@shawnmjones The TESCREAL folks also subscribe to a toned-down Great Replacement Theory of eugenics-inflected demographic anxieties about declining birth rates: “where have all the white babies gone?”
Lots of us lead meaningful lives without religion. @humanists_uk is about to publish this book: "What I Believe", a series of conversations with a range of people (including me) about how we think about the world and the richness of the many non-religious perspectives. Do check it out.
@alcinoe@helenczerski I'm a Christian and I agree. The values we live by may derive from religious or non-religious roots. But I'd hope for human decency in any worthwhile value system. Plus honesty, integrity, and rationality so we can make sense of, and have meaningful conversations about, each other's value systems.
“I am a humanist, which means, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without expectations of rewards or punishments after I am dead.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut
"As of today, legislatures in thirteen states, including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Utah have introduced bills to allow religious chaplains to serve as school counselors or volunteers in schools[.]
Texas already has a law in place to allow chaplains in schools since it passed SB 763 in Summer 2023."
@holyramenempire But do those laws allow them to preach in secular schools, or just to serve? Chaplains are pretty much counselors, so that makes sense if they can rein in the religion for their government job.
In this last newsletter for 2023, I reflect on intense moments from this past year—personal and global like—that deeply affected my relationship with writing, and often left me at a loss for how to go forward.
This was a very hard year for so many of us.
The next might be, too.
If writing can keep us present in the struggle together, it’s doing precisely what it needs to do.
Signs on the entrance to playgrounds suggesting I 'respect the sabbath' only inspire a further respect for humanism. And a desire to be rid of a mythology that has been and is used to control others
@subtleshiftinemphasis I’m with you on that one. One of the few things that has thrown me in our travels north was when we saw swings in a playground tied up for the day so no one could use them 😞
"Okay, here's the scenario. You are a crew member on a starship."
"Cool."
"Space travel is slow, you'll be stuck with your crewmates a long time."
"So we must get along."
"Yes. Communicate, listen, share limited resources."
"I can do that. What's the starship called?"
"Earth."
The feeling of union with the Eternal is shared by all who visit that place “placed under the open sky and accessible to the poorest of the poor” (Mahatma Gandhi).
Destructive Judgemental Religions vs Rational Free Thinking Humanists
Secular humanism is an important part of modern life. It is now being attacked without a reason and in an angry way from many directions. This statement only backs the kind of secular humanity that is clearly committed to democracy. It is against all beliefs that look to the supernatural to back up their beliefs
#InternationalLaw#Humanism#Liberalism: "It is less a question of Western or Eastern, but rather liberal humanism as such that has died. When hearts and minds quietly change below the surface of an otherwise resilient and powerful liberal order, then imaginations and preparations toward a viable alternative have inevitably begun, even if only unconsciously.
In many ways, this moment echoes the lamentations of anti-colonial intellectuals, activists, and statesmen around the Global North’s betrayal of liberal humanism with respect to national self-determination in the twentieth century. If the horrifying images from the Vietnam War and subsequent anti-war movements constituted a watershed moment across the world, then the ongoing carnage across Palestine and global protests against it may constitute yet another such moment. It could have transformative implications for the global majority’s perception of the Global North’s values and principles, and build momentum for a new, multipolar, and anarchic world that nobody is prepared for.
At stake now is not only Ukraine’s and Palestine’s national survival, but the survival of international law and anything that is left of basic human decency. The violence and brutality of the last two years must prompt all of us — whether in the Global South or North, East or West — to enter into an honest and thorough introspection about the kind of world that we want to live in. What kind of geopolitics, notions of sovereignty, human rights, and legality are needed to overcome today’s challenges? Otherwise, we will slip ever closer towards the abyss of a more violent, nihilistic, and soulless world, in which the weak are crushed in the interests of the powerful few."
