I

Christian or Buddhist? Christian, he said. Great, so am I

Episcopalian or Baptist? Baptist, he responded. Great, so am I

Baptist Church of God, or Baptist Church of The Lord? Baptist Church of God. Great, so am I.

Are you Original Baptist Church of God or Reformed Baptist Church of God? Reformed Baptist Church of God. Great, so am I.

Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God Reformation 1879 or Reformed Baptist Church of God Reformation 1915? Reformed Baptist Church of God Reformation 1915, was the answer.

Die heretic scum, I said, and pushed him off.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Definitions of Humanism

Given Carmen’s comment on the definitions of Humanism, I thought it would be interesting to look up a few on-line and see just how they define it; and then critique those definitions.

www.humanists.org

Based on work by Corliss Lamont, the heart of humanism is: “Humanism, having its ultimate faith in humankind, believes that human beings possess the power or potentiality of solving their own problems, through reliance primarily upon reason and scientific method applied with courage and vision.”

This isn’t bad, but is probably a bit out of date and it unfortunately uses that “ultimate faith in” phrase that always bothers me. It also has extraneous verbiage like “with courage and vision”; I don’t see how that should be part of the definition of Humanism. The bit about “reliance primarily upon reason and scientific method” is good.

www.americanhumanist.org

“Humanism is a progressive lifestance that, without supernaturalism, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead meaningful, ethical lives capable of adding to the greater good of humanity.”

So here is the first blatant example of what Carmen was talking about; they had to include “without supernaturalism”. I think the roots/base of Humanism are a life stance that is separate from supernaturalism, so this phrase really degrades the meaning here and isn’t needed. If they had left that out, it would be close, but then it doesn’t say much either (just that Humanism is a philosophy of being good, hmmm).

www.answers.com

“A system of thought that rejects religious beliefs and centers on humans and their values, capacities, and worth.”

This one is even more blatant by saying “rejects religious beliefs” and for this it clearly misses the mark. Humanism came out of the Renaissance Christians who thought reason and intellect should apply to everything, including religion (as Humanists do); also, the first Humanist Manifesto was primarily written by Unitarian ministers.

www.thefreedictionary.com

“A system of thought that centers on humans and their values, capacities, and worth.”

I like this one, it is clean, simple and to the point. Unfortunately it is so broad that it might include almost everyone.

www.wikipedia.org

“Humanism is a broad category of ethical philosophies that affirm the dignity and worth of all people, based on the ability to determine right and wrong by appeal to universal human qualities—particularly rationalism.”

Leave it to wikipedia to come up with one of the best. If they had replaced “rationalism” with the “reason and scientific method” from Lamont’s, I might think it was perfect.

www.bihi.info

“Humanism is a world view informed by science, inspired by art, and motivated by compassion. Affirming the dignity of each human being, it supports liberty and opportunity consonant with social and global responsibility. Free of supernaturalism, humanism thus derives the goals of life from human need and interest rather than from theological or ideological abstractions, and asserts that humanity must take responsibility for its own destiny”

This is another good one and much more complete than the others, though it does have that “Free of supernaturalism” clause; it also has that “Theological or ideological abstractions” - that sounds kind of like a shot at religions. I like the last phrase a lot and use it in my explanations.

Monday, January 22, 2007

Humanism vs. Faith in Humanity

The LiveJournal Blog on Humanism (http://community.livejournal.com/humanism/37601.html?view=234209#t234209) posted an article on Humanism versus Faith in Humanity.

I think Steiner misses the point - equality is not the same as being treated equal. He seems to get off on a minor wording about Humanism that he thinks implies humanists believe everyone to be equal. That really has nothing to do with Humanism; but, we do tend to believe that all should be treated with the same rights as Human Beings.

But, it was nice to see him catch a lot of flack in comments on the Blog :)

Introductions

Welcome to our Blog on Spirituality and Humanism. Carmen and I come from very different backgrounds (see below), but we both have a passion for ethical, moral behavior and for Humanism. We are also both parents (her of 3 and me of 4) and so have worked to bring Humanism into both our families and our communities. Religion and spirituality serve an essential function for both the individual and society. We believe that it is possible to have a humanist ideology that fills the role of religion morally and epistemologically. This blog and our site http://spiritualhumanist.info are our ways of communicating about humanist spirituality. Our diverse background will help by providing different approaches to this concept.

Sean Curley

Believe it or not, I grew up a fairly involved Catholic. Many people thought I would become a priest, but I always wanted a family and so refused to go that route. I did, however, go to Catholic Leadership training programs during high school and could frequently be seen as an alter boy or leading the rosary at church (mostly for the elderly) during my lunch hour.

But, my father taught me to think and reason even above believing and faith and during college I studied world religions and realized that all of them seemed to have good things to say and many bad things as well (read the Bible or Koran and see how harsh they really are). Then as my dive into science and philosophy continued, I began to see how wrong it was for us to be relying on a possible afterlife or a disconnected God to define our lives. And so began my ascent into Humanism.

For most of my life then I lived a Humanistic life without taking it outside the home. The belief here was we should each lead our own life the best way we see fit and not push our beliefs on others. I taught my kids about Humanism, but also about other world religions, but most importantly, I taught them about living a moral, honorable life irrespective of religion.

Then the 9/11 attacks came and I realized that unchecked religion is still a threat in the world and I looked around and saw how religious organizations are trying to control the political agenda in America. Both of these really frightened me and so I (along with many others) decided the time was right to get more active. So I have started to write more on-line, joined the Board of the Boulder International Humanist Institute (see http://www.bihi.info), developed the Spiritual Humanist web site (see http://spiritualhumanist.info), joined the Church of Spiritual Humanism and have applied to be a Humanist Society Humanist Celebrant. This blog is the latest addition to my attempt to get more active in this movement.

As for the topics I plan to write about, mostly they will be spirituality and humanism, but occasionally I'll write about parenting in a Humanist/Atheist home. There already exists a lot of information on the Internet about this topic, so I'll probably keep it to a minimum. Other related topics may come in if they seem relevant. Please feel free to comment on any topic you like as that is the best way for all of us to learn. If you don't want to comment in public, feel free to send me email at sean.curley@spiritualhumanist.info or you can visit the web site and use the contact form.

Carmen Mosley-Sims

I grew up Primitive Baptist in the cradle of fundamentalism: rural south Arkansas. For those of you who are not familiar with Primitive Baptist doctrine, please do not confuse it with Christian Coalition-Southern Baptist evangelicalism. No, the Primitive Baptists are the "foot-washing" Baptists. I was baptized at the age of 10 in a freezing cold catfish pond, because heated indoor baptisteries aren't mentioned in the Bible. Primitive Baptists are nothing if not sincere.

A mere two years after my baptism, I set my first steps on the path away from the religion of my childhood. I remember this as a heart wrenching decision, because I loved my church community, the lessons it had taught me, and the rituals that marked so many significant moments in my life. As compelling as the reasons were to remain in the church, however, I knew even as an adolescent that I had to find my own way. For one thing, the church doctrine was inexorably opposed to homosexuality, to the point of excluding gays and lesbians from the church. I could not continue following a religion that rejected my close friends and family members, including my own sister. Moreover, my mother had gone back to college around this time and was bringing home ideas and writings representing so many other ways of knowing. The scientific method struck a chord with me, as did eastern philosophy, existentialism, Jewish orthodoxy, and many other foundations of knowledge.

Since then, I have explored many different religions with the goal of finding the "Truth" in all of them. As an undergraduate, I majored in anthropology and became committed to the idea of cultural relativism. At the same time, however, I felt that certain lines should be drawn to moderate human behavior, that appreciation for diversity did not have to mean blind tolerance of anything and everything. I read Krishnamurti and Gandhi and Mary Baker Eddy and Daniel Quinn, and the more I learned of their practical approaches to spirituality, the more I came to equate world religions with the blind men describing the elephant. Each one offers a different and even contradictory description of the Truth, but if we could only step back and see the bigger picture, we would know that all of them are correct.

I'm no longer Primitive Baptist. I'm not even Christian; or Jewish or Hindu or Muslim or Pagan. But I am not an atheist, either. I cannot be atheist because I have directly and personally experienced God. Asking me to deny those experiences is like asking the blind man at the elephant's foot to deny that there are such things as toenails. But the most important questions to me, as a human being, do not concern the nature of God or the afterlife. The most important questions relate to the best way to live this life, and how to maintain constructive relationships with my fellow human beings. We can answer those questions through spiritual humanism.

I intend to focus most of my writings on the moral standards we can set through humanist ideals, and strategies on how to build humanist communities on the local and global level. I am also interested in humanist rites and rituals, stories, holidays and traditions, and other daily nuts and bolts of living as a spiritual humanist. I have personally experienced the challenges of conveying a sense of spirituality to my children while avoiding dogma and maintaining a humanist home. I hope that this blog will help me and others find the balance between critical thinking, and humility before forces that are bigger than we are. Please contact me at carmen@spiritualhumanist.info if you would like to communicate with me directly.